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Taxidermy
By Sarah Scharnweber Jocelyn’s eyes begged for Andrew to stay as she whispered, “Please, just one more night. Just stay tonight and hold me; be with me.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “Please.” Her head swung from side to side and droplets tumbled off of her cheeks. He rolled his eyes. “What the [...]
13Jan2012 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Funeral and the Football Game
By Darren C. Sullivan James J. Fontaine’s funeral brought paid respects from family, friends and acquaintances that passed before the casket revering with tenderness. Long hollow halls, ancient benches, and portraits of priests hung in silence echoing their devotion and years of prayer. The fickle sun teased those attending with bright hues of yellow through [...]
6Apr2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedMother Made Him Do It
By Darren C. Sullivan Mother’s Day was never the token celebration of blessed mothers in our house. It was met with the shrill nuances of my deplorable mother, so it never held the same sense of duty and respect that might be found in other, more normal homes. As a grown man, I never thought [...]
6Apr2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedGlistening Tricks
by Matthew Raup We had met somewhat precariously. Had I not known what she was before I met her, things might have turned out differently. The book I had read in the very back of the library when I was fifteen turned me onto a dimension of reality that most never even have a passing [...]
22Mar2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedLet’s Make A Deal
by Matthew Raup 10:45 A.M. “Looks like rain today,” I said to Sue, the just-beyond-middle-aged woman at customer service. She looked around blankly as I strolled away. I could have turned and reiterated, but I knew she was way too burnt out to care. She was great. But her mind wandered like a ten-year old’s. [...]
21Mar2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedSamuel and the Woodpecker
By Matthew Raup It was an orange-moon night. The ominous orb of mythical cheese hovered above Samuel’s head, urging him on through the forest. The forest glowed with pumpkin light. Samuel was looking for something. But he did not know what that something was. He thought about his life back on the island and wondered [...]
18Mar2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedLacuna
by Dante Rasera Like two rays extending in opposite directions from a common endpoint to infinity, Aiden Jacobs was a man with no past, Jack Austen a man with no future. Their common endpoint was not one of time, however, but of place. The place was Dean’s Blue Hole, the Bahamas; the time, August 2010 [...]
23Feb2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Curtain
By Matthew Raup They brought in the new shower curtain on Monty’s three-thousand-two-hundred-eighty-sixth day alive on this earth. He didn’t like it. And just a day before his birthday too. Thanks mom and dad. The curtain shimmered with an oddness that put Monty on edge. They put the curtain, all wonders and myth, in their [...]
17Feb2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedYour/My Life
By Shawn Reed His eyes opened to a room he didn’t recognize. The cool night sweats covering him evaporated as the fear blazed inside. Where am I? He jumped up in bed. Was he in the hospital again? No! A familiar face eased his fear. It was his wife Kara sleeping next to him. Seeing [...]
9Feb2011 | admin | 4 comments | ContinuedThe Tower
By Franklin W. Reece I was driving home from school and on the way, stopped to pick up Mom from work. She was the glue in our family and always the one who set the standards for us to abide by. She constantly was organizing everything. Who did what and when. Once in the car, [...]
24Jan2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedShoes
by Andrew Reaves The salt wind beat at the walls of the shack. It howled in violent gusts; it slammed the shutters mercilessly; it had already ripped one away and carried it off into the dark and now threatened the other with every screaming breath. Great, white-crested waves broke onto the beach with hardly a [...]
4Jan2011 | admin | 1 comment | ContinuedQ&A
By Brian Rowe Only one standing ovation? The horror director waved to the crowd and took a seat on the sticky stage. The freezing Santa Monica theatre was at full capacity. He crossed his right leg over his left and settled in for another night with fans remembering his 1975 slasher classic, the only film [...]
19Oct2010 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedREDSNOW
By Xavier Raphael An hour pass time the snow began to fall like fallout. Fluttering crystal snowflakes gently kissed the earth as their journey from the sky above ended without sound. The Christmas like trees filled the landscape glazed with snow. The overcast sky gave the atmosphere a whiteout feel, as if someone had taken [...]
5Oct2010 | admin | 1 comment | ContinuedMaggie
By Jeff Powell It was a lazy Saturday morning, the kind that can only be spent in bed. The window curtains were open, granting the sun admittance in the form of golden rays of light that illuminated countless specs of airborne dust, sailing lackadaisically around the room. The only sound was the deep and rhythmic [...]
21Sep2010 | admin | 1 comment | ContinuedMother’s Little Helper
by Tim Pompey Wednesday 1:01 P.M. Chad Rolf folded his hands in his lap. “I killed my mother, you know.” Rolf had called the Ventura Police Department saying he had information on a murder. Detective Dan Manning picked up the assignment and agreed to meet him at his house in the posh Ventura neighborhood just [...]
26Aug2010 | Editor | 0 comments | ContinuedI Missed You
By P.D. Stephens There was no big fuss, no hoopla, no screaming or yelling, or running around in a panic. When someone goes out, they just go. Tad Parker knew this as he walked out of Massachusetts General Hospital. The beep from the heart monitor had shot out every few seconds. Michael’s breathing was…shallow. It [...]
27Jul2010 | Editor | 0 comments | ContinuedKnee Deep
By Ryan G. Sanders Jessie edged his feet into the thick sludge and sighed, he had not expected his life to take such a turn when he was a younger man. The bubbling, festering pool of Hubert Armstrong was a particularly loud nail in the resounding coffin monotony of his existence as an industrial cleaner. [...]
30Jun2010 | Editor | 0 comments | ContinuedA Dream of Red Hands
By Bram Stoker The first opinion given to me regarding Jacob Settle was a simple descriptive statement. “He’s a down-in-the-mouth chap”: but I found that it embodied the thoughts and ideas of all his fellow- workmen. There was in the phrase a certain easy tolerance, an absence of positive feeling of any kind, rather than [...]
8Apr2010 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedDracula’s Guest
By Bram Stoker When we started for our drive the sun was shining brightly on Munich, and the air was full of the joyousness of early summer. Just as we were about to depart, Herr Delbruck (the maitre d’hotel of the Quatre Saisons, where I was staying) came down bareheaded to the carriage and, after [...]
6Apr2010 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Snow
By Walt Trizna See the delicate snowflakes fall, Falling, falling, falling. Whitening the earth, awaiting below, Falling, falling, falling. See the mounds of glittering white, Building, building, building. As they hide the ground from sight, Building, building, building. See the ceaseless falling snow, Falling, falling, falling. Will it stop, no one quite knows, Falling, falling, [...]
1Apr2010 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Burial of the Rats
By Bram Stoker Leaving Paris by the Orleans road, cross the Enceinte, and, turning to the right, you find yourself in a somewhat wild and not at all savoury district. Right and left, before and behind, on every side rise great heaps of dust and waste accumulated by the process of time. Paris has its [...]
28Mar2010 | Editor | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Invisible Giant
By Bram Stoker Time goes on in the Country Under the Sunset much as it does here. Many years passed away; and they wrought much change. And now we find a time when the people that lived in good King Mago’s time would hardly have known their beautiful Land if they had seen it again. [...]
28Mar2010 | Editor | 0 comments | ContinuedGrayer
By Jamie VanGeest I am an imprint from a mold or wisdom’s afterthought. All of my features are shades of brown with my light russet hair, my eyes the shade of dirt baking in the sun, and a diluted sludge and milk complexion. If my exterior is brown, my life is gray. Dense shades of [...]
16Mar2010 | Editor | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Journal of Malcolm Coles
By Chris Tepedino Investigator’s note: Entries are from 5 March 2009 through 11 April 2009. The victim’s name has been changed for the family’s privacy. Does anyone need a reason to kill? I’m a young man, twenty-six, a graduate student, and the question intrigues me. It’s the question that has led to this new predicament. [...]
8Mar2010 | Editor | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Gift of Death
By Walt Trizna Will’s bedroom was cast in shadows by the moonlight filtering through the window. Lying next to him was the naked body of a young woman. With her lips slightly parted, she appeared as if she were in a gentle sleep. He face, framed by short blond hair, was at peace. Her body [...]
7Mar2010 | Editor | 0 comments | ContinuedBeyond Repair
By Jason Sawyer More than anything, he notices the cold. How fitting, he thinks. It shouldn’t be a bright, sunny day. How very fitting. The reverend drones on beneath the crowded tent, his smooth, practiced words offering no comfort. The wind howls through the mass of people causing them to shudder and clench their coats [...]
2Mar2010 | Editor | 1 comment | ContinuedOut of Work
By P.D. Stephens “You are not understanding me,” he shouted. The girl behind the counter looked at him like he was the asshole. “I understand you perfectly. What would you like me to do?” “Get your manager is what I’d like you to do.” The girl behind the counter disappeared into a door next to [...]
19Feb2010 | Editor | 1 comment | ContinuedUnwelcomed Guests
By Walt Trizna Will Trizma was a writer of ghost stories and mined the local countryside for legends and their settings. The area abounded in both. His wife, Joan, acted as his editor and sounding board for his ideas. At times, the only comment she would make is, “You’re sick.” Not only did he write [...]
8Feb2010 | Editor | 0 comments | Continued76 Hammer On-Ramp
By P.D. Stephens This morning I wanted a story. I started the morning out how I start all mornings out: by watching the cars. You see, I live on an on-ramp to the highway. My apartment is on the second floor overlooking the great view of the cars speeding by. On most mornings I will [...]
24Jan2010 | Editor | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Horror at Lake Harmony
By Walt Trizna It was a quiet, lovely June night. The light of a crescent moon walked across the tranquil surface of the lake as waves lapped its shore. The air was filled with the smoke of campfires reaching skyward, as the smoke of many ancient fires did so many years ago. I sat quietly [...]
21Jan2010 | Editor | 0 comments | ContinuedIntelligent Design?
By Robert Reese Last night I did something that I swore I’d never do: I picked up a hitchhiker on my way home from work. And, right off, I knew that I had made a mistake. I think it was the way that he climbed into my car out of the hot, foggy night that [...]
15Jan2010 | Editor | 0 comments | ContinuedMartian Night
By R.H. Reese “It always begins with the cold. That terrible cold, it’s like I’ve been transported to Antarctica. When I feel that, I know it’s going to happen again. I know I’m awake, but I can’t move, and it’s so dark that I can’t see anything except tiny flashes of light. “Then I sense [...]
13Jan2010 | Editor | 0 comments | ContinuedBalance
By Walt Trizna Nijo London pounded on the door of her small cell – her world now for over a year – until her fists bled. “Let me out!” she screamed although she knew her plea would go unanswered. She stepped back and studied the door covered with dark brown outlines of her fists from [...]
11Jan2010 | Editor | 0 comments | Continued