Brookings, Curry County, Oregon.December 2019. My colleague had been missing for a week. He’d been isolating himself for days, ignoring my calls, and even our inner circle of friends hadn’t heard a word from him. I was the first to genuinely worry. While I didn’t go to confront him directly, […]
The Beloved One: Smiling Corpse Read More »
The cold winter air whipped past the buildings as thousands of people trudged through the snow-covered streets. The tall buildings cast long, imposing shadows over the citizens as they went about their last day on Earth. Few wandered with purpose; most were lost in the thick haze of confusion that
Elsie stood on the front steps of the mall, her brunette hair waving in the wind as she gazed at the fading storm, the clouds illuminated by the sunset. The air still smelled of petrichor and wet concrete, a nostalgic, earthy scent that brought her back to the first time
The Mannequin Does Not Move Read More »
The roman forum was beautiful. The painted marble gleamed in the spring sun and there was a breeze fluttering through the trees. Great flowers climbed the concrete buildings and flowered with all the colours of the rainbow.Such a lovely day for such a melancholy event. A magpie sat on the
My thumb repeatedly pressed into the remote, changing the channels on the television. The motion was almost pointless as I unconsciously knew that I’d never land on a channel that could hold my attention. I had already seen all the movies I wanted to see and watched the same commercials
The Snow Falls on Deaf Ears Read More »
There are very few opportunities to share an experience as absurd as mine. And who would believe it was not just another one of the fantasy stories I usually write? Not even psychologists are open-minded enough to listen to such an irrational confession. I hope that some of you, at
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 »
I work for the county sheriff’s office up in NorCal. I received a call in the predawn hours on May the 23rd, 2020 telling me to investigate the collapse of a residence on the street I grew up on. It was hardly surprising to see my friend’s house had gone
The Grimoire of Leonard Hopkins Read More »
I — THE GREAT AWAKENING HAS ARRIVED “Where do you live, man?” I asked, reaching out to grab the Skol can left by the window. “Cuiabá.” “Man… that’s a beautiful city.” “You’ve been there?” “Yeah. Made a lot of deliveries in the capital.” “So why do you want to go
I am certain that my fascination with the gone and forgotten stems from my own fear of impermanence. Leaving something behind when I am gone is of utmost importance to me, so I have dedicated my life to preserving and sharing the legacies and lives of others who have passed.
Mr Conrad’s Final Tale Read More »
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
The chirping of a blue bird woke Robert out of his blank eyed stare. His eyes refocused, as his old hands went to rub them back into reality. Their disappointed scowl still staring bluntly ahead. Robert found himself sitting on his porch. He was fatter and older than he ever
My aunt left me her place on Hensel Lake when she died last September. I had visited once as a boy and remembered almost nothing about it, so I drove up alone on a Friday afternoon to see what I had inherited. The road in was a dirt track with
Entry 1: Phonemes There is something peculiar about Phillip, one of my 9th graders. He used to be exceptional at English. I am an English as a foreign language teacher in Germany and I taught the same class last year, and that means I already know him well. But after
The Language that spreads Read More »
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 »
Detective Flynn entered the building and was instantly met by fellow detective Terry. “What’s the situation?” Flynn asked him as they walked briskly. “Still refusing to talk… said he won’t talk to anyone about it,” Terry answered. They got to the interrogation room and Terry opened the door. There were
The house appeared in her search results on a Tuesday morning, nestled between listings that were either too small or too far from town, and Abby had stopped scrolling. She looked at the pictures for a long time. A craftsman-style two-story in Ridgefield, Washington. Good bones, the listing said, and
A Door To The Basement Read More »
March 2nd, 2026 I don’t really know why I’m writing this down. Maybe because it felt too real to just forget about, and I’ve been sitting at my desk for the past hour trying to convince myself it was just a dream. Of course it was just a dream. I’m
A Hole In The Concrete Read More »
It was a rainy Saturday morning, and I could hear the rain tapping against my window. I looked up from my laptop and let out a soft sigh. The sound was somewhat annoying, yet also oddly soothing, and I thought it might help me focus on the history essay I
The night smells wrong. Not merely damp, not merely cold—spoiled, as though the air itself has been left too long inside something dead and forgotten. Each breath coats your tongue with the taste of old coins dissolved in rot, metallic and sour, thick enough to cling. The fog doesn’t drift;
It was the sound of sobs, soft…muffled, miserable and tinged with a sort of echoing hollowness, that woke me. It was furitive, almost guilty misery..but with the strange quality of the sound, and the location, suggested it was coming from my shower. I growned, trying to roll over in bed..not
My Wife is the Only One who can See Something is wrong Read More »
It was October 1st of 1967, and the campus of Montauk University sat quiet and still in the new morning hours. The sky was dark, street lamps bright, and all students living on campus were asleep. Except, of course, for two figures who sauntered down the sidewalk towards the campus
I still remember the night it happened. I was nine. We were driving home from my grandma’s house late, rain pounding the windshield so hard the wipers couldn’t keep up. Dad was humming along to the radio, Mom was half-asleep in the passenger seat. Then the truck came out of
