A gust of October wind sent a shiver up my back. Goosebumps prickled through my ghost costume, the former bed sheet flapping like a flag in the wind. I followed what I could see of my best friend Mikey from hand-cut eyeholes. The top of his matte brown dollar store […]
I filled up the bowl to the brim with live meal-worms from the fridge, watching them squirm and slither over each other as if they believed they could escape. It was gross and it made me want to gag yet I stomached the feeling. Just as I had many times
In the heart of the Appalachian Mountains, where rugged ridges jutted upward like the ancient, weathered spines of slumbering giants, and the valleys plunged into deep shadows that clung stubbornly to the earth, the forest guarded its mysteries with a quiet, unyielding vigilance. The people who called those mountains home,
It’s captivating to believe in monsters and the horrors of the unknown, the things that go bump in the night. It’s an escape from reality, from the actual terrors that lurk in the woods. Rumors designed to widen your eyes and make you glance over your shoulder. Honestly, I wish
Vultures (The Well) 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 »
“C’mon, Jeremy! Hurry up!” I could hear Marcus whine from the other side of the bathroom door. I simply rolled my eyes, and continued to comb my hair to perfection, and apply my cologne. I opened the door and peered down at my seven year old brother, as an expression
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
Returning from the Amazon was one of the most exhausting and exhilarating experiences of my life. That trip to South America had been the perfect escape from my suffocating routine as a rising attorney in the United States. After years of hard work, I’d secured a solid position at Marston
Hi guys. My name is Violet, I’m twenty-three, and I’m scared. I don’t understand what’s happening to me, and I really hope somebody can help. It was Friday afternoon. I came back to my apartment after work to find all of my boyfriend’s stuff gone, save a folded slip of
My One Night Stand Left Something Inside Me Read More »
Mother said I’d regret it, staying away for so long. She was right, of course. I’d been avoiding him like a suspicious blemish, convincing myself that he simply did not exist. Meanwhile, my father wilted into some grotesque knot of wet flesh in the basement of my childhood house. Not
When I first moved out on my own, my mom handed me a small, weathered recipe book. Its cover was cracked and faded, the pages yellowed with age. She held it out to me with both hands, her expression soft and serious. “Take care of this,” she said, her voice
My parents died in a car crash on their way home from dropping me off my freshman year at Stanford. I never got the chance to call and tell them I was all settled in. They lay bleeding out in the street, while I was decorating my room in crimson.
The Things We Do for Family Read More »
May 27th, 2030. 10:30 Am-10:35 Am.The hum of the fluorescent lights, the smell of antiseptic, and the squeaking of chairs as men in white lab coats roll around the porcelain floors created an image in Abigail’s mind of sickness. This was not what she expected when she and her husband,
Are You Expecting? Read More »
I can’t get up. I can’t move. I can’t see. I can’t get up. I can still feel. I can still feel the deep sting of the blade he used to rupture my heart. I felt my blood leave my body, coating his hands with sticky redness. I felt his
My Mind will Never Cease to Be Read More »
The train is leaving in two minutes. The young girl hurries along the platform. Evening travellers pack the station. She is small and can wriggle her way between the briefcases and linen jackets. A heavy carriage door swings open. A dash to the step, she hikes up her short denim
An Encounter on the Train to Oxford Read More »
I frantically threw my shirt off my head, covering my bare chest and staring down at the fabric on the ground as my heart played a tune. I had felt the bugs inside the shirt as I was putting it on, but none emerged from its openings. My skin still
The mirror showed a reflection that wasn’t my own. It happened the first time a couple of days ago at the restaurant, and I’d hardly caught it during a brief glance while I quickly washed my hands. It was in the eyes, something about the eyes. Not the normal brown
When he found himself leaving high school and thrust into the real world, Max never imagined that meant working a minimum wage job at a ghost mall. There hadn’t been a single customer in their small kids toy store for over an hour, and as he kept looking at his
Everyone on the train was normal. Of course, Stuart didn’t care to notice that they were normal. When something is normal, the brain doesn’t pay it any mind. Why would it? It’s a waste of energy to notice the mundane. If it’s normal, it’s not a threat. It doesn’t need
The Town That Could Not Point Read More »
I Through my peephole, I saw that it was still there. The flayed skin glistened under the dim glow of the hanging incandescent lightbulb. It knew I was watching and came close until the peephole framed only its visage. The conjoined faces of my neighbors stared into me, with mouths
In the desolate and decayed outskirts of Harbor Point, where shattered hopes and forgotten desires mingled with discarded remains, an awe-inspiring scene unfolded under the perplexing night sky. A mysterious alien creature, originating from a distant celestial realm, hid itself in secrecy and emitted a captivating light. It moved gracefully
As I stood there in the hallway, halfway between the back door and the basement door, I began to realize how quiet it was. For a moment I thought I had heard something. Like feet shuffling. Or was it a scream? Suddenly a weird cold and itchy sensation came over
The flutters appeared, as they always did, when the noise of confessions ceased and gave way to silence. When the rectory’s door blocked guidance-seeking and pardon-thirsty parishioners from reaching their priest. When Father Doug was allowed a moment of his own and could shed the coat of sins and guilt
Felix’s dulled reflection on the computer screen yawned, eyes half closed as he watched the screen turn blue, then black, then a bright, searing white. He groaned, stretching across the table and unplugging the desktop computer, counting to ten under his breath before plugging it back in, and waiting for
