MOTHER’S ANGEL

(32 min read)

#ghoststory #historicalfiction #pioneers #19thcentury #comingofage

HOWARD REED’S BRAIN

(41 min read)

#sci-fi #speculative #horror #factoryfarming

GUEST AUTHORS

IT WAS NEVER MY NIGHTMARE

(3 min read)

#paranormal #spookystory #scarystory #flashfiction

By Lee Ferguson

It’s dark, and quiet. The tips of trees cannot be distinguished from the darkness of the sky, and I can’t see my feet as I place them on the cold, hard ground. The crunching of leaves and twigs as I walk is jarring, and I fear something might be watching from the cold abyss of the forest. In a haze, I finally see a light. It’s a cottage, casting a warm orange glow into the emptiness.

I make my way, hoping for shelter from the shivering cold. I stumble to reach the door and I knock. No answer, so I let myself in. And oh, how warm it is inside! I feel as though I’ve walked in the air of July. There’s a soft orange glow coming from a fire in the main room.

“Hello?” I call out. “I’m sorry to walk in unannounced, but I really need a place to stay for the night.”

There is no response, and while I’m supposed to be feeling warm, a chill consumes my body. Why would someone leave their toasty cottage in the middle of the night, with the fire still roaring? Read More…

SHORT Short Stories

THE SHORTCUT

(1 min read)

#paranormal #spookystory #scarystory #flashfiction

It was late in November and I was taking a shortcut through the woods at dusk, when the trees were bare and skeletal and no snow yet on the ground. I’d taken this path to my house many times before in the daylight. But today I was late, the sun already set, gray quickly fading to black. When I reached the loneliest stretch of the woods, where the dirt trail narrows to single file beneath tree limbs that intertwine above like a cobweb, I could no longer see by moonlight.

I switched on my phone’s flashlight. Only the closest tree trunks were visible now, wherever the flashlight beam reached, and the gaps in-between were suffocatingly dark. Before I’d been hurrying, speed-walking, but now I had to slow down to avoid tripping over roots as the path zig-zagged. With a sudden jolt of fear, I became aware of crunching and scuffing from behind, like approaching footsteps.

My heart leaped to my throat and I tried to run, putting some distance between myself and the sound. I paused to look over my shoulder, flinging my flashlight beam behind me. Just an empty black path, walled in by trees. I listened, hearing only my pounding heartbeat, then the crunching started up again. Whatever it was was about to round the bend and come into view. I wanted to flee but couldn’t look away, transfixed. A fox appeared: eyes glowing white as it reflected back the light from my camera.

Relief coursed through my body and I hunched over, hands to my knees, laughing at myself. But when I looked at the fox again, my blood ran cold. Read more…

AN OPEN CASKET

(10 min read)

#existential #death #philsophy

My red-brick elementary school sat nestled against a forest on the edge of town, with a road in front and a soccer field on either side. Though we had swing sets and jungle gyms, many of the kids preferred playing in the woods and we were allowed to do so as long as we kept the schoolyard in sight. But last Thursday night an accident took place on school property when no adults were around, and one of the students had gotten killed. Read More…

Y2K 

(7 min read)

#rapture #apocalypse #antichrist

It wasn’t the first time I’d heard about him (I took it for granted that the Antichrist was male) and thus pictured him as I always did: A tall sinister figure wearing a black cape or robe, facial features blurry (though his eyes were glaring) and distinctly human. Basically a mash-up of all the Disney villains I’d absorbed over the years. And because they always referred to him as “the rise of,” I tended to picture him a little hunched down and then rising up to full height. I knew it meant something about gaining power over the world but I didn’t know much about government systems yet and still tended to imagine ruling powers as being kings and queens and knights. As for the Beast, well he was to rise out of “the sea” specifically, so naturally that’s exactly what I pictured. A monstrous gorilla-like thing slowly coming up out of the ocean as if standing on a platform, beads of water rolling down his coarse fur, head tilted back and ready to roar. I knew this wasn’t correct though as the Beast was supposed to have several heads (a lion, an eagle, a man), hair like a woman, the tail of a scorpion, and the arms and claws of a bear. Or was it the Antichrist who looked like that? Read more…