I hate interviews. I hate the DMV. I hate that they summoned me. And yet here I am, wasting an entire day sitting alone in an empty lobby, waiting. The Demonic Management of Villainy. I glare up at the counter. I shouldn’t be here. I...
Part I Listen, before I start—if anyone finds this, if anyone reads this, you need to know something. I shouldn’t be talking about this. It’s been ten years since that night, and I’ve kept my mouth shut like I promised, even when I wanted to scream...
Nestled beneath her favorite quilt, embroidered with flowers and hummingbirds, Madeline was stirred awake by something she couldn’t quite yet place. It was 2:37 am, and she should still be asleep, but yet here she was, staring up at the dozens of plastic translucent stars...
It was tough coming of age in West Belfast during the early 70s, that’s for sure. I’m not making excuses for myself, but – like many in my generation – I was caught between a rock and a hard place. I grew up in a...
They say the victors write history, but that’s just the outcome of one possible timeline. Sometimes in war, as in peace, some things are better remembered, lest history repeat itself. Then again, in the far reaches of believability, some things are better left forgotten –...
Look, I’m not saying my closet is haunted. I’m just saying… there’s no logical explanation for what’s been happening. It started the week we moved into the new house. Kelvin and I found this place during one of those spontaneous "we need a bigger place before...
They will not let me go. I don’t know for how long I have been held a prisoner here, nor to what ends my captors hold me for. If I had the strength still, I’d have fought them. Heaven knows I try now, but something...
Part I If you think playing Twister with a ghost is strange, you’re right. But that’s not even the strangest part of what happened. It’s what happened after that really made me question what I’d done. I guess I should start by explaining how I ended up...
Part I James Walker pulled up to the curb of their new duplex, letting out a slow exhale. The move to the town of Ridgewood had taken longer than expected, and the sun was already starting to dip below the horizon. This was supposed to feel...
Part I The soft glow of the bedside lamp bathed Terrance’s room in a warm, comforting light. The familiar scent of fresh laundry clung to the blankets as Abby tucked them around her son, smoothing the edges and making sure he was snug. It was part...
“Of course, I’ve heard of it, but it’s fake! There is no such thing as the Cemetery Run.” Jake kicked a stone down the dirt path running between the school and the small playground at the edge of his neighborhood. It smashed through the dead...
It was a warm September evening in High Point, West Virginia, when Silas first saw the Yellow Carousel. A retired surface miner, he and his wife, Emma, had lived near the top of this ridge for most of their fifty-two years together. The land behind their...
“Do you play video games, Terrance?” The devil asked as he sat perched atop the podium. I held my wife’s dying body in my arms, tears streamed from my face, and her blood covered my bare chest. I looked up with a mixture of hate and...
“It was the biggest night of their lives, the grand finale of their first world tour taking place in Atlanta. The music blared, the crowd went wild, and they stood on the stage as rock gods," he whispered. Artificial flames flickered in the cool night air,...
Shorty Small, a man neither short nor small, sipped coffee as he waited in a diner located several blocks from his house. Abandoning the normal protocol for such meetings, Small requested the conference. Homer LaCroix, the tall lanky Cajun, normally initiated these get-togethers. However, today,...
Seth stares out the small window into the dark night, unable to sleep. Again. Ever since returning home, his sleep patterns are a jumbled mess. Growing up on a farm turned him into a morning person and he went to bed early, never experiencing trouble...
A poorly tied slip knot, which held the body to a sandbag on the floor of the lake, succumbed to the forces of buoyancy and failed. This failure did not happen at first, but gradually as decomposition within the torso produced sufficient gases to cause...
Drew was running. It was a dark night lit only by the occasional street lamp that beamed down on him like a spotlight but left the things behind him hidden away in the blackness. They were giving chase. He could hear the pads of their...
On March the third, 1984, Detective Hjalmarsson of the Houghton Police Department acquired a stack of papers, freshly typed, from a deserted hotel room on the second floor of the Best Western, overlooking the canal. A thirty-two-year-old man, James H. Kowalczyk, had rented the room...
Divine Word of the Holy Trinity Commune – Utah March 17th, 2023 St. Patrick’s Day “And so the Lord said to them…” Pastor John stopped mid-sentence, his eyes on the door to the church, or more so the man that opened it and stood in the doorway looking down...
