14 Jan Out With the Old
I know most of you are probably heading off to get a few drinks with friends and pass the night away watching the ball drop from the comforts of your couch, and if so, I applaud you for not having a care in the world...
13 Jan Mausen Hausen
Just looking at the faded poster-board sign made me feel sick. From the looks of their website (which looked like it had been created on a Macintosh), Mausen Hausen was a cheap, German-themed Disney World rip-off amusement park that popped up seasonally repurposing what was an...
12 Jan The Tinsel Murders
People think true crime writing is a glamorous job. And it is when it isn’t swallowing you wholly into its dark heart. There’s an old true crime cliché – “the husband did it!” You know, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the husband did do it....
11 Jan Nightmare Mode
When the wave of virus pandemics in the 2020s and 2030s made travel abroad impossible, I really missed it. It felt like a First World problem, complaining about a lack of holidays. I mean, it’s not like I’d died, got any lingering illnesses, or lost anyone...
10 Jan A Year and a Day in Priorville
I suppose there are people in the world that are worse than Pastor Murdoch Prior. But Prior really was a bastard. Even before everything that happened, he was a bastard. My memories before Priorville are hazy with only bits and pieces sticking out, but granted, that whole...
09 Jan Mara’s Free Cookies
There are two kinds of people in my town- people who loved Mara’s Sweets and Such, and people who thought Mara was the worst person in existence and that anyone that bought her baked goods were the worst. The bakery didn’t exist when I went off...
08 Jan A Bigger Fish
As much as James loved the hunt, the prep work that needed to be done beforehand was always a bit tedious. He had to find a door that was relatively secluded and could be easily secured, not within sight of any security cameras, and preferably...
07 Jan The Magic of Television
My grandpa Chuck is a Baby Boomer, and without a doubt, the most quintessentially Boomer thing my grandpa does is maintain a ‘display room.’ It’s basically a second living room, except instead of IKEA, it’s filled with artisanal, luxury European furnishings, which no one is...
06 Jan They’re Not Saying That It’s Aliens, But It’s Aliens
I’m sure you’ve seen the headlines by now. Seen and probably forgot about, since the news cycle has already left them behind for whatever you’re supposed to be outraged about and terrified of this week. In case you actually did forget, allow me to refresh your...
05 Jan From Madness Born
The rain was already coming down hard when Oliver Mason had gotten the call that his presence was required immediately at Avalon Asylum. He was at first quite bewildered by this since Oliver Mason was not a doctor but the proprietor of a men’s clothing...
04 Jan Circumpolar
With her sledge held under one arm Cassandra battled her way up the slope. Halfway up she paused to rest against the frost-crept trunk of a crooked birch and stood listening to her torn breathing, the soundless hush of the fields below filling up with...
03 Jan The Gooseneck Chronicle
I had never seen this particular island before. As far as I knew it hadn’t even been inked on any map. I hadn’t been gone too long, nor had I ventured too far; the mainland was still visible in the west. Even a half-blind invalid...
02 Jan The Labyrinth of Winter’s End: A Devoured Story
Sister Elizabeth was well versed in the books and history of her faith. She knew that the American interpretation of Hell, the lakes of fire and fields of tortured souls, was more in line with the imaginations of Milton and Dante than with the truth...
31 Dec I’ve Got Your Nose
I could almost smell trouble coming. They knocked and I went to the large front window in the living room to see who it was. I must have looked like the least possible threat ever with my little five-year-old feet in bunny rabbit slippers with whiskers...
30 Dec Just Like Me
“God is in me or else is not at all.” --Wallace Stevens “Not at all,” I said, “I don’t mind doing this. In fact, I like it.” The doctor left the room. Tiny dots. A Sunday afternoon in some nameless place. Making tiny dots. You’d think X marks the spot,...
29 Dec Special Patient Populations
For the fourth building of Florida’s Leesburg Super-Geriatric Regional Medical Center, you have to go through a series of doors that require a badge, computerized vein recognition, and facial recognition from the security guard. An overhanging sign greets you with the words Cogito ergo sum. ...
28 Dec Stairwell
I sat watching the girls walk by. This was my second week in Shanghai, my first time in Asia. The girls looked like they were heading to funerals. Their expressions, their clothing, their entire demeanor screamed death to me. I had come from Montréal where...
27 Dec Teeths
Mystery is manifold. Nothing proved that more than examining Josh Black. He seemed ordinary, but he most definitely was not. With glasses, Three Stooges Moe haircut, neighbor-hand-me-down jeans shorts, tennis shoes with more holes than shoe, and freckles like his face was splattered with blood, Josh...
26 Dec Heaven and Hell
Tatum had grown generous to a fault, giving away most of his fruit and vegetables to his neighbors and friends. He thought it was a way to get more acquainted with all of them. Still, Tatum’s neighbors, up and down the street, remained standoffish, keeping their...
25 Dec Stealing Love
Young Charley Tillman was a mouse in a trap. He thought the trap was a practical joke that he was playing on himself. It felt unreal the way he kept track of time. He’d been reduced to measuring the levels of darkness in spoonfuls as it...