15 Apr A Rat Problem
I bought an older house, with no basement. All I thought at the time was that I would own my own place, at long last; I didn’t think how inconvenient it would be to have just a simple crawlspace. It doesn’t go all the way...
14 Apr Someone Darke
In the room over his London shop, Darke methodically counted the copper, silver and most especially the gold coins that had poured in during the day. The feel of the cold and beautiful metal in his long, wispy fingers was always comforting to him. The...
13 Apr Childhood Memories
Posted at 17:00h
in Beings and Entities, Children and Childhood, Ghosts and Spirits, Locations and Sites, Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult, Nature and the Outdoors, Psychological Horror, Rites and Rituals, Strange and Unexplained, Suspense and Thrillers 1 Comment
I opened the back door to my house, without bothering to put shoes on, and walked towards the line of trees that stood at the entrance to the forest. It was summer and the warm breeze carried with it the smell of nature, thick and...
13 Apr The Taklitçi
Posted at 11:00h
in Beings and Entities, Monsters, Creatures, and Cryptids, Myths and Legends 1 Comment
The Original Sin We were just open-minded kids. We wanted to see as much of the world as possible. God forgive us; we didn’t mean to deceive anyone. We didn’t mean to give that creature a whiff of our scent, but we did. I’m sure now...
12 Apr Overdone
Posted at 11:00h
in Deaths, Murders, and Disappearances, Illness and Injuries, Jobs and Occupations 1 Comment
My breath catches on the golf ball sized lump in my throat as it escapes my lungs. The health department’s been making its rounds, and we were the next bakery on the list. We wouldn’t even have known they were coming if not for that...
11 Apr White Out
Posted at 11:00h
in Children and Childhood, Deaths, Murders, and Disappearances, Illness and Injuries, Locations and Sites, Natural Disasters and Storms, Nature and the Outdoors, Psychological Horror, Survival Horror, Suspense and Thrillers 1 Comment
Outside the wind shrieked against the window pane, the news had said that there was a blizzard headed her way. Stacey had been rushing around the house since 5 pm trying to get her bags packed. She was hoping to hit the road by seven...
10 Apr Did You Hear the Ice Cream Man Last Night?
Posted at 11:00h
in Abductions and Kidnappings, Beings and Entities, Children and Childhood, Monsters, Creatures, and Cryptids, Strange and Unexplained 1 Comment
I used to think of Hell as a faraway place. For those of you out there who still hold that belief, this piece of my life is for you. Don’t ask me why I’m doing this; I’m honestly not sure. My therapist says writing about our...
09 Apr Solitude
Posted at 11:00h
in Investigations and Crimes, Madness, Paranoia, and Mental Illness, Natural Disasters and Storms, Nature and the Outdoors, Psychological Horror, Strange and Unexplained 0 Comments
Edward Harker waited in his office until the financial management firm of Harker, Parks & Associates was empty, and then took the elevator to the parking garage beneath the Manhattan skyscraper. He found his Lincoln Navigator and started it up for the first time in...
08 Apr Nicky’s Ninth Door
Posted at 11:00h
in Beings and Entities, Children and Childhood, Ghosts and Spirits, Myths and Legends, Urban Legends 0 Comments
Walter was cool. Walter was tough. Walter was 13 years old. As the only teen on his block all the other kids that lived on Revenant Falls Lane were in awe of Walter. They were especially ravenous for the kinds of stories he could tell them that his...
07 Apr A Ritual Misguided
Posted at 11:00h
in Deaths, Murders, and Disappearances, Feelspastas and Happy Endings, Rites and Rituals, Zombies and the Undead 1 Comment
I’ve been a widower for exactly six years now. I was blissfully married to a woman named Ava for fifteen amazing years. We didn’t have much in the beginning, but we were happy that way. She always said she’d rather struggle with a man that...
06 Apr The Smell
Posted at 11:00h
in Body Horror, Deaths, Murders, and Disappearances, Strange and Unexplained 1 Comment
It was on the third day of the stench permeating the house that we decided to call the landlord. In the last month since we had moved in, there had been a lot of creaking and groaning from underneath the house. It was built sometime...
05 Apr The Ouija Board Said It Was Hungry
Posted at 11:00h
in Beings and Entities, Deaths, Murders, and Disappearances, Demons and Possession, Ghosts and Spirits, Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult, Strange and Unexplained 1 Comment
My name is Henry Himura. I work for a large law firm situated near downtown Los Angeles. We’ve handled some of the biggest, most controversial cases in the last two decades and have built quite a name for ourselves. I am using a pseudonym, because,...
03 Apr Shit Magnet
They’ve called me a shit-magnet since I was a kid. It’s only an expression, sure, but I think it might also be a real thing. If a smile can attract smiles sure as a corpse can attract flies, there’s no reason a guy like me...
02 Apr Camper Appreciation
Posted at 11:00h
in Beings and Entities, Locations and Sites, Monsters, Creatures, and Cryptids, Myths and Legends, Nature and the Outdoors, Strange and Unexplained, Urban Legends 0 Comments
“Come on, Jim, you know it’s going to suck.” I didn’t nod, though I wanted to. Mark was right, as usual. Most of camp had sucked, to be honest. Tom, on the other hand, tried once more to be the voice of reason, even as he tugged...
01 Apr Herbert West—Reanimator
Posted at 11:00h
in Classic Horror and Public Domain, Cosmic Horror and Lovecraftian Stories, Deaths, Murders, and Disappearances, Investigations and Crimes, Jobs and Occupations, Medical and Hospitals, Science and Experimentation, Science Fiction, Zombies and the Undead 1 Comment
I. From the Dark Of Herbert West, who was my friend in college and in after life, I can speak only with extreme terror. This terror is not due altogether to the sinister manner of his recent disappearance, but was engendered by the whole nature of...
31 Mar Elevator Code
As a freelance convention planner, I stay at many hotels over the course of a year. I spend about a week per trip in an all-expenses-paid suite of my choosing, doing nothing but studying the location and interviewing the staff on hand to get a...
30 Mar The Buzzards
Posted at 11:00h
in Jobs and Occupations, Monsters, Creatures, and Cryptids, Strange and Unexplained 1 Comment
Need a crime scene clean-up? How about a crime scene clean-up up in a hoarder’s house? Well, free-market problems get free-market solutions. It only makes sense I ended up with Cesar. I guess you could call me the President and Cesar the VP but those are...
29 Mar Some Shooting Stars Aren’t Meant To Be Wished Upon
There it was. A fragment of the universe, hurtling through the cosmos. And there I was, gazing up from the comfort of a farmhouse rooftop, built by my father’s hands smack dab in the middle of nowhere. In all the years we lived out there...
28 Mar Winter Time
All our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. (‘Macbeth’: Act 5, scene 5) With turned, frozen earth stinking sharp on his big coat and gritting black under his fingernails, he checked the side lane was empty before clinking the allotment gate shut behind him....
27 Mar The Song and Dance Man
Posted at 11:00h
in Bargains and Deals, Beings and Entities, Cosmic Horror and Lovecraftian Stories, Creepypasta Classics, Curses and Cursed Objects, Deaths, Murders, and Disappearances, Editor's Choice, Folklore, Folktales, and Superstition, Madness, Paranoia, and Mental Illness, Period Pieces, Psychological Horror, Rites and Rituals, Strange and Unexplained 0 Comments
In the small town of Belle Carne, nothing ever happens—until the autumn night a strange man arrives with a fiddle, a smile too wide, and a promise of free music. Drawn by curiosity, the townsfolk gather beneath the glow of a yellow tent, eager to...