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...
< 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...
Alright, so I know if I just jumped right into what I need to say, you’d think I was crazy, and just click off. My phone battery’s mostly full, so I have time to type out an explanation. Time...
The prospect of discovering a shipwreck containing riches beyond our comprehension was what drew us to scuba diving in the first place. Needless to say, we were disappointed pretty quickly. The likelihood of discovering a wrecked ship is infinitesimal, let alone a wrecked ship containing...
I didn't know why everyone was Googling September 23rd, but I do now. I wish I hadn’t found out. My name is Oren Pierce. I write about fringe culture and the ways people convince themselves the sky is falling. That was the plan last week when...
Leave it up to me to try to do something beneficial, and end up ruining my life in the process. All I wanted to do was go to the gym and right as I stepped through the threshold, BOOM! I trip and fall and my...
When a man notices strange, distorted faces peering from his neighbor’s upstairs window, he tells himself it’s a trick of the light—or children playing. But the nightly appearances grow more frequent, more unsettling, and impossible to ignore. As his obsession deepens, and his girlfriend begins...
The fluorescent lights hummed with their own strange cadence, a nervous flicker dancing above the library doors. The building always felt different once the last bell rang, but tonight it felt worse. The classrooms had gone dark, the lockers stretched like empty shells, and the...
Peter, a seasoned fire investigator, uncovers a hidden machine in the ruins of a burned mansion. When messages begin arriving from the deceased homeowner—pleading for help to restore the device—Peter is pulled into a nightmarish struggle between duty and obsession. As the voice grows stronger,...
Two days ago, I was out for a walk around my neighborhood. It was the ideal kind of summer day; bright sun overhead, wispy white clouds streaking across the sky, and a gentle breeze to keep my body from overheating. I even took the time...
Of all the nights for the devil to visit, he chose one that was calm. No great storms, no loud bashes of lightning and thunder. It was a quiet evening, cloudless, the stars blotted out by the lights of the city. I was on the...
When I was six years old, I followed a red bird into the woods. I didn’t think much about it, it just made a funny sound and I wanted to look at it. So I wandered off. My mother had fallen asleep on her sunbed...
I’ve started and deleted this more times than I want to admit. The drafts always stall at the same place, where I have to write my brother’s name and follow it with what became of him. Caleb. Seven years old when this began, with a...
Davey’s parents dismiss his tales of a strange creature in the woods as childish imagination—until one night he comes home late, beaming, with blood on his clothes and a story of victory. When desperate neighbors arrive searching for their missing son, the truth behind Davey’s...
Long obsessed with the mysterious disappearance of the town of Tartarus, one man finally seizes the chance to uncover the truth behind the legend. What he finds is more than lost history—it’s a chilling secret rooted in horror and desperation. Trapped in a twisted reflection...
“Grace, I’m so sorry about all of this. I’m behind you, the community’s behind you, and we’ll do whatever you need us to do and help in any way we possibly can. You and John are not alone. Don’t ever forget that.” Dr. Corcoran’s leathery face...
It is unexplainable, this “love” of the dead. Maybe the whole fascination lies in taking what is not yours, or doing what should never be done. After all, the laws of man are fun to break, and taboos even more so. In my case, however,...
The calendar on her fridge still showed May, though the heat pressing through Marla's windows said otherwise. Her air conditioner had wheezed its final breath sometime in April, and the repairman she had called never showed up. She stopped following up after the second voicemail....
When weary literature professor Simon Keats is invited to teach at a secluded Danish university, he expects a quiet term of lectures and research. Instead, he enters a world where language bends the laws of reality, and meaning itself becomes a dangerous force. As cryptic...
November 18, 1980 Across the town of Junction Falls, Missouri, people tuned into the only Sunday newsmagazine show on TV. After the ticking clock faded, Paul J. McSorley, one of the show's hosts, could be seen sitting on a tall chair. Behind him was a magazine...
