Troy Davis, a stalwart of the mines for over three decades, lived a life shaped by the grit and grind of the subterranean world. However, one ominous morning, the very mines that defined his existence became a perilous trap. A reckless explosion had reverberated through...
Working for the defense industry has always been a trip. I started out in the late 90’s, working out of Yuma, AZ, engineering the next wave of unmanned surveillance drones for the U.S. military. Technology had come so far by this point…nothing seemed off-limits, and...
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...
The Owl Witch On a Wednesday shortly after 3 PM, a taxi pulled up to an old house in Rosevine, Texas, an unincorporated community in northwestern Sabine County in Texas. Thiago Angel Martinez, a stocky fifty-year-old man with a bald head, large mustache, and covered in...
Part I I remember everything about that day at Lake Newell. The way the sun gleamed off the water, the shouts of laughter echoing through the park, and the bright colors of picnic blankets sprawled across the grass. It was supposed to be a perfect day—the...
Go, Light Your Torches A thin cloud of red dust whips outside the airlock window. I press my forearm against the glass and lose myself in the soft hiss of sand moving against the hull. Wind. The thought almost makes me laugh. I always thought it was...
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...
It was the sort of bizarre incident that would forever haunt a small town such as ours. The Catsup Massacre, we called it, though it wasn’t exactly a massacre in the traditional sense. No one could quite agree on how or when it had happened,...
1 Timmy stood close to the shiny champagne-colored box, his hands trembling as they cautiously gripped the smooth rounded edge. His eyes wide-open with shock, his lips clamped tightly, fighting every urge he could muster to keep from squealing out in horror. He knew what he’d...
The winter winds howled through the trees surrounding Whispering Pines, a small, isolated town known more for its exceptional cold than for anything that would draw outsiders. The town was built on the edge of a large, deep body of water that locals called Blackwater...
The night was heavy with silence as Amy pulled into the driveway of her small, single-story ranch home. The glow of the streetlights barely reached the edges of her property, leaving the surrounding trees shrouded in darkness. After another grueling twelve-hour shift at the hospital,...
The sun was setting, casting long shadows through the trees on Harold’s rural property. It was an evening like any other, the kind Harold had grown accustomed to since his wife, Henrietta, passed away twelve years ago. These walks had become a routine, a way...
There’s an irony about life in a small community. When most people think of it, they imagine a quiet life, much more peaceful than the clamour and bustle of the city. In one sense that is true, there is less noise, and people generally don’t...
“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...
In a dilapidated house at the edge of a small, quiet town, where the shadows danced and the wind whispered secrets, was what was supposed to be my wife and I’s paradise. Our once-grand home now stood as a decrepit monument to the relentless march...
“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...
“That one is very special,” said the old man running the antique shop. Emily looked up from her phone to see a large baroque mirror with a gilded frame of carved flowers. The late afternoon sunlight that shone through the storefront glittered over the frame, making...
Too often, throughout history, what we can’t explain we label a religion. Religion is the bait and switch that gets us on our knees. But when it comes to evil, it’s a more subtle religion, one we pray against. On the big screen, Peggy Carter tells...
“We’re gonna make this a tradition,” Jerry said confidently. The others in the back of the van could barely hear him over the music. “Arbor Day getaway.” “We’re not, Jer,” said Sarah. Jerry gave her a wounded look, and she reached over and put a hand...
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