Chapter 1 Jonathan was fascinated by magic. For as long as he could recall, it was something that undoubtedly enthralled him. Perhaps it was that the enigmatic nature that drew him towards it. He remembered witnessing his first act of wonder on the street, when an old man had a […]
She had traveled down this road more times than she was willing to count. Surrounded by forest and wild life, the long, narrow, dusty road offered a safe route from Tara’s home to the grocery store where she worked. Under paid and overworked, Tara had been there for years with […]
It’s almost funny, people understand so little about life until their lives are close to over. Ah, but youth is wasted on the young, right? Well, from my youth on, I have attended patients at Mashapaug Psychiatric Institute, a private manor in a heavily forested area outside Union, Connecticut. There […]
I open my eyes to absolute darkness and to a stale woody smell just inches from my nose. I don’t remember being here, how I got here. I don’t even recall where I was last. My amygdala is setting off internal alarms. I’m not in full-blown panic state yet but […]
So here’s a quaint little story I’m only now recollecting for the first time in my adult life, having faded slowly in the memory since the event actually occurred on one day during my teenage years. I was 11, and it was the summer that existed immediately before my first […]
I never knew you existed before, but now you’re all I can think about. From the moment I saw you, something within me said “That’s it! That’s the one!” I was nervous because I have never been a guide before, but I know I am ready for this moment. The […]
Some background information: This happened way back in 1983, the year after I graduated high school. I’d hitchhiked south to Florida with the goal of becoming a beach bum-ette until I got tired of it. Anyway, I had shacked up with several guys until I ended up with BJ. BJ […]
My name is Sylvester Penn. I am a professional psychotherapist working for the judicial branch of the state of Connecticut which is why I was so surprised to have received a call from a precinct asylum in southern Rhode Island and to hear that I had been summoned by name […]
My friend Caz is the adventurous type. As a child his parents were constantly taking him on epic family vacations that made my summer trip to the zoo pathetic in comparison. Mountain climbing in Sweden, tours of the Grand Cannon, jungle hikes in South America, Caz had done it all, […]
My boyfriend and I decided to go down to the South for a week. Hike the Great Smokies and everything. We rented a cozy cabin, secluded, in the woods, not many people milling around. It was the end of summer, still some tourism going, but not much. We thought it […]
This month’s discussion topic was suggested by multiple people, including Thomas O. and Blake Patrick: We all dream. Whether or not you remember your dreams on a daily basis, most of us have at least occasional episodes as described in the comment above – something about the dream just chills […]
The night is especially silent and the moon is missing the company of its alluring stars. Sitting on the edge of a dusty old mattress, Evelyn Parker holds on tightly to the agate necklace her grandmother gave her less than a year ago. Tonight feels different than most nights and […]
“Grandpa, you’ve never told us how you got that huge scar on your arm!” “Yeah, tell us, tell us!” “Alright, but you kids might want to take a seat for this one. That’s right, nice and comfortable, now… Where to start… Ah yes.” “Well you see, it all started way […]
I lived next door to Old Man Werther for the first seven years of my life, but I only ever saw him twice. No-one in the neighbourhood knew much about him or ever saw him leave his house, which stood dark and silent all year round. His back garden was […]
Sometime in the spring of two-thousand and fourteen my friend Karl “Duke” Raczak passed away. To this day the matter of who exactly caused his death is some slight matter of controversy, however some events before and after his death were some of the most chilling experiences I have ever […]