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 […]
The envelope was thick, cream-colored, and addressed to me in elegant, unfamiliar script. It arrived on a day like any other – a Tuesday, rain slicking the windows of our tiny apartment, the air inside smelling faintly of stale cooking and damp laundry. Lily was colouring at the chipped Formica
Her Horrific Inheritance Read More »
The Easter basket arrived this morning, though I live alone and ordered nothing. Inside, nestled amongst the garish plastic grass, wasn’t chocolate, but a single, impossibly large, milky-white eye staring up at me. It wasn’t glass; it felt disturbingly organic beneath my hesitant fingertip, cool and slightly yielding, veined with
Read part one here “Hey Pat check this out!” Kyle exclaimed.We had just gotten back to Kyle’s house, and he was already checking his live stream. Somehow, I’d let him talk me into streaming our little adventure, though by now I’ve come to know it as a personal quest. It
After the night I just had, I do not know whether I should call the cops, roll up in a ball and cry myself to sleep, or call my therapist. I am still trying to decide the best course of action. I already talked to my friend Kyle, and we
My family has an odd history of tragedy—at least, that’s what my grandma would always say.“It comes in waves; it comes when it wants to,” she would ominously say, but we all knew she was superstitious and generally odd. According to my mom, who has a much-strained relationship with her,
It screams when it doesn’t whisper Read More »
”They are down there in the water. I saw several glimpses of bright yellow popping up from and then retreating down below the surface, only to pop up again in a rhythmic fashion. Like a dance routine. Brightly yellow and deadly. Are they mocking us? The rotting, sweet stench of
The bright yellow terror Read More »
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
All things have a soul, from the stray rats that scamper through the streets to the swaying lanterns stifled by smog. Even the city itself is well and truly alive. Yet, to a foreigner like Edward, such wisdom was a mystery, and not one he had any interest in until
The Sixth Building Read More »
The room had a strange frozen quality to it. What the room held did not readily explain it. There was a desk and two chairs, and three bookshelves that rose high and disappeared into gloom. A fabulously diverse array of books filled the shelves; but their colours seemed faded, like
There was nothing special about that morning. The sun was warm, and the breeze was cool, one of the first hints that spring was here to stay. It started off as a simple thought, just an idea. But I never could have imagined what that idea was capable of causing.
Behind the Curtain Read More »
Rollercoasters. I hated them. I always did. When it came to school trips to the local theme parks, I always sat them out. I could enjoy the lazy rapids or the log flumes, the tilt-a-whirls or the space wheels; anything with a bit of height to feel the light breeze
My vision was hazy. I could feel warm liquid trickling down my forehead as I attempted to lift my head. The car’s blinker thundered inside of me like a heavy bass. I tasted the blood inside of my mouth, and the coolness of the night seeped into the cracks and
The mind is a complex thing that no one can truly hope to fully understand. You can study it all day long but there are things inside that defy all human logic. In a way we are all prisoners to our own thoughts, and some are hard to escape. I
Richard removed the lightswitch to the basement stairwell. It wasn’t that he simply disabled it, no. He removed the entire thing. Plastic covering, screws, the switch box—all of it. Though, he had shut off the power to the basement for good measure, too. Every once in a while when a
It’s Safer To Be Afraid Of The Light Read More »
I thought she was playing a practical joke the first-time she did it. I was in the kitchen, getting dinner ready when she walked in the front door mid conversation. I expected to see her on her mobile but I noticed both hands were holding things – her briefcase and
My wife keeps introducing me to people who aren’t there. Read More »
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 »
The music cuts out and everyone stops dancing. The girl in front of him removes his hands from her waste and disappears into the crowd. As if from a distance, Richie hears the owner of the house, thanking people for coming to his party. He stumbles his way into the
“I saw him again last night.”“Who?”“The Man”.“Oh yeah,” James chuckled. “Same.”“Oh really?” I nervously giggled in response. “What did you see?”“Just the usual, he was just having a good look round, not doing anyone any harm.”This had become a running joke between James and I ever since we moved in
Today was a weird day. It was another long day at the office. Piles of paperwork stood a mile high on my desk, and it’d taken hours to even make a dent in it. I couldn’t have been more relieved when the clock finally hit 5:00. I hightailed it out
He won’t stop staring Read More »
The big two-story mansion kind of surprised me. I was awestruck by how beautiful it was. I had not expected Anita Peuvront to be the kind of person who would indulge herself with such a monstrous extravagance. But again, I had never been good at reading people. We had spoken
The Boy In The Glass Jar Read More »
Lane Brandon cursed himself for remembering. Out here, it was easy not to. Freight trains, barrooms, cathouses, jailhouses – all those belonged back in Denver. He’d come west to rope and tame mustangs, not to be at a hostler’s beck and call. Thus he’d enlisted his fellow groom, Gordon Plowman,
On June 22nd, I returned to my hometown in the southern area of Alaska. My childhood home was falling apart, again. I bought it for fairly cheap. Despite ten years having passed since I last saw the neighborhood, it was still the worst part of town. I remember, when I
Day 1 Alright, this is day one of seclusion for me. My therapist recommended that I get away for at least a week to try and get my shit together. He also suggested that I keep a journal of my time in voluntary isolation to keep track of my progress.
