Dr. Allen returned to his office and found Donald Anthony Lowe; male, 24, biochemistry student (all according to the patient profile that Allen’s nubile and exceptionally talented receptionist had insisted the man fill out in the waiting room) looking out of the 14th-floor window of...
Unconsciously, I must have seen it from the start–that run down two-story house, with its paint-peeled porch that lorded over an equally neglected lawn. The rusted, chain-link fence that bowed and dipped in places, tangled in weeds. I mean, had it registered, I would have...
Fifteen years ago, something terrible happened to my family. It’s taken a lot of therapy and drugs to help me cope with it. I still think about those days a lot. I can’t seem to get some of the images out of my mind. They...
Hugh stood at the pulpit, his hands loosely holding each side. Beads of sweat stood out on his wrinkled forehead despite the chill seeping into the old church. Errant drafts of winter wind entered from beneath the eaves and sporadically flowed over his balding head. “What...
I was going to bed. I was tired, just like you’re supposed to be. I lay down, turned the light off, and closed my eyes. And then I waited. Just like I was supposed to. Falling asleep is a little like standing on the shores...
A horrible curse befell my girlfriend and now she can only eat human meat...
I’ve lived in the Everglades all my life, most of it just south of Little Shark River on the west side of Oyster Bay. My place is right on the edge of the water, and my nearest neighbor is over a mile away. That’s how...
I cupped my face in my hands and exhaled slowly, sweat dripping from flushed skin. My hair hung from my scalp like golden seaweed, swaying gently in the sun. I felt sick. The sun filtered in through the blinds like baked color, a slather of...
First her husband went, then all the flowers in the garden followed. I felt bad for her, you know? You try to be friendly in this neighborhood, get to know the people who live only a few feet away from you in any direction. You try...
When you have been a priest for as long as I have, you start to notice patterns in people. When a parishioner approaches, I can already guess what they want to ask me by their body language or the way their eyes flicker to meet...
I walked into that office an’ wiped some dirt an’ sweat off a my head with my arm. The office was as white as a laundry mat with one desk an’ two chairs in front of it. A fat man in glasses with a pencil...
06“They told me you were experienced in harsh waters,” James said, as he pointed out the pearls of sweat that had formed on my forehead. “Yeah, I do,” I replied, moments before hurling the remnants of a less-than-appetizing lunch, off the side of our ship. “It’s just...
How do I even begin to tell you about the...
Part One: The Beginning I’m calling it Black Vein Blues. It makes sense if you think about it. About a month ago it started, slow and quiet. I had just come home from school to find my father prodding at the corpse of a gator that washed...
I died for the first time on the 18th of August, 2006. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant death, nor was it one that I expected. It was simply the random act of violence that destroyed my life...
ENTRY 1 My name is Jason. I live in the suburbs of a small city on the east coast. I’m not sure I want to say where exactly. Something is happening and I think it’s important for me to write this down. I live alone in...
The bones arrived on a Friday, in a pine crate the size of a steamer trunk. “Is that it, Mr. Evans?” Eliot asked, his tone lacking awe. The rest of the earth science class conversed in whispers or stared out the row of bay windows overlooking...
Mortality is a weird thing. It hits you like a bag of bricks once you make it to your late twenties or early thirties. It’s about the time when your family starts getting diagnosed with all kinds of disease, heart attacks, strokes, cancer… For me, facing...
I watched as my son splashed around in the waves, the sun reflecting off the cool green water. Sean laughed as the waves crashed around his ankles and chased him up the shore. The ocean then pulled away, leaving trembling patches of sea foam that...
Once your time on this Earth ends, Death will greet you like an old friend. Whether you embrace it with fear, hatred, or acceptance, is a question that cannot be answered before you stand at its door. I can’t tell you what comes next, nor can...
