I breathed a sigh of relief once the phone was back in its holster. I got the job. Not just any job, but one of the most sought after positions within an hours drive. I was the newest team member at Colwell Industries, a company...
Brett Barbour sees the package placed next to his front door as he pulls his Bronco up to the house. He feels the kind of tingling excitement that’s always felt when such packages arrive. It’s not quite the same feeling as receiving presents on Christmas...
When a grieving husband sets out to reunite with his wife for a simple weekend getaway, a violent storm forces him down a road he’ll never escape. Drawn to an antique shop called Precious Memories, he discovers that every relic inside holds more than dust...
A rideshare driver accepts a midnight request from a desolate roadside near a cemetery. His passenger is a man whose face remains hidden in shadow, yet whose presence feels strangely familiar. What begins as a simple ride turns into a nightmarish encounter with the uncanny,...
God, it’s cold. Shivering, I push my hand out of my coat sleeve. Check my watch. Seven thirty. It won’t be long now. I scan the edge of the field, just to be sure, then reach for the thermos. I twist off the cap. Steam...
Part I The head in the wall was crusted and decayed, mummified in its plastic shroud, the withered face open-mouthed in a scream—or maybe the jaw had loosened as the muscles decayed. The plastic is what held in the smell, though I do vaguely remember sometimes...
I went camping recently at Lost Creek, on the edge of Riverside, Ohio. I hadn’t been there since that family was attacked a few summers ago. That hadn’t been the only time something strange had found its way to Riverside, or Lost Creek itself, for...
The sun hung low, painting the Sierra Nevada in gold and crimson. James Hawthorne guided his horse along the winding mountain trail. The air was crisp, redolent of pine and trail dirt. A nice enough day for the time being. Of course, these things can...
Alright, so I know if I just jumped right into what I need to say, you’d think I was crazy, and just click off. My phone battery’s mostly full, so I have time to type out an explanation. Time...
My name’s Ariana, and I wasn’t supposed to be the responsible one. That’s usually Mom’s job. But when my mother and father, Elaine and David, left for a week-long work trip, the responsibility of keeping an eye on my sixteen-year-old sister fell squarely on me. I...
The prospect of discovering a shipwreck containing riches beyond our comprehension was what drew us to scuba diving in the first place. Needless to say, we were disappointed pretty quickly. The likelihood of discovering a wrecked ship is infinitesimal, let alone a wrecked ship containing...
I didn't know why everyone was Googling September 23rd, but I do now. I wish I hadn’t found out. My name is Oren Pierce. I write about fringe culture and the ways people convince themselves the sky is falling. That was the plan last week when...
Leave it up to me to try to do something beneficial, and end up ruining my life in the process. All I wanted to do was go to the gym and right as I stepped through the threshold, BOOM! I trip and fall and my...
Hannah and Becca, the quintessential young couple in love. Newlyweds, or relatively newly wed at any rate, the pair would sometimes baffle their peers in their curiously optimistic pursuit of the fading light that was the classic American dream. During their initial courtship, well on...
When a man notices strange, distorted faces peering from his neighbor’s upstairs window, he tells himself it’s a trick of the light—or children playing. But the nightly appearances grow more frequent, more unsettling, and impossible to ignore. As his obsession deepens, and his girlfriend begins...
The rain began as a mist on the windshield, the kind that smudged the view rather than blocked it, and then, without much warning, it thickened into bands of water that wove through the beams of the headlights. Rachel Whitaker turned the wipers up another...
The fluorescent lights hummed with their own strange cadence, a nervous flicker dancing above the library doors. The building always felt different once the last bell rang, but tonight it felt worse. The classrooms had gone dark, the lockers stretched like empty shells, and the...
Peter, a seasoned fire investigator, uncovers a hidden machine in the ruins of a burned mansion. When messages begin arriving from the deceased homeowner—pleading for help to restore the device—Peter is pulled into a nightmarish struggle between duty and obsession. As the voice grows stronger,...
The glow of the screen has beckoned me and I have answered its call. It’s the middle of the night and I am compelled to walk downstairs, still rubbing sleep from my eyes, and sit down at my desk. The screen is on, a writing...
Past lush green forests and misty valley At the end of a long winter’s chill The Salesman conducts his grand finale In the town of Diona Hills. Four will be one, and one finds demise By him who is called oblivion. Come closer, and hear of our grand reprise In the place...
