In my youth, I had a wild streak. I was a teenager during the years when heavy metal began to get old. The group I ran with was fine with the classics, but they wanted something a little more extreme. We wanted something wild, raw...
I don’t know exactly how this story started. It was already in motion well before I became aware of it. My involvement in it began with Christian and Philip: Christian, who was always late, and Philip, who was always early. Those two were part of our...
It started out like any other work day. I had houses to sell and people who wanted to buy them. Honestly, I’ve always found being a realtor embarrassingly easy. People seek you out and ask you to sell them incredibly high-ticket items. I’ve done other...
From the diary of Jake Sato: Dated: May 11th, 2019 I’ve always tried to rationally think through how we got here. What happened to lead us down this path? Why did life turn out like this? When I do, my mind always comes back to that summer’s...
I try to live my life without too many regrets. I’ve had highs and lows like everyone else, sure, but I do what I can not to worry too much about what could have happened if I’d made a different choice, if I maybe hadn’t...
A curious case emerged in the fall of two thousand four. A man, aged nineteen, was found dead of an exhaustion-induced heart attack. The man, believed to be a casual user of methamphetamine, described his gradual descent into mental instability due to chronic insomnia, suffered...
I’m an EMT in my childhood hometown of Hillhaven, Montana. There’s only one hospital worth the name in the whole county, Hillhaven General, so when I moved back into town after ten years living in Helena, that was the only real choice for a freshly-licensed...
People in my hometown don’t talk about what happened during the summer of 1969. Urban legends, unsolved mysteries and tragedies can be found in the history of any small town in the world and mine is no different, yet those who remember the checkered clown...
Jonah Harvester was the golden-haired, angel-faced picture of innocence that every parent envisions their little boy as. He had a cherub’s wry smile and a natural charisma to him that was impossible to deny. You just couldn't say no to that face, and no one...
You know when I was a kid, I used to love indoor playgrounds. I’m sure I’m not the only one. You go to some unsuspecting building in the middle of some strip mall and inside is no mere store or restaurant. It’s a kingdom that’s only...
I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all the hurt I caused. I’m sorry I lied to you Barbara about who I was. I’m sorry, Jack and Mary. Your dear old dad let you down. I know you thought your daddy was perfect and could do no...
My father only hit me one time. Open palm across my jaw when I was 7. Once in my life. Been 40 years, but I can still feel it. The sound of the slap, the sting and the shock. I’m sitting now right where it happened. At the...
That which is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil. —Friedrich Nietzsche These weren’t like the old days, Jerfastilhak mused. No. In this black age nothing like that peace could be found. They had pain-birds now, killing-birds. Great screaming, swooping demons that raked the...
“Damn it, Jess, you told me this place was abandoned! I’m out,” I cursed as I turned my back to the stately, well-kept house that was very obviously not abandoned, making me lose whatever nerve I thought I had. Jess and I were what you...
Cherise’s high heeled boots clicked more heavily than usual against the marble tile of the Avalon View Luxury Apartments’ lobby, as she was weighted down by several bags of groceries. She wasn’t accustomed to doing her own food shopping, but the service she normally used...
Every neighborhood has one. That creepy, old house that nobody wants to go near. They’re usually surrounded by overgrown trees and bushes. Parts of the siding have fallen to the ground due to neglect from whoever lives there. Dusty, old windows around the house only...
Every day on the bus ride to school through the country, I would see it: the Mommet. That’s what we all called it, but no one seemed to know who had called it that first. The Mommet was an old scarecrow, sitting atop the shallow...
I live in a small coal town on the Ohio river. Our community is pretty well crime free. Since we’re on the river, most disappearances are chalked up to people drowning and getting washed downstream. I want to keep track of my research, and this...
Nash paused for a moment to look up from the unlit, pothole-ridden street to the crumbling shell of an office building towering over him, just to make sure he’d really seen it. And there it was again; a flicker of white and grey light from a...
My daughter Dharma is six. She’s rowdy and fearless. Dauntless, even. Since she’s been old enough to walk, she’s been drawn to the water. There’s one particular spot in the lake that she’s always been drawn to. We live in the woods on the edge...
