I keep hearing them. The Whispers. The voices deep within people’s minds, speaking their true thoughts. I don’t really know when this started. I remember one day just waking up, and hearing the whispers.God he’s so annoying. Doesn’t he ever shut up?Why the hell doesn’t this kid speak? Is there […]
Unsealed file from the Esther Police Department. Case File # 10-0251. On May 31, 2010, Esther Police department and the Bard County Sheriff’s Department received a weak 911 call from twenty-three year old Scottie Jones, reporting that he and his friends were trapped in the woods and needed help. 911
Entry 1: Phonemes There is something peculiar about Phillip, one of my 9th graders. He used to be exceptional at English. I am an English as a foreign language teacher in Germany and I taught the same class last year, and that means I already know him well. But after
The Language that spreads Read More »
I’m about to dive into a cave filled with screams of the dead. It’s insane. Even after the complete upheaval of everything I thought possible, the most pressing thing on my mind are two words: I told you. She’s going to hate reading this, but that’s why I’m doing it.
Twelve missed calls. My eyes never shifted as my phone continued vibrating on the old oak counter. My hands softly gripped the wet glass of my sixth pour. Thirteen. I’m tired of this. Tired of the noise, the fighting. I’m tired of holding onto this chaotic thing my wife and
Jason watched the hands of the clock ticking. The hour hand was moving to nine o’clock. The hour he dreaded so much. His eyes darted around the room. In the corner his blue lava lamp cast fleeting shadows that resembled dogs, silhouettes and long-fingered hands, prancing and clawing up and
The Eyes of the Angel Read More »
We moved in right after Thanksgiving. It was right after my recently divorced Mom finally got her job promotion at work. It had been a long time coming but finally it was here. I was so deeply proud of her! It’s not easy for a single mom out there to
The Bells On Christmas Eve Read More »
Lady Vermella’s piano was large and black. It was covered in a thick, feathery layer of dust. Its keys were turning yellow. It pounded out a strange, haunting melody every night under Lady Vermella’s fingers.Lady Vermella lived in an ancient manor on the top of a hill above the town
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 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 woke up sweaty and in a daze. Most nights this is normal for me but not tonight. Something about my bedroom was odd, something wasn’t right. I felt around next to me and grabbed my phone and checked the time – it’s midnight. Seven more hours of sleep before
The Front Porch Light Read More »
Greg Mitchell had always found comfort in broken things. In a world of sleek touchscreens and wireless everything, his cramped radio repair shop in the narrow lanes of Cheltenham stood as a defiant anachronism, cluttered with vacuum tubes, resistors, and the ghosts of technologies past. The locals called him peculiar;
Mike and his mother Sarah lived in a sharply white two-story house about eight miles from the city and half a mile away from a red diner which worked throughout the week and the weekend. The house was adjacent to naught else but the road and the forest. Mike was
The Man in the Attic Read More »
“Biiip,” echoed the machine in the empty back room by the door as my employee identification card swiped it. “Clocked out: 10:17 p.m. Have a good evening, Anthony.” It was a long walk to my car. The restaurant I worked at was right on the beach—I mean, like, basically on
When I was alive, or, more accurately, the last time I was alive, I honestly didn’t give a lot of thought to the idea of life after death. It never seemed important; when you’re young, and your whole life’s ahead of you, death and its possible consequences seem so distant
I Was Reincarnated and I Hope it Never Happens Again Read More »
It was night and gloomy and somber and serene. There was the wardrobe in front of me and on its higher corners dust had gathered and yet within the somberness the wooden fabric seemed to stretch out cosmically, darkly away. I was sitting and looking at my computer when I
A Million Tinges of Red – NGC 1569 Read More »
The old radio crackled to life, the static a constant hiss against the silence of Alex’s room. He’d been tinkering with the dials for hours, searching for the usual crackle of distant stations or the hum of late-night broadcasts. Tonight, though, the airwaves seemed empty.Then, a faint chirp broke through.
“Here we go,” Robert says, staring at the national broadcast system warning as it flashes across the TV screen. He sits in his dad’s old blue recliner wondering if he should be more worried. The world as he knows it is coming to an end and he rests in the
Nearer My God to Thee Read More »
Night One Hello, I am Sally, or Sal for short. I have a story for you that happened about a year ago. I need to tell someone because it is a tale that has been gnawing away at my mind. It is a story that still haunts my nightmares today
“Come on.” The voice was distant but still clear. “You’re dragging your feet. You didn’t have to come. You wanted to. So let’s go.” Her voice had irritation to it, almost offensive. I groaned and steadied my pace, walking only a bit faster. “I’m coming, Celine. Jesus Christ.” I snapped
My Bestfriend Was a Ghost Hunter, I Wish I Never Went. Read More »
It was a stormy night on Welkes Street. The street sign creaked back and forth as the wind blew past it. Heavy rain water flowed into drains on every corner as debris from trees was picked up and whisked away. Toby Forest sat on his bed, watching the rain beat
The Ghost of Levi Johnson Read More »
“How do you know that what you experience is real?” Was the question I posed to my class that blustery Thursday morning in January. I teach psychology at the University of Maryland, in College Park, Maryland, and that day we were beginning our unit on perception and cognition, one of
The Hallucinations of Cy Abrendo Read More »
The sound of the doorbell echoed through my empty house like a banshee’s wail. It was Halloween night, and I was alone. Not by choice, but because it was my ex’s turn to take our kids, Lily and Ben, trick-or-treating. The custody agreement was part of the divorce proceedings. Though
The Unanswered Doorbell: A Halloween Nightmare Read More »
