St. Bruvia was always a hungry town. It was an old place, older than most of its residents, with crooked wooden houses leaning toward one another beneath heavy snow and onion-domed churches whose ringing carried across the river. Whenever a family moved into a new house, they left something beneath
Hunger of St. Bruvia Read More »
The door creaked open on its own, barely affixed to its own hinges. The dead, drooped eyes of one Nicolas Sullivan stared off into the distance, mindlessly fixated on the wall in front of him. If he were actually paying any attention, maybe he’d care about the festering mess on
I grew up in a quaint town. The kind where everyone knows everything about one another, truly hellacious. As a child, I was reclusive, so you can imagine I hated it whenever anyone butted into my business. I would just shyly walk away until I found a quiet spot to
The Bard of Blackwater Read More »
Growing up, my family used to joke that I slept so deeply even a brutal murder couldn’t wake me up. I now know that’s not true. Screams echoed through my apartment from the unit below mine, five tortured voices piercing through the floor at such a volume I could only
Bystanders of the Ritual Read More »
We stand in the overgrown lot, staring at the cluttered remains of the large wooden building in the deep reaches of the West Virginia Mountains. Nature had taken most of the area back, with just a few remaining structures of the old town left. If you didn’t know it, you
The Old Mine Shaft Read More »
It took him six blocks to realize he was being followed. He was an office worker in the city. He spent his days sitting down, hunched over stacks of paperwork in a cramped cubicle, and rarely did he have the energy to exercise once he returned home for the day.
A Real Head-Turner Read More »
If you are reading this, then I am more than likely dead. I want you to understand something before you read any further. I am not a dramatic person. I am not the kind of man who makes things up or tells tall tales to get attention. I have lived
Memories are fragile, but a photograph lasts forever. That’s why I never went anywhere without my DSLR. I needed to capture everything—the old hardwood floors of our house, the strange, keyhole-shaped pupils of our matching eyes, and the quiet, empty afternoons spent with my home-schooled younger sister Lucia. She was
A Perfect Exposure Read More »
Waylan stood in the dim light of the early morning, his truck parked at the edge of a forgotten dirt road. He bent down and laced up his knee-high snake boots, pulling the strings tight to make sure they fit just right. The boots were tough and made for rough
The first tooth arrived in the heart of a pear. Years later, whenever Adeline tried to explain everything that had happened, she always found herself returning to that afternoon, though she knew the true beginning might have been much earlier. Perhaps it began in the graveyard behind her grandmother’s house,
The Girl Who Kept Finding Teeth Read More »
My attention is occupied by a nature documentary at low volume. It’s late spring and raining lightly outside. The narrator’s reassuring received pronunciation introduces tonight’s protagonist, a rare species of desert-dwelling toad. Greg once told me, after a few Japanese highballs, that participating in the illegal trade of exotic amphibians
Mother Nature Doesn’t Love You Back Read More »
Shaleville Police Department Date: July 15th, 2025 Lead Case Investigator: Detective Lance Giles Evidence: A brown leather bound journal with a number of diary entries by one Jamie Trench. Case Notes: In relation to the missing persons file reported by one Sherry Trench, for her son Jamie and his fiancé
The Bones Under Greyveil Read More »
Most people in North Carolina had heard of the Reed mine by 1831. The story of the boy who found a yellow rock the size of a smoothing iron had already strained the patience of preachers and tavern keepers alike. They repeated it often, their voices rising with the part
The sun was beginning to set, and my patience was wearing thin. I had walked that exact patch of grass three times already, looking for the same thing that nobody had managed to find before me.The forensics team hadn’t found it, nor had a few bloggers who had taken an
It was summer 1997 when I moved to Evansville, Colorado. It was supposed to be a pit stop, a cheap place along my route, hopefully to make some money to take me the rest of the way to California. I had some friends living in San Francisco that I’d planned
I had not known initially what to make of the pile of mucus and flesh that befell my doorstep as winter arrived. Snow had yet to begin, but cutting gusts of frigid air whalloped my front door to be let in, only allowed to when the mail went too long
No one ever talks about the sounds. They talk about the body.They talk about the wire.They talk about the eyes.But no one talks about the sounds.Because if they did… they’d understand it wasn’t just a killing.It was a sermon. Before the cornfield…Before the crows learned his name…There was a man
The Last Sermon of Malachi Read More »
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
The Shadow’s Thrall Read More »
Recently my family was contacted by a storage unit company. They said my dad was listed as the secondary contact for a unit under my uncle’s name. Which was strange, as my uncle had been a missing person for nearly 14 years now. Which apparently the company didn’t know, explaining
My Uncle was Obsessed with Holes Read More »
It was Tuesday after lunch when I noticed the Door. I was walking back from the equipment cupboard to restock my phlebotomy tray, when I passed Dr Clark’s room and stopped. The examination couch that usually sat unused against that stretch of wall was gone. In its place was a
A New Doctor Just Started Working at My Surgery. I Think He’s Harvesting Something. Read More »
I felt it that day, something in the air wasn’t right. The morning heat was setting in, and the bugs were eating us alive. The men were tense as the sun rose on another godforsaken day. We had been up on nightwatch and hadn’t had a moment of proper rest
Things Best Left Buried Read More »
You think you know your family. What they look like, how they speak, how it feels when they pat you on the back and say ‘welcome home’. None of us truly know any other person; not completely, often not in the ways that matter. I thought I knew my family,
I Inherited the World’s Worst Genetic Condition Read More »
We moved into the flat above the butcher’s two months ago. It was a step down from our old place; John lost his good job and we had to make adjustments. The place wasn’t exactly the Ritz, but it functioned. The wallpaper popped and flaked when you scraped a nail
The Floor is Sticky Read More »
The first time I dreamed of Rose, I didn’t think it mattered. I’m not the kind of person who reads into dreams. I’m practical, tired, the sort of man who forgets to eat and forgets to water plants until they die quietly. I don’t believe in signs. I believe in
