Godless Acres
I don’t know what I saw in that damn chapel. I don’t even know if it was real or not. I sure as hell hope not. So, I came here to tell my story. Maybe someone could help me. Maybe just telling it will make me feel better – help […]
Suspense and Thrillers
Footfalls
They come in the snow. Always in the snow. Always when the snow is deep and the woods are quiet. So very quiet. At first, it was just one or two who came. Silently moving up the pasture toward the house. They didn’t come too close back then. I thought
The Shadow’s Thrall
Now that I’m trying to tell the story of how I died, I’ve found myself appreciating the craft of eulogy more than I ever did in life. I’m finding it difficult to find where the story of my end begins. It all started with it, I suppose. I saw it
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Who is Melissa Harbenton?
“The moving truck is gonna be here in 20 minutes!” I heard my fiancé, Roger, shout from downstairs. “Okay, almost done!” I shouted back. I had been up in the attic packing boxes with the last of our stuff for the last couple of hours, in preparation for our big
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Milk Teeth
By the time Jean-Luc finally arrives, the only things awake are the moon and me. It sits in the sky a perfect, silver half-slice, dewy in the way all things get around dawn. It’s cold out. My breath fogs around my cigarette, and I hear the bus before I see
A Thing of Flesh and Copper
Stacy and I switched the power on and sent ourselves to an early grave. I say an early grave, but I don’t expect there will be anyone left to bury us. It was an honest mistake, one we couldn’t have foreseen. To any who may read these words after the
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The Eyes of the Angel
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
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The Curse Of Imagination
“Why does a writer write? Because they must.” -Anton Richards These words have been repeating in my head for the last week. They pound in my brain like a jackhammer. They prevent my mind from resting and keep me awake at night. That is why I am here at 3am.
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“Free Will”
1 – The Rosebud I wake up to sunlight.A heavy, warm stripe of it is lying across my face, the kind that comes through high windows in the late afternoon. It is bright enough that it forces my eyes open, and for a moment I don’t know where I am.
Oh Dear…
Growing up in the Blue Ridge Mountains, I was no stranger to roaming the woods. Ever since I can remember, I have been out in the woods building forts or terrorizing the small creek frogs I so desperately wanted to catch. I lived right next to a thick collection of
The Haunted Piano
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
Just Another Summer in ‘95 Part Two
Read Part One here We both drove back to the station and handed in our gear and changed. I could still smell the faint odor clinging to my uniform. I suppressed the urge to gag as I threw it back into my locker without any finesse, just wanting to get
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Just Another Summer in ‘95
I want to say this happened in the early summer when our park was full of hikers, campers, and tourists. Montana had its beauty in those summer months, so I couldn’t blame them.A lot of the tourists hadn’t spent a day camping or even been backpacking. A lot of them
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There’s Something Under the Boardwalk
If you’re reading this, it’s because I have no other choice. Nobody will listen to me, not even the police. It’s only a matter of time before they come for me, and when they do, this is the only evidence of the truth. There is something under the boardwalk in
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My Friend in the Elephant Mask
Would it make a good cereal bowl? It may be too shallow for a cereal bowl. An ashtray, or a cat bowl would be better. “Johnson, you copy?” The voice came muffled from the other side of the door. “Copy, Bradley.” Johnson’s static voice came prelude by the trill of
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The Banquet
There is this idea I have always clung to. Most people won’t even consider it. Are our ideas our own, or do they come from somewhere else? Maybe some are our own, but sometimes we pick up a signal from the universe, a forgotten memory locked in time. I have
The Cry of The Fox
My family was always a little bit strange. We owned a failing antique shop in my town for as long as I could remember. My father was quite eccentric and collected various knick-knacks and assorted artifacts. I saw them mostly as junk and still had no idea how we were
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Don’t text back
I grabbed Olivia’s shirt collar as she scream-laughed — that awful sound that always made my spine twist. I hated when she did that. In all fairness, I thought she was actually screaming. Earlier, when I’d been in the shower, it came through the phone like a murder scene —
Little Monsters of Hallows’ Eve
I’ve always been a big fan of Halloween. When I was a kid, that was of course because of the candy and the chocolate bars. As I got older and entered my teenage years, that changed. My love for the holiday remained, but that was because of the costumes and
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Riley, My Haunted Halloween Doll
My name is Lydia. I’m 30 years old, and I love celebrating Halloween with my best friend, Martha. Martha and I have been best friends ever since we were ten years old. We do everything together, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without her. You see, when I
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I live alone in a houseboat on the bayou. Something’s been tapping at the hull at night.
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
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The Lowest Animal
I used to love horror films. It started when I was eight, sneaking out after bedtime to watch Halloween with my older brother Simon. Cross-legged in front of our boxy old TV, Carpenter’s eerie piano theme tapping out across the room, I was hooked. I didn’t sleep for a week,
Cancer Season
WHERE IS my daughter? I need her to come and say goodbye. Cancer isn’t the only thing eating me alive. My son-in-law John is standing next to me, as are my granddaughters Chandra and Kendra, but where on earth is Cheryl? She should be here, but I don’t see her.
Gemini Season
WHAT IF you think your sibling is trying to kill you? Let me explain. I’m Chandra Edwards, sixteen years old, birthday May 28, high school sophomore, identical twin. I live in Montrose, the dullest small town that ever existed. My parents are realtors, the successful founders and owners of Homes