To understand the value of an hour, one must first cherish its passing, and what more profound a way than the slow, inevitable tick of minutes to measure the descent of your demise. To understand why I cherish this hour above all else, I must...
Until recently, I was the head of the psychology department at a small, unassuming university. To protect the privacy of those still working there, I will not tell you which university it is, though I suspect you can find it in the papers. It depends...
“Tell me about the first time you remember being scared.” Duane hesitated. “It’s stupid, you know?” “Nothing’s stupid, Duane,” Dr. Earles gently admonished. Earles was a balding man in his early sixties, with thin glasses and a neatly-trimmed, mostly white beard. He very much looked the part...
I’m here to make a confession. I don’t know if it’ll help, if anything’ll help at this point, but I’m out of ideas and out of time. So here goes. A year ago, I was at a party, a decent-sized shindig, bunch of working folks letting...
I am going to tell you a story. This isn’t a pleasant tale yet it does contain elements of happiness and love. However, it is mostly and most unfortunately permeated with an abundance of terror and hopelessness. I do hope that you are not faint-hearted...
When children wish to go into the corn-fields to pluck ears or gather the blue corn-flowers, they are warned not to do so, for “the big Dog sits in the corn.”— The Golden Bough by James Frazer The detective stood leaning against the wall in the...
I still get flashes before I open my eyes in the morning. The air was cold; it carried with it a moisture that seemed to settle right into your lungs with each breath. At times, a strong gust of wind could feel like ice crystals settling...
It was all I could do not to vomit when my mother-in-law proudly set the roast down in front of us, its meat glistening brown on the kitchen table. “Doug, are you alright?” my wife Maxine whispered, making sure her parents couldn’t hear. She hadn’t...
Karen woke in a sweat, the peripheral of her dream slowly dissipating. Again, that smell. She took a long deep breath and groggily massaged her nose though it did not help; it never did. In fact, the nauseous stench of putrid flesh seemed to linger...
I wasn’t sure what I was more surprised to discover: the ragged hole in my backyard, or the man stuck in it. The hole was a crack about eight feet long and maybe two feet thick at its widest point. It looked as if the...
Kara and Lacey were young and in love. They were also relatively broke, which tended to go along with being young. But their one-year anniversary was coming up, and both of them wanted to do something special to recognize a year of being together. “Let’s start...
It wasn’t like I was snooping. I was just out for an evening walk, and my neighbor Raul had his curtains wide open. There was light, there was movement, and I looked. Anyone would have. I wasn’t sticking my nose where it didn’t belong. Raul was...
My name is Duke. This is the story of what happened between me and Colin. We were business partners for a while; I won’t say exactly what kind of business, but yeah, it wasn’t legal, but we never killed anyone. For a while we made...
My Dearest, I hope this letter finds you doing well. I've found myself stuck in a morose languish. I hope writing to you will release its hold upon me incrementally as I've become unable to muster the energy to step outside this accursed hotel room. I...
If your child is afraid of monsters, keep it that way. I know that sounds cold, maybe even cruel, but the alternative can be far worse. Your son or daughter will go through a phase where every closet has a creature in it, and evil specters...
Dusty Creek was a dried-up old town. It had been small since its inception, and smaller still since the draft had begun. You could run in to everyone you knew within the space of one hot afternoon, and by God, you knew everyone. You knew...
You could be forgiven for thinking the greeting card industry is dying. You’d be wrong. The invention of email promised to kill the postal industry in total, but it was an empty threat. The personal touch of pen and ink is one that just can’t be replaced....
The box was delicate and ornately decorated. As Todd Fowler held the small object, no bigger than a matchbox, he knew it would be very easy to destroy. One wrong move of his palm, a finger gripping its surface too tightly, and the tiny box would...
I stood on the rain-slicked doorstep of a refurbished two-story house just outside of the city. I looked at the take-out order in my hand, then the app on my phone to make sure I was delivering it to the right location. Through casual conversation, other...
The date had been awful. Their friends looked like they had fun, though. A quadruple date on a day as special as Valentine’s wasn’t anybody’s idea of romance at first, but David, being the talented salesperson he was, made quite convincing points on why it would...
