One of the first kids to hear the bouncy calliope music was six-year-old Lisa Reid, who was sitting on the front porch of her house with Becky Briarwood, her best friend in the whole world. Lisa’s long blonde hair, held in place by the pink scrunchie her mom helped her
Scream for Ice Cream Read More »
The roads are different at night. It’s something my mom used to say all the time. She said it when I was a child in the back seat, and she said it when she was teaching me how to drive. Every stretch of highway or backroad turn was different under
Ooo weee, come in, come in! I’m glad you’re here early; it’s shaping up to be a bad one out there. The wind has a bite even I can feel. We might have a blizzard on our hands in a few hours. Make yourself comfortable, I’ve had a fire going
The Settlements Continue Read More »
Two white vans waited on the street while our luggage was being fetched and dragged into our new home. I, my eight-year-old daughter Sue and my wife Megan had traveled across the USA to a state which provided better work opportunities for both of us. I worked as an editor
Terror From the Walls Read More »
He had a bad day today. No, a terrible day. He drove along the barren roads illuminated only by the grace of the moon and the crimson flame of porch lights that dotted the countryside. A dull hum of orange hung over the road that conflicted with the sharp cut
Has anyone ever played the Infinity Game? The one with the mirrors? Most people don’t know it’s a game, they just think it’s a cool visual effect. Maybe it’s different for me, being raised by witches. Not Halloween witches, but the ones who practice Wicca. You can Google it if
It was the 22nd May 2019 when it suddenly appeared. Similar in size to a small bike wheel, with a glossy blue porcelain background and indecipherable white writing, it looked like a typical English Heritage plaque they put up on the outside of a building previously inhabited by a famous
A child’s laughter bubbled in the air. A little girl was lost in play, twirling and dancing with a toy bear swinging from her grasp when she unknowingly wandered out onto the street. The whine of the breaks led in a grating shriek; it was all that she would hear
Below the peaks of the Catskill Mountains you will occasionally find an ancient and gnarled apple tree. Such a tree is a reliable landmark; signaling that an early American farmhouse sits, or once sat, nearby. Sometimes only a single shoot of the old tree remains, yet the ancient life persists
Hello there! Look what the cat dragged… oh my! Are you alright?! Hurry, get inside! … You need to get here earlier if you’re gonna pay regular visits! Just because you’re safe inside doesn’t mean you can be roaming around outside all willy-nilly. Judging by the mud on your clothes,
The Growing Settlements Read More »
Attention Attention, whomever should find this book, please know that I am no longer among the humans on Earth. I have transcended the corporeal plane and am now my own higher being, I am one with my own universe, I am my own God. As a last request, please save
The Mind Traveler’s Manifesto Read More »
We had been driving all day and night, to get to my wife’s parent’s place in Oregon, and I could tell that we were both reaching a point of exhaustion. We were on day two of driving and were well over a thousand miles into our trek out west, to
I wish this was some fairytale that I could just laugh off later but this was real. And I really wish I never tried it. And now I hope I have enough time to tell you why. I live in a small town. And rumors spread quick in a small
The first thing I felt when I hit the water, was fear. It had been months since I’d last dived, hell, I even got nervous when I took showers. But this…guilt, this pain in my chest, I had to go back. I started to swim, arms cutting through the water
I dove to depths uncharted. The ocean isn’t safe anymore Read More »
Grandpa Cobalt hated letting things go. Whether it was the wobbly chair he kept in his study or his favorite warped record he fed to the gramophone—looping the same groove over and over. He was a tall man with a frosty thin hairline and a nose capable of the most
I have two very unusual keepsakes on one of my many bookshelves. One is an empty glass vial, the contents of which dried up long ago. The other is an unusual metallic nugget. When I have visitors, and they inevitably begin to peruse my bookshelves, I am most often asked
The Terror in the Tunnels Read More »
Looky here! Trish! Ethan! Our friend is back! Shame it had to be another cold, stormy night like this. Just once I’d like to enjoy some company under the warm sun, but I guess that’s not how this place works. … Goodness, where are my manners? Come on in here
The New Settlements Read More »
It was a miracle. Dr. Randleman had done it. He made thoughts visible…His achievement, AA numerical calculation of images and emotions. Dr. Randleman was a genius known throughout academia as a prodigy among Prodigies. Attending Harvard at fifteen, he graduated five years later with a masters in both cognitive psychology
What happens when we try to calculate a mad man’s thoughts Read More »
Tony peeled the rotten banana skin off his arm while pieces of unidentifiable litter trailed behind him as he stumbled towards the school building. Billy and his asshole friends had dumped him in the dumpster for the third time this week alone. People began to stare and whisper among themselves
My family had a tradition that we would all exchange one gift on Thanksgiving Day to bring good fortune for the coming holiday season. We never gave anything fancy, just candy, CD’s, socks, or maybe a book. The week before Thanksgiving we would all gather around, and our names would
It was a foggy autumn night when I first encountered him. As I was driving home from my late shift at the hospital, I came across a rather unusual person. As I turned onto the street into my neighborhood, I saw a tall man dressed in a dark-colored hoodie, walking
I have little memory from before the accident. I know some friends and I, who are amateur ghost hunters, were looking into a supposedly haunted hotel in the city. They had opted not to pursue this particular case, but I took it upon myself to ‘go rogue’. I only know
It’s Not the Cough That Carries You Off Read More »
Michael grew up in the digital age, he loves his smartphone and will always go for digital over real-life social encounters. However, there is one weekly event he never misses, the horror movie night with his friends. His Friday ritual after a long week of work is to watch the
Ethan yawned. It had been a long night. The deliveries had taken him all over the suburbs, his legs aching from pedaling his electric bike, the motor gone, and the only horsepower the power in his throbbing legs. The lockdown didn’t stop people from being hungry, and Ethan was glad.
