The shivering Cro-Magnon man shifted uncomfortably in the dark. His back across the hard rocky surface was certainly an untenable reality for any decent sleep. He grunted and moaned and awoke with a start. Another nightmare. He wiped the sweat from his forehead. His back...
I made a terrible mistake. You see, it started when I was seven years old, and my father tried to reshingle the roof all by himself. I don’t think he really had any idea what he was doing, but I heard him tell my mother that...
The Chicago suburb of Englewood is no stranger to murder. In 1893, it was home to Dr. H. H. Holmes, who built a hotel with the sole purpose of murdering his employees and patrons. A good hundred or so died in his gas-rigged rooms, their...
My father has always been somewhat eccentric, prone to tall tales of his childhood, keeping collections of old knickknacks and assorted antiquities he’d find at auction, and strict adherence to bizarre house rules. Growing up in his home, the same home he grew up in,...
“Where are we going?” I was seated between my brothers Roger and Greg in the back of my brother-in-law’s black Scirocco. It was three days until Halloween, and our parents had left my sister and her husband in charge as they went to attend a school...
“I’m not going to let you do this,” said Eugene. “You’re the closest thing I have to a brother and I don’t want you to die.” His eleven-year-old knees shook and buckled on the sidewalk of Mountain Road, that cold night in November. The bracing...
“So, you ready?” Will stands proudly at the bedroom door. His backpack is strapped on securely, but he still holds on to the straps, a ready and willing adventurer. His hoodie is zipped up to his neck but he keeps the hood down. He knows better...
After World War II, Russian agents descended upon German specialists habituating in the Soviet Occupation Zone, and forcefully deported them to the USSR to work on their own scientific projects. This maneuver, dubbed Operation Osoaviakhim, included renowned astrophysicist Dr. Dietrich Volkov. He performed cosmonautical operations...
A heavy mist rolled over the lush grass of the cemetery, muting the hues of green land and blue sky with a heavy veil of grey. The already morose atmosphere was exaggerated with the crowd of friends and family members swallowed in black clothes. We...
My Aunt Mel was one of the strongest women I ever knew. She stepped in to raise my little brother Keith and me after we lost our mother to ovarian cancer. Not many other people would have done the same, especially having to step in...
You know those people who you tell the time of events to fifteen minutes earlier than they start because you know they’ll be late? The people who would be late to their own funerals, as the saying goes. Well...
I worked for over twenty years as a police officer for the Lindley County Sheriff’s Office before retiring at the beginning of last year. I’ve often been asked a lot of questions about my time in law enforcement, the main one of course being, ‘What...
Like most teenage boys, I believed that I was a wolf, not a sheep. And, like most teenage boys I was wrong. I was very much a follower. Specifically, a follower of Daniel Lawman. Daniel Lawman was the coolest boy in school. Handsome, charming and effortlessly intelligent....
My neighbor Dr. Gregovich suffered both of life’s greatest calamities. The first was falling in love. This is a rebellious and generally discouraged affliction to which he accidentally exposed himself when he was just five years old. Elaine, age four at the time, had given...
I hate my job. I hate selling days of my life while barely earning enough to sustain it. I hate my boss, who tells me I’m lucky to find stable work in such an uncertain world. I hate my friends who treat dreams like an unfortunate...
I gently lowered the canoe into the calm water. Matt stood behind me, clutching the two oars, anxious to start fishing. Ripples rose to life and expanded out into the vast lake, quiet trumpets that announced our entry into the cool blue realm. The sun crept...
In my youth, I had a wild streak. I was a teenager during the years when heavy metal began to get old. The group I ran with was fine with the classics, but they wanted something a little more extreme. We wanted something wild, raw...
I don’t know exactly how this story started. It was already in motion well before I became aware of it. My involvement in it began with Christian and Philip: Christian, who was always late, and Philip, who was always early. Those two were part of our...
It started out like any other work day. I had houses to sell and people who wanted to buy them. Honestly, I’ve always found being a realtor embarrassingly easy. People seek you out and ask you to sell them incredibly high-ticket items. I’ve done other...
From the diary of Jake Sato: Dated: May 11th, 2019 I’ve always tried to rationally think through how we got here. What happened to lead us down this path? Why did life turn out like this? When I do, my mind always comes back to that summer’s...
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