5 min

The cheery yellow wallpaper seemed more dour lately- less like a quaint dandelion field and more like the pallid hue of a dying man’s cheeks. The lights always flickered and there was this infernal [+]

The wind cut into my flesh, passing freely through the threads of my lousy coat. It was a particularly fierce October night-- but I didn’t mind the cold. It allowed me to think freely into the dark [+]

Nana Maggie was a one-eyed, seven-fingered, one-footed woman who lived both down the street and a hundred miles away. Her gaze was distant (even before dementia) and her voice was hollow, save for the [+]

They don’t believe me.
Of course they don’t. Who would? Not my friends, not my parents, and certainly not the police. I’ve talked to them twice— the police, I mean. Sat there twice in [+]

As a baby, I was left at the doorstep of Godstow Abbey, a nunnery northwest of the center of Oxford. Growing up I cooked, attended Bible study, cleaned the abbey, and spent all of my off time with the [+]

Jason knew that his wife, Ashley, was less than enthusiastic when he inherited the family farm and tavern, but he never thought that she would run off and leave him without saying a word.
Afte [+]

“Gemma, are you nearly ready?”
“Coming, mom. Just give me a second.” The reflection staring back at me in my vanity is a bland young woman with minimal makeup, nicely braided hair, and pearl [+]

Sadie’s skeleton is jumpy in its flesh—itching to shift, twitch, tick. She’s been motionless for hours, hands curled stiffly by her head in a parody of sleep as she stares at the door. This [+]

“You saw it too, didn’t ya Nick,” Erika asked.
“Yeah, I saw it all. The dead body, the engraved pentagram on its back, the horrified students watching. All of it. But I didn’t see you [+]

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic held the world in its icy, evil grip of depression, despair, and of course, death. No country, city, county, community was left untouched.
In a college town not [+]

If you were to ask me in the month of October, “Laura – what are you afraid of?” you might expect a response that connects to the theme of Halloween. Maybe my fear during this fall celebration [+]

I have had that weird dream for the third time that week.
It seemed to have brought me back in time, to when I was 10, playing hide and seek with a bunch of childhood friends in that monstrous [+]