August 12th – Morning I don’t know why I’m writing this down, or if anyone will ever read it. Maybe it’s for me, a way to remember. Or maybe to prove that it happened—that it’s real. We went camping. Just my mother and me. The kind of trip that sounds […]
It all started last Monday. I received a call from his basketball coach. My son, Riley, had been acting more strangely than usual. He said my son had seemed to intentionally pop two basketballs alone in the locker room. I made my son play for the church league after school.
My son can’t stop humming the same tune and it’s starting to freak me out Read More »
My grandmother died at 3:33 AM on a Tuesday, and her TV wouldn’t turn off. Not wouldn’t—couldn’t. We unplugged it. We cut the power to her room. We even took a hammer to the screen, but it kept playing, the jagged cracks creating a kaleidoscope of images that shouldn’t exist.
I always thought the old TV in my grandmother’s attic was broken. It would never receive channels, only emit a hiss of static when you tried turning the dial. But last December, I discovered it wasn’t broken after all. The first time I ever laid eyes on him, I figured
It’s been about a month now that Kenny’s been gone. Three weeks and five days to be exact. He left in his pirogue one night just after sunset to go frogging and never came back. Man just up and disappeared like a fart in the wind. Now, it’s just me
I live alone in a houseboat on the bayou. Something’s been tapping at the hull at night. Read More »
As a kid, it took everything I had not to paint the inside of my family’s car with a wave of vomit. My carsickness was the bane of our long road trips. We tried dozens of tricks to minimize the Jackson Pollocks I created on our car windows. Books, movies,
I Made Him Up For Company on Long Car Rides, Now He Follows Me Everywhere Read More »
Congestion. Ninety minutes. The worst for a while on this busy street for Ted in the capital. And on the way to a job interview. Frustrated wavy lines of groans from city drivers locked in an inescapable traffic jam as exhausts belched out fumes. Despite the immobile lanes, Ted’s thoughts
The sun was slowly setting behind us, painting the sky in dull shades of gray and yellow, as the cold wind blew. Teresa walked with her head down, silent, right behind me. Mathias Santiago walked beside me, holding his AK-47 as if it were an extension of his own body.
I sleep with my window closed now. Not out of habit, out of fear. There are monsters in the world, real ones. Serial killers, rapists, the kinds of things we can name and lock up. But the supernatural? That’s different. It’s older. Quieter. Easier to keep secret. It hides in
I Sleep With My Window Closed Now Read More »
“I’m so thirsty” The words echoed around in my head. I stood staring at the water tumbling from the tap. I’d been standing for what felt like hours, just watching it, going over and over the events of a few nights ago. I’d only seen that homeless man twice, but
I’m a postgraduate student studying archaeology at a prestigious university in the UK (not going to disclose my identity or the name of my school, so don’t ask). Over a week ago, I was part of a group tasked with examining a dig site in Northern England: a low-lying forested
I Found the Corpse of a Time Traveler Read More »
I’ve always been a people pleaser. Even as a kid, I’ve always had the hardest time asserting myself or saying no. As long as the other person’s content, I could deal with some uncomfortable feelings. It probably has something to do with daddy issues. At least that’s what all my
My Boyfriend is Taking Pieces of me While I Sleep Read More »
1 – The Train I can’t say why I was chosen to ride the shadowlands express. Why me, and not the countless others who have sinned during their mortal lives? Perhaps all will be forced to face their demons in the end – I can’t say for sure. But clearly
The Shadowlands Express Read More »
My wife died at 1:33pm on a Friday afternoon. Her passing was not unexpected. Polly had been diagnosed with breast cancer the year before, and sadly the doctors caught it too late. But still she fought with everything she had, enduring months of intense chemotherapy until all her strength was
The Writer and the Mimic Read More »
I was opening the shift that day. I walked past the golf cart with its flat tire. It was coming up on its 2-year anniversary of being broken. I scanned my pass and opened the door to the kitchen. I walked in, past the storage closets, prep stations, and freezers,
I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life. As of 11 this morning, I am officially a homeowner. Leaving my lawyer’s office (I have a lawyer, how cool is that?), I’m tempted to shout: “Watch out, independent woman coming through!” There’s an extra hop in my step as I
Two officers sat across from me in my living room. Their uniforms were sharp, their presence overwhelming. The older one, gray at the temples, opened a slim notebook, pen ready. His partner, younger and watchful, stood near the mantel, scanning the room like he could read me through the clutter
It lives between the lines Read More »
All this started when I got up to some of the usual fresh out of high school shenanigans by making a plan with my girlfriend to hook up and have a private night to ourselves in her dad’s cabin at the lake. The plan was simple: I’d tell my parents
Red Lights on the Highway Read More »
I used to draw spirals in the margins of my notebooks when I was a kid. I don’t know why. They made me feel calm, like if I just kept the line turning, nothing bad could happen. Sometimes I’d go through an entire page without lifting my pen just loops
Sometimes your bones break and your little sister disappears, and always your father acts like nothing is wrong. Occasionally, he’ll sit you down and tell you that you have to move on. Your sister isn’t coming back. That she’s probably dead. I didn’t think so. I couldn’t think so. We
Spiders Congregate in the Dark Read More »
I hate bugs. I hate all kinds of insects, such as flies, bees, even mosquitoes; but the one insect that I hate most of all is the common cockroach. To me, a cockroach is the scariest and most disgusting insect of them all. Ever since I was a kid, and
A Nightmare of Cockroaches Read More »
“Love you, Sierra,” my dad smiled as I climbed out of his truck. A trapper keeper perched in my arms, I stumbled out of the lifted Ford F-250, almost tripping as my purple Converse hit the sidewalk. I looked up at him and waved, trying not to cringe. As he
It was a Monday like any other. At least, it should have been. But I woke up in the early hours of the morning to a grotesque, jarring cacophony of noise that tore through the stillness like a scalpel to flesh.At first, I couldn’t place it. It sounded like dozens
The terrible noise between us Read More »
The following are journal excerpts taken from four in-resident counselors working a summer camp in coastal Georgia (c.2012). All entries are transcribed wholly and completely unfiltered. * James – 7/1/2012 This is a log of repeated occurrences from Tortoise Cabin (location—across the estuary from counselor quarters). Desc. For many, many
