There was no coming back from this point. That was Micheal’s only thought, as he ventured deeper into the jungle. Humidity was something he was more than used to coming from Australia. But the insects, oversized trees, and bushes were something else entirely. The thick...
Roars and growls echo in the night sky from atop the peak. In its center, the two lycans lock each other in an unmerciful glare. They are both covered head to foot in lacerations. Both are exhausted, yet neither is willing to stop. One of...
“Dark spaces and long empty traces of the world I have known Hope is fleeting, and history is repeating, hearts have turned to stone Voices calling the dogs are mauling, and no one answers back Echoes are silence, tomorrow will be violent There is nothing we can do about...
In simple terms, I cannot write the story as it happened. I must dumb it down for those critics who refuse to delve into a simple dictionary. Let us move on in the simplicity of common language that we all might understand. The bar was noisy,...
I want to wake up. I truly do, but I cannot. No matter how hard I try, regardless of my manifold tactics, I am sound asleep with the awareness of a man electrified. I have no memory of ever being awake, yet I see and...
1 A loud thud exploded in front of me. The precise spot which seconds earlier would have landed my body had it not been for the fate from the faint whine in the sky forcing me to halt in my tracks and look up. I would...
Mary Wyles My name is Richard William Kinnley. I’m seventeen years old. Other than that, I ain’t got nothin’ to say til my daddy and lawyer get here. ***** I gaze down the old farm road which stretches for miles in front of me. The hood ornament on...
“Brother Vance, tell us the latest prophecy! Surely you have seen more by now?” The man before me was a wiry, tall creature with hair that seemed to be trying to run from the center of his head as though it might escape some impending...
Warrior Biting my cheek, I glance up at the clock on the wall. The minute hand crawls out from behind one of the bars protecting its face. Quarter till three. The lead ball that’s been sitting in my chest since Mariana dropped me off falls to...
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...
1 She stared at the detail of the concrete work. Reaching out, her fingers lightly touched the surface and found it to be very smooth. Every imperfection of the model’s body was detailed as if the sculptor knew her intimately. From the dimple in her chin...
1 My mom told me about Dad’s quirky habit of sleeping under the bed when he was young. My dad was a tough cookie, so hearing such a thing about him made it hard to believe. I guess his father had been in the Navy. Mom...
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...
Charles Walker Woods was a gentleman of means. In a city rapidly being subsumed by the dim fog of industry, he felt it was not just his right to stand out as a breath of fresh air—it was his duty. Were it not for people...
Drew parked in the grass to make sure he was leaving plenty of room for the rest of his family. There were far too many of them as far as he was concerned and they would all be here. They never missed a Christmas or...
It is the smell that Dachery notices first. A sour odor, not quite spoiled but somewhat acidic, wafts through the air. It joins the thick artificial popcorn butter and the sucrose of cotton candy to make a nauseating maelstrom of humidity that permeates through the...
Bertram couldn’t be sure how long Emeline had been dead. She'd been in the bathroom, taking one of her late afternoon soaks. He hadn't heard a peep out of her since she'd turned off the faucets over an hour ago. He didn’t think much about...
“Look darling, isn’t the snow beautiful tonight?” She said nothing, simply remaining stiff in the aged wooden chair. He smiled and continued to sip from his mug of hot chocolate. He found her cold, silent demeanor adorable, one of a number of things he had come...
Let me tell you a true story that I made up. You heard it right. I might not have witnessed it unfurl, I might not have heard it secondhand, thirdhand, or twenty-seventhhand. No one can even prove it happened just the way it did. But I...
Something is wrong with Sleigh Town—Roni knew that much about it. During the pre-covid era of twenty-eighteen, I was hired as a night security guard for a park in our town, right on the cusp of December. Since its grand-opening in the seventies, the acres were established...
