My sister always screams in the middle of the night. Horrible, blood-curdling screams. And I cannot get her to stop. I lie in my bed, away from the earth, dreaming in mist, and her screams penetrate them. She cries for me, she cries for someone. I cannot help her, nothing […]
I used to live in a small cottage in the country. It was quite secluded and there were only two buses a day that went past my home. If I missed the bus, I’d have to walk down a long country road to get back. In summer, it was quite
Silence. Silence was uncomfortable, and Amy didn’t like it. Fingers nimbly tap-tapped across black and white keys as she typed up what she hoped would be a phenomenal English essay. She rubbed her tired eyes and sighed, straining to see what she had just typed in the dim light provided
Drewer’s Inn By Allison Miller The rain poured down in thick, roaring sheets from a sky as black as tar. Jack Adams leaned forward in the seat of the old sedan, pressing his chest against the steering wheel and squinting through the windshield as the wipers frantically swished back and
No one knew the secret spot where we as children played at night. The ashen moon, our only light, would greet us painted on the pond. The placid water, cool and black, would wash away the summer heat. The silty ground, cooler still, was soft and lumpy underfoot. Seaweed danced
No one knows that my affluent aunt bequeathed me her favorite thing in the world, the beach house she bought many years ago on the Florida Panhandle. I’ve been renting it out for years actually, though I haven’t visited it since I was a kid. She knew how much I
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Most of the information known about these spirits is unsurprisingly dubious at best, as the survivors have often been paranoid to the extent of insanity. From what I have seen, the commonalities of past victims include staying within the light, becoming terrified of any unexpected noise, and jumping at merely
It is estimated that at any given moment, somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of what is in your field of sight is shadow. Darkness. Isolation. The Unknown. Imagine how it would be to live in these stagnated, dreary parts? In that crevice between the bookshelf and the wall, that
The most beautiful creature I’d ever seen never seemed to close the curtains of her room next door. We’d only moved in a week before, but it was hard not to notice a girl like her. I don’t think she’d ever seen me, but that just made her that much
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I remember it as clear as if it was yesterday, although it’s been several years. Back then we were all so naive, believing ourselves to be alone in the universe. Some even went as far as to say we were at the peaceful center of it. But that day, everything
Father, forgive me, for I have sinned. … I never had taste for art, but sometimes you get an invite to the finest gallery you could ever be invited to: free food, rich women, cheap security and expensive art. The whole situation was fantastic for a skilled ne’er-do-well such as
There is an angel perched on my bedside; it whispers a name all too faint. … The world has been cruel to me. More cruel than I could ever imagine. Now, I doubt what it really means to imagine. I’ve been seeing the angel for a few weeks. The first
While I’m writing this letter, I don’t really know what I should write. I mean that I’m not sure if I’m going to wake up tomorrow, so I can’t decide if it should become a sort of my testament. My final goodbye to everyone I knew, whether they’re going to
Are you familiar with this thing we call meditation? Well, that was a foolish thing to ask. Of course you know what meditation is. It’s the thing new age gurus and hippies advocate to improve your well-being. Very simple stuff, y’know. You just sit cross-legged on a surface (hard or
It wasn’t long ago I noticed a strange noise coming from the air conditioning unit, in the wall of the living room. At first it was almost imperceptible from the other noises such a device would typically make. It started out as a slight clanking sound, only when it was
“Doctor Tabitha Lebarr, recording the story given to us during the psychiatric evaluation of David Shore, May 15th, 2013. Patient was admitted for treatment of what appeared to be an attempt to amputate his legs. It is worth noting that Shore is himself a psychologist, but appears to be currently
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Take a look around and observe your surroundings. Where are you right now? Are you sitting inside of a dark room? Is there anyone else with you? Are you all alone? Most sources indicate that a majority people read tales of horror by themselves. Something about this genre and medium
Don’t look up at the mirror. You know how that always goes. They look up at the mirror and it’s right there behind them. Just stare down and turn the sink handle. Reach over for the towel. No, whatever you just felt isn’t there, bring your hand back, you don’t
This is another entry in the Modern Monsters series. So I heard you wanted to hear the story of the Donkey Lady? Well, grab a beer; you’re in for a tale. It started back in the eighties, in a little town outside of San Antonio, Texas. I was a senior
I didn’t ask for this, you know. I mean, sure, I was curious about what it would mean to be “enlightened,” but meditation was never a means to end. It was the end itself. Plus, I always thought you had to be in a state of complete detachment in order
NOTE: This is the prologue of The God Machine, submitted by the original author and hosted with permission from his publisher. I have to admit to not having read the book – I haven’t read much that isn’t pasta submissions lately! – but I really enjoyed this prologue and felt
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I hate it here. It seems redundant to say so, I realize this. Everyone hates it here… well actually I don’t know. Maybe except Len, but he’s a freak so whatever. Shit… where are we? I keep forgetting. France? We’re still here? Shit, have we made no fuckin’ ground since
Before the emergence of televisions, radios were widely used as a mean to broadcast news and announcements. In WWII, The rebel radio stations used Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, which has a repeating motive of “V” in Morse Codes, to indicate a victory. It didn’t take long for the government to find
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This is the sixth and final part of the By the Fire’s Light series. Names we give have power As we discovered too late For we have named the nameless one And thus have sealed our fate. Our time has come full circle, And now we have the end Of
