My sister didn’t come to the funeral. And I honestly didn’t blame her one bit. There towards the end of Mom’s life, things had gotten unbearably rough. I took a semester off of college to stay home and help Dad out during Mom’s last few months,...
Paige watched with wide eyes as her friend was ushered into a cage with iron bars jagged with rust. An iron arm swung the cage over the edge of the filthy fishing boat. Paige pressed her hands together, her eyes welling with panic. ”No, please!” she pleaded. “She...
My wife Vicky means more to me than my own life. I’ve consulted doctors after hours, anonymous clinical helplines, even a suicide hotline for Christ’s sake. The only course of action that I have left is to release her into professional medical care. As weak...
The invasion began in 1985, or so we were told. The headlines immediately caught our attention, “Killer Bees Found on Southern Border!” These were the type of things that sparked the imagination of every child. It filled our heads with images of terrifying attacks and...
I think there’s three of them still out there — three wolves. Aside from the one I killed, I’ve only seen two at any given time, but they’re distinct enough for me to tell them apart — there are three of them. We’ve been trapped...
My name is Clem. I grew up in a little town in south Louisiana called Chickapin, about an hour west of New Orleans and right on the edge of the deep bayou. There were channels everywhere, and you could make it from my backyard all...
I keep hearing them crackling; I can’t see them, but I hear them. At first, I thought it was just a distant wolf howling or my imagination playing up, but now I’m certain that they’re here — somewhere amid the trees — maybe watching me,...
My husband went overseas as part of the military for a few years. The entire time I anxiously awaited his return. I constantly wondered if I would ever get a phone call notifying me that he would never come home. It was strange being alone...
From the moment she learned to walk, little Myrtle dreamed of becoming a tap dancer. She would totter through the house, her chubby bare feet slapping arrhythmically on the hardwood, her squeaky voice calling out “Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta!” like tap shoes on a stage. When her second-grade teacher...
The road is a light brown path of dirt that stretches up and down the shallow hills, running straight from end to end before becoming serpentine at its eastern end where it meets the main highway. Blades of grass struggle to break through but soon...
Some said it was the moon’s glow that would hit the aged broken glass of the church’s upper lofts on certain nights. Others claimed it was merely their imagination...
“My god, boys… will you just stop?!? If you keep messing around you’re going to miss your bus and I can’t afford to be late today.” My spirits far too defeated to attain the authoritative tone needed for the situation. Stewie and Collin are still...
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...
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...
The spring flu was been going around the school like usual, but some people were sicker than normal. They didn’t just have fever and headache – their faces were blotchy, their eyes bulged, and they all wheezed like they’d just run up 10 flights of...
