Born from smokeless fire, they straddle the line between seen and unseen, good and evil. They move betwixt those spaces between life and death. They may choose to help or destroy on a whim. Beware in the shadow valley, the cursed Jinn. Chapter 1 “A Den...
I suffer from a condition called Charles Bonnet Syndrome, or Visual Release Hallucinations if you want to get more technical. It’s a condition that’s far more common than you might realise — it’s estimated that as many as half of people with gradual loss of vision...
ONE Unlike most psychiatrists, Fiszman didn’t have a sofa or a chaise longue in his office. Nor did he have a bookshelf. Nor were there any sharp objects on his desk like pens or paperclips. He didn’t wear a tie, either, or shoelaces. In fact, anything...
This autumn, a couple of work friends are going deer hunting. It’s been the talk of the office for two months straight. It became the conversational watering hole, and everyone who doesn’t take part is left to dry out in the sun. Hell, even Vicky,...
I fear the hulking giant that waits just outside my home. I'm too afraid to even look up at him in his full size. He stands two, maybe three stories tall, silently watching me, his silhouette a pitch-black void against the starry night sky. At any...
I can’t explain why I was drawn to that thing in the antique store; I just knew I had to have it. By outward appearances, there was nothing remarkable about the horsehead bookend - smoothly carved from black stone, expression unreadably bland. The weirdest thing was...
Part I “Who is he?” my son inquired, pointing to the tall figure drawn upon the dusty, nearly crumbling page. As a reproduction of a reproduction of a reproduction, the history book could have easily been mistaken for the mad scribblings of troglodytes in their firelit...
I was born a burden. My parents said it jokingly, but I could tell it’d always been on their mind. Even as an infant, I had bronchiolitis, hypersensitive skin, and several infections. My mother used to say that I was made as if God was...
I used to do small scale construction work with a private firm out in rural Minnesota. Mostly private jobs. Someone needs a new deck or wants to build a guest house on the edge of their property. This isn’t really the “I want a custom...
I never thought we’d be in danger. That was never a real, conscious thought. After all our adventures to ghost houses, séances, or abandoned asylums, none of us had never actually run into something dangerous. But a couple of years ago, that changed. It was...
Lily told me about her friend on a Tuesday. I was making dinner. Pasta with jarred sauce, the kind of meal you make when you’ve worked a double and your feet hurt and your daughter has been at aftercare for nine hours because that’s what single...
I walked as quietly as I could down the corridor. Each traitorous step sounding as thunderous as my heart beat. The blood on my hands—once hot like the silent tears running down my face—was now cold. “Children,” a croaking voice said from the darkness. “Are you...
Dane McBride stared at the glow of his monitor, the tab count creeping upward in a scatter of job searches, overdue bill reminders, and half-finished troubleshooting logs. Midnight had passed an hour ago, but his clients expected things fixed before sunrise, and the invoices he’d...
I’m typing this from a hospital bed with one good hand and bandages across my face, the injuries still too raw for me to look at without spiraling. The staff here thinks I had an accident. They keep using that word. Accident. As if I bumped...
I last saw my girlfriend around seventeen years ago. Although for me, it was last week. I know that doesn't make much sense. I'm not even sure why I'm writing this. It's not like anybody will believe it. And even if they did, the truth would...
I grew up in a small town just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. Technically, it was in South Carolina, but still a part of the metropolitan area. We were close enough to the city to enjoy some of the city amenities, but far enough away...
Part I Robert Yoder never liked the crawlspace. It sat in the far corner of the basement, wedged beneath an old set of wooden stairs that led to the backyard storm door. The house was built in the late sixties, and the crawlspace—according to his mom—once held...
Part I The night the boys broke into the Sanctuary, the Covenant bells had barely stopped ringing. Sherman Cantrell sat through the last of the evening prayers with his head bowed and his chest aching, listening to Elder Lamont Havel drone through the closing litany. The old...
Part I Sara didn’t realize how much of the town was gone until she hit Main Street and found more plywood than glass. The old diner was a vape shop now. The hardware store her mother used to drag her through on Saturdays stood empty, windows painted...
Part I Dana Quill first heard the name in a voicemail that cut out halfway through. “The Pit,” the caller said, his voice low and ragged. “They’re not doing cage fights down there. They’re… growing things. If you want a story, this is it. But don’t come...
