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
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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
The Girl Who Made the Stars Sing Read More »
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
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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
A Town Where Strange Things Happen Read More »
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
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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
The Asylum in the Woods Read More »
“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,
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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 Parker Express Read More »
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!”
Does it Hurt When You Die? Read More »
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.
I’m a Cop, and I Institutionalized Someone I Knew Wasn’t Crazy Read More »
Craig Brockwell was found by his wife, dead on their living room floor, a plastic garbage bag tied off around his neck, and an empty bottle of Xanax on the kitchen counter, next to a suicide note. My initial external examination of the body revealed no indications of a physical
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Roger glanced around the desert once more. Nothing but the cloudless sky and the sand scattering in the wind, with a few cacti dotted around the landscape. With nothing else to do, he checked his magazine, already knowing how many bullets he had. Full. Adjusting his helmet, Roger sighed and
I don’t know about everyone else, but I have always had terrible vision. Generally, it gets worse from year to year, but there are some years I’m able to skip the decay. I wear contact lenses because I’ve tried to avoid the nerd stigma my whole life, I’m not entirely
Don’t Wear Contacts Made by NewLife Vision Read More »
I know that people are going to call this out as bullshit so I’ll just say it right now. I’m a demon. At least that’s what most people would call me. The truth of what I am and where I’m from is a bit out of the understanding of corporeal
You Humans Are Terrifying Read More »
Tinnitus: a nightmare of a disease affecting millions of people, myself included. How could I best describe this condition? An incessant, nail on a chalkboard screeching that goes on for every minute of every day. Just imagine never experiencing the true bliss of utter silence. Maybe it’s not too uncommon
I Never Should Have Cured My Tinnitus Read More »
I just got this sweet little job over on the Northside. It’s too cool; I sit with this old lady from the evening to early morning. I don’t like to party and all that, so I don’t mind. I get there and feed her through the feeding tube and I
“Alright, can you count backwards from 50 for me please?” The nurse asked sweetly. I nodded and opened my mouth. “50, 49, 48, 47…” I could barely remember finishing the numbers, as all I could suddenly see was darkness, as my mind succumbed to the anesthesia. Before I knew it,
If I Only Had A Brain Read More »
John sat with his grandmother on the balcony terrace overlooking West Bay Road and the lower Hampshire valley. The lush green fields from springtime were now singed-brown; the lack of rainwater that summer was turning the place into the Mojave Desert. A screaming hawk flew overhead, much like John it
I am Andrea Lewis, and I am a nurse. This is my story, and how I came to care for my patient, Andrew. Andrew had always been different from the other children. His frail body and weak immune system were two factors in a life filled with sickness. Poor little
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