It’s been about seven months since I signed my year long lease for this shithole apartment. I don’t think I’ll be making it another five months. I’m not sure if I’ll even make it another night. My cheapness might’ve cost me my life. I was going to make this a […]
I Found an Extra Light Switch in My Apartment Read More »
The highway above groaned with morning traffic, and Greg woke to it the way most people wake to an alarm, grudgingly and with his whole body fighting the process. His tent was a single-person backpacking model with a broken zipper, held shut with a braid of zip ties he’d threaded
A Needle In The Vein Read More »
I am going to die soon. My name is Ed. I am eighty-one years old, living in the Bright Shades Nursing Home. I have three kids, two sons and a daughter, and seven grandchildren. I love them, and they love me. But they don’t believe me when I tell them
Something’s In The Nursing Home Read More »
The photograph looked ordinary at first. On a quiet Saturday morning, the small neighborhood yard sale did not look very exciting. A few folding tables stood on the sidewalk in front of a modest brick house. Cardboard boxes sat under the tables. Old blankets were spread across the grass with
The Man in the Photograph Read More »
The moon hung low over the sleepy town of RidgeWater Creek, its faint glow barely penetrating the dense forest on the outskirts. As I stepped out of my car, my boots crunched against the gravel road, carrying me toward the cordoned-off crime scene. The red and blue strobes of police
I’m a Cop, and My Town Is Dying in Ways No Autopsy Can Explain 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
I remember the day I found it as if it were yesterday. The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows across the flea market on the outskirts of our quaint little town. It was the kind of day where everything seemed still, the heat lingering, pressing
The Blood Moon Rising Read More »
“Are you ok!?” Rachel yelled out as she ran toward me through the storm, trying not to laugh. It figures that moving day would find lightning, thunder, and rain attacking us from above, but it had been completely clear when we headed this way with a truckload of all our
The Door in the Attic Floor Read More »
Mabel Crudup basked in the May sunshine as she worked in her garden. Grinning, she inhaled the fresh scent of soil mixed with last night’s rain. Days like this were made for going outdoors and getting one’s hands dirty. Mabel stabbed the tip of her trowel into the ground, digging
What the Left Eye Sees Read More »
I LOVE GOSSIP. Every chance I get, I watch Maury Povich, Jerry Springer, Steve Wilkos, and that new girl Zara Zimmerman. All sleaze, all the time. The revelation of other people’s secrets sends a thrill through me like an electrical jolt. Cheating lovers, absent fathers, all sorts of liars –
Other People’s Secrets 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 »
Is this quest enough to sustain you? Is this accumulation of curses really worthwhile? Has everything progressed perfectly, with no loss or sorrow?– Anonymous, “The Holder of Remorse”_________ Tuesday, 10/31/2312:00 PM October, a month of chill, darkness and rain, has burst out in full glory. Leaves crackle underfoot. Wind whips
Sesquicentennial, Part One Read More »
Two weeks. That’s how long it took for my life to fall apart. Two weeks for everything I ever loved or cared about to be taken from me in the cruelest way imaginable. And it all started on that hateful plot of land that was supposed to be my family’s
The Earth Hates You Read More »
Tony and Allison sat jovially at the edge of the schooner anticipating the plunge while their captain settled the boat somewhere between the sun and the water. Tony and Allison’s anniversary had been but a few days back, and for their first they had decided to do something the both
Airless, Bloodless Read More »
“Lost in the woods,” was a phrase my father used a lot. When I was young; should we be out in the world and witness someone acting out in any way, “That boy’s lost in the woods,” he’d say, shaking his head in that parental disappointment sort of way, even
“Mother?” In the dim light of my bedroom, cast by a single candlestick that made shadows dance on the ceiling, I sought her smiling face. It anchored my life and my world. “Yes, dear?” “May I ask three questions before I go to sleep?” “Of course.” Rustle went her nightdress;
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
The Night I Met Santa Claus Read More »
HALLOWEEN ADVENT CANDLEDAR Burn one a day till Halloween.Discover what it truly means.Don’t peek ahead at future labels.Savor all, if you are able… – THE CHTHONIC CANDLE COMPANY So read the note enclosed with thirty-one tiny candles, sent in a massive box with no logo. The creators of my Candledar
Toby’s JournalEntry 1April 5th, 1990 So, I asked my daddy to buy me this journal. He’s always been a great father, even though he isn’t the same after my mom died. He was always big on teaching me how to write, and stuff. He said words are the most important
The Bridge Outside My Bedroom Window Read More »
“I want you to know I’m not crazy. What I tell you in this office today is just to clear my head so I can get past all the damn nightmares. Past the demons” Joshua stated. Dr. Hugh listened but did not acknowledge as he read over the man’s handwritten
The man in the window Read More »
My wife had always been a sound sleeper. She never snored, talked in her sleep, nor was she particularly restless. Oftentimes, she’d wake up in the same position she passed out in with barely a wrinkle in the sheets around her. When the singing in the middle of the night
My heart was already racing when I sat down in the passenger seat of the filthy and foul-smelling land yacht of an ancient Cadillac. The large man who was to be my chauffeur for the night barely spoke a word as we sped from one downtown city road to the
LiVE THE DREAM These words flashed before Caitlin Neil’s closed eyes on her red-eye flight back to Los Angeles. It wasn’t home, but her so-called base. Her name wasn’t even Caitlin Neil. Nevertheless, as the Company had promised her, she had come to like both. Until now. “Hello. This is
