My hometown of Mildensboro is shrinking. Cherie, my wife, was the first to call it. One night, on our back porch over a beer, she pointed toward the old water tower out past the treeline and remarked that it sure seemed closer than she remembered....
When art teacher Seth Kline moves into an old farmhouse with his five-year-old daughter, Lila, he hopes the light-filled windows will help them heal after his wife’s death. But as Lila begins to draw impossible patterns—colors that shouldn’t exist, shapes that shift when unseen—Seth realizes...
There’s a lotta darkness in this world. That’s a lowercase ‘d’ dark, mind ya. There’s also the capital ‘D’ kind, but that’s another kinda thing all together. Now, some people’ll tell ya that it’s the big Darkness that ya gotta watch out for, and in...
I don’t post here often, and when I do, it’s usually dumb stuff—neighbor drama, weird noises in the old building, that kind of thing. This one isn’t that. I’ve been sitting on it for a few days, trying to talk myself out of even typing...
In a world reduced to rubble, where the living cling to routine just to survive, Joseph Emerick finds that his greatest enemy isn’t the wasteland around him—but the darkness inside his own mind. Haunted by a voice that whispers from the shadows, Joseph struggles to...
“Farewell, happy fields, where Joy forever dwells! Hail, horrors, hail!” — John Milton, Paradise Lost Standing under the glow of a flickering streetlight, John Avery’s hands shook as he tried and failed to light the cigarette they held. With a mumbled curse, the stubborn smoke finally caught,...
The…the dark. God, so dark. Can’t feel, can’t think, can’t… I’m floating in the black. No, not floating. There’s something under my feet. My God, there’s nothing here but me. Am I dying? Am I…dead? Can I move? I lift my hands in front of me. Don’t want to...
A quiet lakeside retreat was supposed to be the perfect cure for burnout. When overworked insurance broker Kyle rents a secluded cabin at Clearwater Lake, he plans to spend the week recovering and finally finishing his novel. But when he discovers a strange artifact buried...
When a recently divorced man moves into a quiet new town, all he wants is peace, anonymity, and maybe a fresh start. But a mysterious invitation to a Halloween party at an abandoned warehouse promises the chance to meet people—and maybe forget his troubles for...
When insurance assessor Logan Pritchard takes a detour into a small Wisconsin park, he expects nothing more than a quiet evening walk before heading back to his motel. But when a ranger warns him to stay off Wolf Path after dark, curiosity wins over caution—and...
Kai Arkwright thinks he’s immune to fear. But when he and his friend Morgan sneak into the Oregon woods at midnight and discover a dead oak hung with bones, their night of mischief turns into a nightmare. Something ancient waits beneath that tree, and it...
When freelance designer Marshall Blake rents an old farmhouse outside Kubrick Creek, he expects peace, quiet, and time to rebuild his life. What he gets instead are sleepless nights, phantom words written in a stranger’s hand, and the growing sense that something buried beneath his...
Part I The sky over the Pacific was clear that night—clear enough that the control tower at Haneda could see the last blinking lights of Flight 717 as it climbed to cruising altitude. A Boeing 747, call sign N734PA, bound for Los Angeles. 324 passengers, 17...
It was eleven a.m. when Carl finally rolled off the couch and onto the floor, abruptly waking him. "Dang it Trevor. Try that again." he shouted as he jumped up with his fists up and ready for a fight. He and his brother, Trevor had been...
Ma was a simple woman and I don’t think she would’ve minded the plain wooden cross we put up on her grave a year ago. It was just a two-by-four that we had laying around that we split and nailed back together to make the...
< We should stand together in solidarity, in this brave, new world. > The small cassette player cracked, but the voice speaking sounded polished and highly educated. It was a stark contrast to the surroundings where it momentarily resided. Winds swirled through a landscape of dust and...
“Hot Damn!” John said looking out of my second floor window, eyeing my next door neighbor. My mother and I had recently moved here about six months ago. John and I were in the same high school Senior class and quickly became best friends. We...
I shouldn't be posting this here. I shouldn't be saying anything about this case, or any of my cases. But I've been told the people in this area of the internet understand things...
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...
