β€œDo you play video games, Terrance?” The devil asked as he sat perched atop the podium. I held my wife’s dying body in my arms, tears streamed from my face, and her blood covered my bare chest. I looked up with a mixture of hate and...

β€œThat one is very special,” said the old man running the antique shop. Emily looked up from her phone to see a large baroque mirror with a gilded frame of carved flowers.Β  The late afternoon sunlight that shone through the storefront glittered over the frame, making...

Too often, throughout history, what we can’t explain we label a religion. Religion is the bait and switch that gets us on our knees. But when it comes to evil, it’s a more subtle religion, one we pray against. On the big screen, Peggy Carter tells...

β€œWe’re gonna make this a tradition,” Jerry said confidently. The others in the back of the van could barely hear him over the music. β€œArbor Day getaway.” β€œWe’re not, Jer,” said Sarah. Jerry gave her a wounded look, and she reached over and put a hand...

β€œIt was the biggest night of their lives, the grand finale of their first world tour taking place in Atlanta. The music blared, the crowd went wild, and they stood on the stage as rock gods," he whispered. Artificial flames flickered in the cool night air,...

Part One In some strange kind of way, I suppose it was appropriate that Nicholas passed so near Halloween. He loved the dressing up and scaring friends, going to spook houses nightly for the week ahead and then staying out all night the night of. It...

β€œAh, welcome!” The man who stood at the open door was painfully suburban. His thick-rimmed glasses were slightly too large for his face, even with the wide grin he was currently sporting. His pastel polo shirt was tucked into the belted waistband of his cargo shorts....

Part One It was early on in my childhood that I understood what the definition of gluttony was. Or at the very least a hungry dose of greed. My family was engulfed in such. My grandma always said there wasn’t much difference β€˜tween the two and...

β€œCome on, Sienna, hurry up! I’m gonna get drenched if I stay out here!” Even with the threat of getting soaked in ice-cold rain, I did not want to get out of the car. I didn’t even want to go out tonight, my plans were to...

Ellie’s morning consisted of organizing the paperwork of her first client, Edgar Zavala. She was a newly hired caregiver at Lakeside Assisted Living and had just completed her two-week training course. Edgar’s profile was unremarkable. Hispanic male, sixty-eight years old, widower with no military service. Previous...

Claire awakens from the dream, sheets and nightgown soaked. Yanking the covers off, she rushes into the bathroom and throws cold water onto her face to help stem the hot flash, but it doesn’t work. She fumbles down the dark hallway and into the kitchen,...

The annual office Halloween party was in full effect.Β  The large, open-space office was plastered wall-to-wall with paper bats and plastic pumpkins, and every surface covered in enough candy bowls to give a football team diabetes.Β  Dressed in their vampire capes and witch’s hats, the...

Seth stares out the small window into the dark night, unable to sleep. Again. Ever since returning home, his sleep patterns are a jumbled mess. Growing up on a farm turned him into a morning person and he went to bed early, never experiencing trouble...

Milton was making his rounds through the old facility, which housed the lunatics and those who were deemed too dangerous or unstable for the community.Β  In this psychiatric hospital, this lunatic asylum, this mental institution or, as others endearingly called it, β€˜the sanitarium,’ Milton was...

Winning an all-expenses paid trip without any catches is quite rare from my experience.Β  There is something unfamiliar with awards, triumphs, and real success for most adults.Β  Take winning the lottery, for instance; how much money does a person sink into that abyss of no...

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