Ever since I was a young child, that automated recording that plays when you try to call someone, but can’t, has frightened me to the core. You know, the one that goes, “We’re sorry, but the number you have reached has been disconnected.” And it’s always preceded by that sound,
(The following was found in an envelope on a bus bound for Chicago) My name is Jason Grimes and I am writing this so that when the room is eventually opened people will perhaps understand the things they find within it. And so that I will not be thought of
I sat on my balcony, preparing to smoke the last cigarette of the night. It was late and my bones themselves were tired. As I snuffed out the cigarette and stood with a stretch, a noise caught my attention. It was so faint that I immediately brushed it off as
The Wind Whispered A Secret Read More »
This all began with a family trip to Las Vegas; the year was 2009 and we decided to go on a little vacation for my 20th birthday. Now that I think about it, why couldn’t my parents have just waited a year and made the Las Vegas trip at my
I’m Not Saying It Was Aliens Read More »
In the darkness we are strangers to ourselves, gray-skinned, white-eyed and black-haired demons rather than the usual familiar streaks of color that we see in a lighted mirror. Our grayscale faces are as blank as that of Slenderman’s, our hearts as black as a killer’s, and there’s not a thing
I remember the first time I witnessed that gruesome sight, right in front of me. It had been all over the news for the past week but until that moment, I was still unable to take any of the stories seriously. I guess that’s what happens in a world where
On my sixteenth birthday, just after I had blown out the candles on a fairy cake, my mother told me that I was born dead. “I’m so happy that you made it,” she said. I pulled the fork out of my mouth. “What?” “Oh,” she said. “I guess we never
Margaret had, as usual, been left to the confines of her bedroom. With her father working the night shift and her mother ill with pneumonia, she didn’t have anyone to talk to. The only noise was the ticking of the clock, the slight humming of the radiator in the corner,
I am terrified of the dark. My grandmother, on the other hand, had an affinity for the dark. She loved and enjoyed the dark so much that most windows in her house were walled shut and the few that remained were, except for rare occasions like family visits, blacked out
Don’t Ever Let Them In Read More »
I always admired my grandfather’s courage. He had fought in the war on what we nowadays think of as the wrong side, but he had never been a believer in the cause. Sometimes a rifle is pressed in your hand and your choice is either to fire and worry about
My Grandfather Knew Why We Run from the Dark Read More »
It was the latest in a string of sweltering summer nights, where the air was thick with humidity and even the faintest breeze was an honest-to-God miracle. Outside, the lawn had withered to a sickly yellow, with earth showing through in intermittent patches like the branch of a tree peeking
Away With the Fairies Read More »
“What’s your story?” berated the man. It was dark, and the boy couldn’t see the man’s face, yet he could still tell it had a twisted smirk on it. “What does it matter now?” whimpered the boy. His weakened mind wandered to the thought of his struggles, a long and
As long as can I remember, I’ve had that mirror in my room. It was long and spanned over almost half the wall. Just a plain, simple mirror. My parents had told me it was there since we had moved in and thought it was certainly fitting for a girl
While it is known by some that I have a keen interest in the uncanny – seeking it out on occasion – nevertheless it proved a decidedly unsettling experience to find such a strange event taking place just a few feet from my front door. The street that I lived
Marnie strolled right into the woods and never came back. We waited for her. We could have just left the second she disappeared between the trees but she seemed so damn confident that we waited. Nobody wanted to say it but after two hours we knew that was it. Sure,
In Between the Trees Read More »
The streets, roads and dusty lanes of Colombia have been fertile territory for myths and legends since before the arrival of the Spaniards. Tales of ‘La Patasola’, a one-legged wailing banshee that forever sought her child, and of ‘El Duende’, a backwards-footed goblin that led travelers to their doom, nibbled
You know what our problem is? We’re too damned accommodating. That’s what I told my wife when she agreed to look after that awful bird. We already look after a friend’s toddler every Thursday, and take the lady across the corridor shopping, and then there are all the charity-case kids
So, three friends and I decided we were going to camp out in this 30 acre sanctuary down the street from my neighborhood. It’s paralleled by railroad tracks and a road on one side, and then a small road on the other said. There’s a lot of forest and trails,
“Goodnight, son. I’ll see you in the morning.” “But, Mom, what about the shadow man?” “Derek, we’ve been through this. There’s no shadow man in your closet.” “But…” “Go to sleep, now. And don’t think about the shadow man. He’s not real.” The door clicked shut behind her as Derek’s
Closet of Skeletons Read More »
For you, gaming is about escape. When you push the button on the console, switch the PC on, you are switching the real world off and escaping to somewhere else for a while. Recently the bright primary colours and flat backgrounds of retro games have been your escape. Sure the
It was around midday when the call came. My manager at Target was asking whether I could work that night. The store had been understaffed recently since many of my co-workers had left town. I didn’t think much of it at the time; I didn’t really have time to make
Almost everyone has had a moment of déjà vu. Going about your business, you travel to school or work, or are simply strolling through the place you call home when something catches your attention. You’re sure you’ve seen it before yet you’re unable to recall when or where. You dismiss
Dear Hannah, I’ve been doing a lot of running lately. It’s an excellent way to stay in shape. Obviously. But that’s not really why I do it. Mostly I just like the fresh air and the freedom, y’know, it gives me time to think. An hour or so with only
Today was perfectly normal to begin with, nothing out of the ordinary at all. The same old droning of daytime television and cars, the occasional bird just loud enough in the backyard to make itself heard over the top of the sounds that surround most any town based home. However,
