21 Sep Randonauting is Not a Game
I shouldn’t have gone. I didn’t want to go. Why did I go? Melanie… it’s all her fault. It was all her that we went. She told us about this app a while ago in Discord. Said it helped her see parts of our town we’d...
20 Sep The Cookie Jar
I recently inherited my grandmother’s house, or, technically speaking, my father did. He signed it over to me without much of a fuss. I guessed he’d never really been interested in the farm, but recently he’s started telling me about things that happened when he...
19 Sep Haunting Ain’t Easy
Haunting ain’t easy. Not one bit. Them Hollywood studios make it look so easy, when in reality it’s a chore. You see, I’m a ghost myself. My name is Ernie Harris, and I’ve been a ghost for 115 years now. When I was alive, I...
18 Sep The YouTuber
Being a successful YouTuber comes with a lot of advantages. You’re invited to gaming assemblies, conventions, and you attract the interest of prominent sponsors and the privilege to be treated like a king. I even met some of the most well-established names in the industry, some...
17 Sep I Moved into a Haunted House
So, I came into some money. You see, my aunt Martha passed way after a long battle with cancer. I was her favorite nephew, so she left me a little extra in her will. At that time, I was living with my girlfriend Tara, in...
16 Sep Let Us In
“If the children come knocking at your door and ask to enter, you must never invite them in or they'll devour your soul.” “Is that what she screams about?” I ask. “Shh, you’ll unnerve her.” Nurse Monro, the nurse who’s training me on how to handle difficult...
14 Sep We Don’t Talk About Sarah
I always wanted a little sister. I would beg my parents, “Please? Pleeeeaasssee?” and they’d roll their eyes and tell me that it wasn’t as simple as I thought. That didn’t stop me from talking about it every chance I got, though. When they brought Sarah...
13 Sep Counting Sheep
“If you’re counting sheep to help you sleep, don’t look them in the eye, For some will give you dreams to keep, and some will make you die.” The idea of counting sheep stretches back to a simpler time in our history. A time before all those...
12 Sep The Man in the Attic
When I was 14 years old, I did what many my age do to earn a bit more cash, I babysat for friends of my parents. It was in November when my father introduced me to a new coworker of his, Mr. D. The D’s...
11 Sep Mosquitos
July 29th, 1991: 2 pm One of the young men spoke, breaking the quiet thrum of nature around the group. “The marathon winds right through these woods, Jordie.” Leeroy gestured with a sweep of his hand to indicate the dense wilderness around himself. “And you’ve got...
10 Sep The Body on Main Street
This happened on Halloween when I was in high school. I say that so you can understand why some of the people acted the way they did. You know how Halloween gets. All sorts of pranks are pulled, people cover themselves with fake blood, etc....
09 Sep The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
My name is Frank Zauf, and I think my tarot deck is threatening me. It’s important to me that someone understands. I’ll make this all as quick as I can. Please let me explain. I bought the deck as a child. It was at a flea...
08 Sep The Other Cheek
I’d just begun getting intimate with my wife, and we had gotten a good rhythm going when she suddenly froze. “Shh, Trevor, wait...
07 Sep The Dowsing Girl
That damn Sarah Hatley is dangerous. She’s been “dowsing” for dead animals ever since the last of the winter snow melted. The Hatley girl is always carrying that same crooked bit of a willow branch. Sarah holds it out in front of herself with her...
06 Sep Subtle Reminders
“Damn, Pete!” my newest employee Marlon exclaims as he nods his head across the bar. “That woman’s eyes are all over you. It’s that time again, huh?” I try to hide my devilish smirk as I give a nod of my own in agreement. I slide...
05 Sep Two Men Wait for Sunrise
Kel and Sidney sat in near-perfect silence, taking turns to draw from a handle of vodka that they shared between them. The bottle of liquor was one of the most expensive ones left at the corner shop. It hadn’t mattered that it was expensive, because...
04 Sep Pick Your Poison
“Feeling down? Have a sinister sweet tooth? I have just the solution, Cordella’s Confections! Over on the corner of Brigantine and Salado Open every Monday through Friday, eleven to four.” A woman’s smile froze on screen. Cordella Joilee appeared perfect to the average eye. A gorgeous woman, about twenty-eight...
03 Sep Illustrations
For the rest of my life, I’ll remember Tali. I didn’t know her personally, but her art permanently changed my town. Our community never recovered and it probably never can. I distinctly remember so many of her illustrations. There was always such surreal and vivid...
02 Sep Iceolation
Debbie Sanderson was a dream come true at five-foot-nine with a quick wit, perfect smile and the deepest brown eyes I’d ever seen. We’d met on a discord server about two months back and really hit it off. Our conversations evolved from messaging to phone...
01 Sep I Inherited My Father’s Snuffbox
I’m used to mysteries in my life. I never met my mother, for example. My dad used to talk about her all the time, but she always felt like a pretend character, or like maybe she was just an imaginary best friend of his. Dad...