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...
My last name is Forcz, and people often ask about my nationality. I tell them I'm Romanian-Hungarian. Several years ago I became very interested in the history of my family, a phase a lot of people go through. I actually hired a genealogist to help...
It was just another hot day in The Cove. The Watcher was so still, if not for the sweat dripping down his brow, he could have been mistaken for a mannequin. Locals never paid any mind to individuals such as him, though. Outsiders are plenty around...
Ralph trudged through the woods, his boots heavy with sticky mud and pine needles, his shotgun slung over his shoulder. The deep purple of twilight was fast approaching. The leafy canopy above his head was a muddle of rusty orange and deep brown, with a few...
New Orleans is a city alive with death. Things have a way of coming back from beyond. There’s something about the city that gives everything an extra spark. That sort of force can interact with the world in strange ways. One of those ways was the...
Until last week, I paid little attention to apartment 23. I knew that an older Japanese man lived there...
My brother Marcus was already dead before I came to Odessa. He was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer just six months ago, making him a walking corpse. When he got the news, it changed him. He started to do crazier and crazier things, just to get...
Urban legends are the bread and butter of the American culture. No matter where you go in this beautiful country, you will find whispers of these dark tales that often circulate around a campfire, and perhaps none as prevalent as the stories concerning crybaby bridges. A...
Have you ever driven down a road and glanced back at the rearview mirror and thought to yourself, “That car wasn’t there before?” It’s a common enough phenomenon; there are so many merging lanes and exits and ramps on most highways that it’s easy to not...
So before we get started, let me get a few questions out of the way: - It probably goes without saying, but I won’t be providing the actual address of where the Harborview Motel is located in Texas, so don’t ask. - Like most urban legends of...
I sat at the ornately filled table with an involuntary smirk on my face as I absentmindedly fiddled with the discarded paper wrapper that had once contained my plastic straw, wasteful I know. My mind drifted to each member of the table, all family members...
The old man’s eyes were cobalt. Deep blue as the North Atlantic and just as stormy. Effortless would it be to imagine an old and proud 44 gunship skudding under topsails with the wind, Wandering Albatrosses gliding with ease above the ship’s wake, the great...
(This story is part of the Grey Michael series. For the first part in the series, entitled Grey Michael, click the preceding story's title) Let me set the scene for you. The room is dark, enclosed, underground. The floor is smooth stone, chalked with a dizzying array...
The scarecrow stands around twelve feet tall. A lone, misshapen sentinel in the midst of a dark field, beneath the blood of a clotted red sky. His shadow is long across the crops. Comprised not of two simple poles and a sack of straw, this monstrosity is...
When people told someone like Chad Hoftrand to get a life, they didn’t realize that meant a death sentence for someone, somewhere. He was in the market for a new life sooner than expected. He could usually hold onto one for at least a few years. But...
Grande Nonno died making a living, like Papa. He was born with his blue denim sleeves rolled up. He and Grande Nonna are buried just a few miles south of the Apuan Mountains on the Alps’ Italian side. They’ve been rotting away in a small village...
“Please let me in. I’m so cold.” Growing up, my best friend was Matthew Ramsey. He was a year older than me but still in my grade—not because he was stupid, but his father had died when he was in the fourth grade, and for a...
It started out as a perfectly normal camping trip. It was me, Rosie and Jonas, just like usual. The three of us have been friends since high school, and although there are often other people in our orbits, it’s always the three of us together...
