Read Part One here Read Part Two here Read Part Three here Inside the hallway to the sanctuary, the clutter of overturned mahogany and discarded crucifix trinkets littered the long crimson-hued carpet that lined the main hall. The sight that disturbed the two clergymen most about the chaos displayed before …
I can’t fall asleep. Not for the reason you may think. This isn’t “I ate too much before bed, and now I can’t stop trying to try to fall asleep”- no. I am incapable of sleep. I have chosen to reject sleep. This is not my life spiraling into chaos. …
Read part one here Read part two here With haste, the pair quietly exited the sanctuary and walked through the town that saw it’s citizens begin making their way to Black Rock Chapel. “Wednesday mass…”, Father Carroway muttered, silently chastising himself for the lapse in memory. “What is it, Father?”, …
Read part one here Father Carroway wandered about in the ever-extended void of subconscious. Unable to feel or perceive anything anymore, he wondered if he had indeed perished through either the means of the serpent’s venom or the trauma of the crash down the spiraling stone stairs. “Am I dead?”, …
“Have you come to relieve your burden unto the Lord?”, asked the elder priest from behind the blind of the confession booth. Silence hung to answer the offer. The elder priest, rather than immediately persist, decided to let him take his time; for in the last seventeen-and-a-half years he’d been …
If I timed the 911 call just right, the paramedics could revive me before I kicked the bucket for good. At least, that was the hope. Any number of things could go wrong, especially when it came to asphyxiation. I didn’t want to die, per se; I just needed a …
“Get the paddles!” I remembered falling. It was nice at first. The air rushing past me as the butterflies in my stomach multiplied with each passing second. “CLEAR!” Then, there was the screaming. Not from my mouth, but from the pedestrians below, scrambling to run away from the landing zone. …
It all started when I was a little girl. Christmas Eve, 2004. I was eight years old. “Santa, is that you?” Footfalls on the staircase echoed through the house as I jumped out of bed and ran past the doorframe to catch a glimpse of the man himself. CREAK CREAK …
“. . . He then fell upon the Kingdom of God, . . . and waged War; with His Minions and their Generals . . . against His Holy City in the Heaven, and His Hosts. . . . Struck down in the battle, Lucifer was bound, . . . …
Room 371. Some hotel near the Cape. I was on a business trip with my boss, closing in on the final set of investors we needed to launch our latest start-up. That’s all I could remember. Then this. Waking up in a bedroom next to an unfamiliar woman with a …
I was a bloody mess. After the twelve car pile-up on the freeway, it was a miracle I was even conscious, albeit just barely. There was only one hospital within a thirty mile radius, so all of us were sent there; some via ambulance, others by helicopter. Overwhelmed with the …
“Alright, Jack. Are you ready?” After being strapped down by the orderlies, an older gentleman with a white coat stepped over and looked down at me as my back caressed the cold, metal slab I was fastened to. I presumed this was Doctor Covenwood, the lab’s head of operations. “Uhhh… …
August 4th, 1983; my mother is killed in a head-on collision by a drunk driver. The intoxicated individual took a turn onto an off ramp and floored it down the wrong side of the highway. It was the dead of night, and at 1:37 a.m., this drunkard collided with my …
My mom hates her father. Grandfather Jack’s name might as well have been a swear word when I was growing up. Dad told me the story once, on the condition that I never tell mom I knew. Jack was married to my Grandmother Kathy for 22 years before he …
“Purgatory on Earth” read the flyer as it flapped unevenly in the wind, poorly stapled against the wooden post of a power line. It was an interesting title, not exactly the alluring intro phrase most religious recruitment ads used. For what I knew of Purgatory, it wasn’t exactly a place …
Part 1 “I’m sorry, did you say Satan?” The young man standing on my porch nodded eagerly. “Yes, sir!” he said. “We have come to spread the message of our lord and savior Satan.” I looked from him to his companion. Both were dressed in ill-fitting white button down shirts …
Every city claims to have them, and every city will tell you that theirs is the best. Most larger places will lay claim to having quite a few. I am of course speaking of secret bars. The kind of bars with no name out front, where a secret password is …
The red lights are only making the pain worse. It is an immense, earth-shattering pain, in my midsection and in my head. I try to move, but I can’t; I try to speak, but I can’t do that either. It hurts too much, and my voice obeys me no more …
In my hometown, there is a unique shop of oddities called “HexWorks” that I frequent. It’s an old-world boutique that specializes in niche products that I’d describe as being vintage-style with a modern spin. Their items include cloaks, pocket watches, lapels, bizarre art prints, lavish jewelry, and Victorian …
There is no fear as potent as the fear of the unknown. No monstrous visage discovered yet has been as terrifying as the infinite potential for horror which exists before the mask is removed. That is why we humans, in our naive misunderstanding of the universal order, are gripped by …
I live in a country where, unfortunately, Halloween is not a big thing. It’s almost not a thing at all, and this fact disappoints me to no end. I’m a bored 19-year-old living in a small town where everyone I know still acts like they did when they were 14. …
Katy took a long hit on the pipe. Her eyes rolled up and back into her head. She choked on the smoke that invaded her lungs, and an attempt at a giggle was unsuccessful. Her blue eyes watered and her almost-laugh was strangled by another coughing fit. “I’m gonna die!” …
The wind was howling outside and the screen door kept banging against the front of the house. We were all hanging out in Mason’s living room watching TV and doing our damnedest to ignore the storm, but Jacob just kept on hollering anytime he’d hear the thunder. “Hoowee! That’s my …
The land beyond the bridge had been in my family for generations, forty-four acres of farmland. My father was as rooted to it as the oak tree in our front yard. Although he was sympathetic to my plight, he was certainly not going to move just because his daughter’s college …
