11 Apr Last Week, My Neighbor’s Apartment was Sealed Shut
Until last week, I paid little attention to apartment 23. I knew that an older Japanese man lived there...
11 Apr The Screams From Below
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...
10 Apr The Widow’s Walkway
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...
10 Apr ItsYourFuneral.org
My name is Harry, and I’m dying. Less than a few weeks ago, I was in my car, sitting on a ledge. Engine revved, looking toward the open lake. I could hear geese calling out and looked toward the clouds to see they were breaking through...
09 Apr Objects in Mirror are Closer Than They Appear
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...
09 Apr The Hoarder House on Sycamore Lane
I could smell the stench of death before I even stepped out of my truck. In its glory days, this place was the jewel of the neighborhood, the American dream personified. A sprawling two-story, three-bedroom house only a few miles from the beach. Looking at it now,...
09 Apr Instructions for Using the Harborview Motel Mirror
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...
08 Apr My Grandmother Lied to Me
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...
07 Apr Bury Me in Smoke
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...
06 Apr House Hunting (Grey Michael 2)
(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...
05 Apr The Scarecrow
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...
04 Apr I Haunted a Cult That Sacrificed Me
I was 17 when I died. Okay, I’m lying. I was 46. But I was 17 at heart. I was living like I was 17. I was still at home with my mother, still living in my room that I had since I was born...
03 Apr Blood on the Ice
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...
02 Apr The Scarecrow’s Mausoleum
Gabriel Larson walked up to Colby Pittman on the playground at recess and kicked him square in the nuts. The heavyset, bug-eyed redhead crumpled to the ground. Then Gabriel kicked him in the stomach with the force of a raging bull. Nobody stopped him. Everyone...
01 Apr The Storm of Tears
First, Grant Bateman found out that he had lost his job. He showed up to work and was told to clear out his desk. When he got home, he found his wife in a flurry of activity that looked a lot like packing her things. She...
31 Mar Broken Marble Cherry Bowl
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...
31 Mar The Most Unfortunate Place on Earth
“Death by electrocution or hanging?” Ethan asks Garret killing time as we wait in line for the newest ride at the amusement park. “Boys…seriously. We are in the happiest place on earth, can’t you find something better to discuss?” I glance over at my husband Zack,...
31 Mar The Joker’s Wilde
If anyone ever asked me to name the best three people I know, Russell Allison would be the first name out of my mouth. We’ve been friends since high school, and in the twenty years since, I’ve never had any reason to doubt his honesty,...
30 Mar Don’t Let It In
“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...
29 Mar Lickety-Split
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...