20 Oct Room-Sitting
I was referred by a temp agency. I had no idea who I would be working for, or what the job would entail. I only knew that the pay was good. A week-long excursion at $725 a night. More than enough to pay off a...
19 Oct My Father’s Secret Room
It had been wracking my brain for months. What exactly did he keep in there? Why was he being so secretive? Even when I was younger, my father was more than happy to share his work with me at the dinner table. I listened intently, fascinated...
18 Oct The Haunted Piano
I am a musician. Not a terribly great one, but still, I consider myself a musician. I can play with the best of them, and I know my way around an instrument or two. More importantly, I am a collector. A collector of various items...
17 Oct The Traveler
“Your hair smells nice.” That was the first thing he said to me. “Said” is too weak a word, even. Whispered. Oozed. He oozed those words into my ear, an invasion as unwelcome as if he had stuck his actual tongue inside. My back was to him,...
16 Oct Neon Signs
“Neon signs are bug zappers for barflies, used to lure in the weak-minded and kill them on the drink.” This was the lecture my mother gave often throughout my childhood. Her distrust of bars and drinking was understandable, she’d lost a husband to them. Eventually, she’d lose...
15 Oct If the Stars Look Strange, Be Wary
I was on my way to Canada to see family when the pursuit began. Thirteen-hour drives are no joke. I’ve done eight hour drives more than a few times, so I thought I’d be fine, but the mind starts to fray at six—and I hit that...
14 Oct Found Journal: Pyramids of Giza
--Case #40157J –Paranormal Research Division-- Confiscated from Cairo police department on 3/8/2020 Journal entries from Canadian-American researcher Steven K. Simms Journal discovered in descending passageway near entrance to Pyramid of Khufu, Egypt Case status: OPEN -Dr. Simms research log entry 3/7/2020 3:28 PM I’ve arrived at Cairo International Airport and will...
13 Oct Try It, Stay If You Like
Something is changing the people in my apartment building. I don’t know how better to describe the present phenomena rather than to explain, as simply as I can, that they come back different. When they speak, their eyes never move, never leave for a second, piercing, dwelling shadow orbs...
12 Oct The In-Dream Hotline
The pregnancy had not been unplanned. In fact, we had planned our entire lives around the pregnancy… patiently acquiring degrees and job titles until we were financially secure enough to start trying. Then, the careful charting of Anna’s cycles, and the dutiful love-making, even if we...
11 Oct Cycling
The world came back into focus. She stood motionless at the edge of the bed, watching me from beneath the decaying black shroud that covered her head. Two white, reflective orbs passed over me. I could feel the pressure of her dread gaze as it seemed...
10 Oct The Heirloom
Everyone that served in the sandbox has a story about the war following them home. Some it’s about the things they saw, some about the things that happened to them, or the people — the brothers and sisters they served with. Some, if they’re honest...
08 Oct The Witch
8Why would you tell a five-year-old kid such a fucked up tale? Ever since the memory of my fifth birthday came back to me, this is the question I’ve kept asking myself. But I don’t have the answer. I suppose I shouldn’t be that surprised. Given the...
07 Oct I Work at a Haunted Hotel
“Why do you want this job?” I straightened my tie while staring into the eyes of this person who would determine my employment fate. His eyes looked weary and he looked tired. He sipped from his coffee mug. “Well, sir, I feel I could do well at...
06 Oct With Us Now
There are few attractions that I would consider to be more inherently creepy than the Haunted Mansion. It’s a ride inside of the “Happiest Place on Earth” that is literally built around the theme of death and people have really grown to really love the...
05 Oct When Little Sally Falls Asleep
There’s an orphanage situated in northern Pennsylvania, in a small town so isolated from the rest of the world that it might as well not exist. Why in God’s name anyone decided to put “Dawson’s Home for Special Children” here, I’ll never know. But, without...
04 Oct October 14th
Monday, September 9 I can’t go back to the shop anymore. I had thought it was safe, but I was wrong. It caught me by surprise. It was… it was too much. I probably shouldn’t have blown up the way that I did. That was stupid. ...
03 Oct No Death in the Dollhouse
Deep in the woods, there’s a beautiful mansion. In this mansion, would seem to be a happy home. In the back garden and in the front yard: children play, laugh, and have fun. There is no mother and father, so to speak, just as almost...
02 Oct Unfamiliar Roads
You know how you’ll sometimes be driving, and it suddenly clicks that you spaced out for most of the trip and don’t recall a chunk of time on the road? That was what happened this morning as I pulled off the freeway and realized that...
01 Oct I’ve Been Banned From Calling 911
I’m really at the end of my rope here. No, check that. I was at the end of my rope weeks ago. Now I’m sort of clinging to the side of the cliff by one bloody fingernail. I didn’t even know that you could get banned from calling...
30 Sep Party Poopers
The first time I saw it, I was exiting the final train that evening. The station was practically abandoned at that point and uncomfortably quiet. I try to avoid getting home so late, but I wanted to take Monday off so that I could go...