January 6th, 2021, probably one of America’s darkest days. If you haven’t heard, on January 6th, a mob of people broke into the US Capitol building in an attempt to stop the confirmation of the 2020 election. This in and of itself is a horrifying concept, especially for Americans, since …
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My hometown is residence to a large, and long abandoned, psychiatric hospital. Its official name was the Johnathan H. Murnow Regional Psychiatric Hospital (named after the founder). Everyone else that didn’t work there called it “Murnow’s Mental Hospital.” It’s the same story as any large hospital in the U.S. that …
I never remember feeling sick. Just a sudden headache, and my dog barking as I collapsed to the ground. The world had vanished beneath my feet, and my consciousness was trapped in darkness, disconnected from my body. For what felt like an eternity, I floated through the emptiness of the …
”Am I going to die?” The kid asked me as he was being rolled into the operating theater. It was a question I’d heard a thousand times before, but answering it truthfully hadn’t become any easier, even after years at the hospital. ”Of course not, we’re gonna fix you right …
The road had been covered in a dense fog. Denise decided to rent a room for the night, seeing as she had parked near an unfamiliar hotel. She got out of her car, looking around for any signs of an entrance within the grey haze. A small light broke through …
My wife and I moved into our new apartment just a few months ago. Before this, we lived in a large cottage overlooking a beautiful lake. It was my wife’s dream home for the three years we lived there. We didn’t want to leave, but it was a necessary step …
She tried pulling herself back, but however hard she tried, however hard she pushed, she could not stop her feet dragging her towards the open window. She dug her heels into the wooden floor, feeling splinters coming off it as her feet dragged her onward. Her hands caught the window-sill, …
“Alright, let’s get this started. Incision time, 9:45,” a manly voice said loudly, jolting me awake. I felt groggy, and my eyes were kept shut by tape covering my eyelids. I tried to call out for help, but quickly realised I couldn’t form any words, nor move a single muscle. …
This week, I was supposed to digitize all of Dr. Marnen’s patient files. I was feeling good about my progress when I saw it. A second filing cabinet, hiding behind the shelves, that I’d never noticed before. Sighing with fatigue, I yanked open the first drawer. I plucked out a …
I had nightmares about the place for weeks. Every time, it was exactly the same. I stood before a large oak tree, alone, in a vast field of dead grass. Roots from the tree wove in and out of the dirt, far from their source, twisting in unnatural ways. Its …
Freya Clydesdale and I grew up together; her house being right next door to mine. Though younger than me by a few years, she is perhaps the smartest person I have ever known and will ever know. One of the clearest memories I have of our time together took place …
I stepped up to the dilapidated red building, grinning from ear to ear. This is what brought me thrills in life; abandoned structures across America. This particular one was in Stoneychurch State Park, located in a rural town just south of the state border. I had been dreaming …
Every year since my son Lucas turned 10, he, my wife Jennet, and I have taken a week-long vacation in Vermont. Years ago, my wife’s father left her a small cottage by a lake I had never heard of, in a town I had also never heard of up to …
I awoke lying face down in cool, black sand. The air smelled strongly of ocean, yet when I sat up and wiped the dirt from my face, there was no shoreline in sight. Instead, what I saw was an endless horizon of black desert. Every direction was the same; a …
The town I grew up in sits next to the Myles Standish State Forest in Massachusetts. Growing up, my friends would all tell me ghost stories about the area. A woman in a white dress following your car as you drive through, creepy laughter out by the ponds …
“No, Mama! Mama, no! Please, Mama, don’t let them take me! I’ll be good, I swear!” the girl screamed. Tears flowed from her eyes as she thrashed against the two-adult woman dressed in black. They held her arms firm and pulled her deliberately up a small set of stairs. “Now, …
They move again tonight. I lay and watch them, seeing as it’s all I can do. They slip and slide through the street lamp window curtain shaded light and I know my eyes have begun to fail. Or perhaps the eyes are fine and my mind is finally going from …
Part 1 This is your captain speaking. I’ve just turned on the seat belt sign. We’re expecting a fair amount of turbulence coming up, so we ask that you please remain seated until the sign is turned off. We’re on pace to land at Newark International Airport at 3:30 a.m., …
The new epidemic is already beyond its patient zero. Whether or not I am infected, I am confident that Mr. Bridestar will soon have me murdered. He will do this in order to keep the disease’s name unknown. I won’t let him win, though. At least not completely. Although this …
Shawn took one last drag of his cigarette. He didn’t smoke regularly, but this occasion nearly called for one. It had been years since his last job interview, and it was all he could do to stop his hands from shaking. He looked at the cigarette and remembered the time …
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!” …
Any mother who has more than one child will admit-if she’s honest-that she has one child who worries her more than the others. This has nothing to do with love, but rather some children’s propensity to find trouble-the child most likely to get in a fight at school, or picked …
“I can’t sleep,” she whispered as she crawled into bed and spooned against my back. “Jesus, you’re cold,” I murmured. She only snuggled closer, throwing her leg over mine. I lay there for a few beats, caught between my alcohol-induced sleep and wakefulness, until I realized whatever this cold thing …
For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Sarah Barkley. I’m a cop in a small, rural, Pennsylvania town currently stuck working the night shift. I work with a lot of older guys, so they tend to treat me like a rookie even though I’ve been on for a couple of years now. I work your normal patrol shift, driving around pulling traffic, responding to your usual domestic disputes and whatever other wonderful calls Dispatch sends my way. There have been a lot of unexplainable calls that I’ve responded to in this town. There are certain things that they just can’t prepare you for in the police academy, and this was one of those situations.
