It has been said that you should never meet your idols. It was the Christmas of 2005 that I came face to face with mine; someone the majority of people don’t believe in, after a certain age, of course. I was ten years old at the time and still held …
We had a fright before Christmas, while all through the house, Not a creature was stirring; well, maybe a mouse. The stuffed stockings were hung on the mantle downstairs, I hoped they’d remain; it was in need of repairs. The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions …
When I was a young kid, there was nothing bigger than Bingo’s Circus Extravaganza. I grew up in the Cleveland area during the ‘80s. While some of the larger television markets were featuring national children’s programming in the afternoons, we didn’t have more than one or two of those types …
Site 12, December 23rd, 2021 I walked through the Site Twelve Facility, which had been sparsely decorated with a bunch of Christmas-themed trinkets. It wasn’t much, a fake tree here and some lights there. But it’s damn sure more than you would’ve gotten under Ted Bowser’s management. The guy was …
Do you remember those home videos from back in the day? You know, when every special moment of your life was recorded on a video camera before smartphones existed? Well, I certainly remember them. My mom used to own a video camera, and she recorded some videos when me and …
I was not planning on facing my potential demise when I started on my stroll, that chilly late December night. My intention was no more than to find something to quench my very pregnant wife’s cravings, along with some desperately needed solitude for myself. I don’t mean to sound insensitive …
It was cold and dark that one wretched morning in the city of dead dreams. Dilapidated buildings, decadent sentries of another time, towered on either side of me as I sped by on my way to the warehouse downtown. An ill-disposed wind howled in every direction; beggars huddled together and …
Hello, dear member of this marvelous community. You have no idea how relieved I am to find you; I need your help. You don’t know me, but please, hear my story. If you or someone you know can provide any information, I will be most grateful. I’m aware I open …
I wasn’t the best behaved child a parent could hope for. I was selfish, greedy and hostile. Basic nightmare kid. I’d pitch fits when I didn’t get my way, and often make sure to break something my folks treasured to make my point. I would pound on walls, throw things …
I know it’s wrong to download movies and we shouldn’t do it, but I’m poor and those guys are rich. Either way, it’s not important. I’m only writing this to warn others against it. Is it illegal? Yes. Immoral? Arguable, but technically. Dangerous? Apparently. I didn’t do it often; I …
The stillness wakes me. Not that pleasant quiet after a winter snow, or the comfortable silence of a sleeping house, but a heavy blanket of non-sound, as if even the air was afraid to stir. I lay in bed, barely breathing, straining to catch even the slightest movement. Nothing. Slowly …
It all started when I was a little girl. Christmas Eve, 2004. I was eight years old. “Santa, is that you?” Footfalls on the staircase echoed through the house as I jumped out of bed and ran past the doorframe to catch a glimpse of the man himself. CREAK CREAK …
It’s a pretty universally known truth that having rich neighbors sucks. When I say rich, I mean Jeff Bezos probably sent these guys handwritten birthday cards along with the rest of his billionaire friends. That’s how much money they were sitting on. But what sucks so much infinitely more than …
Part I: The Snow Fort Christmas was always a whimsical time for young Christopher. For as long as he could remember, Santa Claus came down the chimney, left gifts, ate cookies, drank coco, and fed his reindeer. Then, he was gone without a trace left behind, with the exception of …
A few years ago I did something. Something terrible. Sometimes that I really wish I didn’t. Something I can never take back. It all started when my girlfriend,well ex girlfriend, broke up with me. I know this might seem trivial and just a part of life and growing as a …
“Donde Esta Santa Claus” was blaring on the radio as Gary crossed over state lines into…somewhere. He lost track of where he was hours ago. Somewhere… midwesty. He was driving back East for Christmas. Too cheap to fly, he thought he’d take the opportunity to get to see America, the …
December 23, 1975 Brookfield, Montana 1 AM To John, it didn’t seem as if it was going to get colder. But to his dismay, it did. The temperature on the train he rode on stated it was 45 degrees, even with the heaters. The train with its beautiful Christmas decorations …
Perpetual darkness lingered at the top of the world. Thick ice, frigid air, and snow covered the lifeless mountainscape. However, the endless night did not go unchallenged. A single source of light illuminated the sky and drove back the darkness. Nestled between two snow-covered mountain, a little cottage sat with …
The night of Christmas Eve 2008 is a blur, depending on how much medication I am given that day. I can avoid the nurses for a couple of hours, but not too long. I suppose you’ve heard about me in the papers or on your favorite serial killer show. No, …
Ever since grade three, my friends and I could make Derek Zimmer believe anything. Anything. From Pop-Rocks and Coke will make your stomach explode; to earwigs actually burrow in your ears (and one’s on your shoulder right now!); to the typical urban legend of the babysitter and the killer upstairs …
I sigh, stretch, and push myself away from my laptop. I let the chair spin for before lazily dragging my foot to stop it. I had been working on a new story. One about Christmas, and the horrors it includes. It was pretty cheesy, and all the ideas felt recycled. …
He was cold. Bitterly so. It was not the unforgiving December wind creating lazy vortexes in the freshly falling snow; rather, it was the numbness that consumed both body and soul in one fatal, unseen breeze. It also did not escape him that his surroundings seemingly felt the same: bleak …
The alarm was horribly loud in his left ear, a persistent high pitched beep forcing him from his dreamless, alcohol-soaked slumber into a hangover-heavy wakefulness. Jim groaned, rolling away from the insistent machine and negligently silencing it with a lucky swipe of his arm. His head felt thick and fuzzy, …
Growing up, or at least since the mid-two thousands, my house always had an Elf on the Shelf during the Christmas season. If you don’t know, Elves on the Shelf are these little elf dolls that are supposed to be scouts for Santa Claus. I named mine Humble. I think …
