Horror and Wholesome
I’ve been told I have something of a bleeding heart. I never saw it as an issue, though. People got the help they needed, I felt good about it, it was a win win. Before Maxine, though, it had always been little stuff: just a few bucks to one friend here, fostering another friend’s dog... Continue Reading →
Abigail Winters had died 75 years before we met. She was seven, like me, and she liked dolls and needlepoint and wearing pretty ribbons in her hair. I didn’t like any of those things, but I liked Abigail all the same. My family had lived in the large Victorian house at 23 Grofford’s Field Lane... Continue Reading →
Mrs. Dawson wasn't doing well. As soon as September had arrived and the weather had started to turn, so, too, had her health. While it wasn't unusual to see that sort of thing working in an assisted living facility, I just hadn't expected it to happen to Mrs. Dawson, especially not so quickly. She was... Continue Reading →
If I don’t see them, they won’t see me. If I don’t see them, they won’t see me. If I don’t see them… It was my childhood mantra. I’d repeat it to myself whenever I was alone and afraid. It helped keep the monsters at bay. No one else seemed to know they were there.... Continue Reading →
I messed up bad It was the first thing I'd heard from my younger brother in over a week. When the screen lit up with his text notification, though, I just rolled my eyes and pushed my phone further away. He was prone to sending me that kind of message as a lead up to... Continue Reading →
Whenever I see a shoe lying off to the side of the road, I think of my grandpa. He was terrified of them. During the school year when I was a kid and my parents were working, Grandpa would be the one to drive me in. We lived a few miles outside of town in... Continue Reading →
Some people, I thought, are just meant to be filler. Background characters only created to decorate the world for the main players. We work, we have a few hobbies, a handful of friends, we exist, but we don't matter. It was true for me, anyway. Every day, I'd wake up at 7 am, shower, have... Continue Reading →
My mother tried her best to keep me and my brother, Miles, out of the woods behind our house. It was too dangerous, she’d say. We could trip and fall and hurt ourselves. We could get lost. Two little boys could get into all kinds of trouble out there. She went so far as to... Continue Reading →
Never had the phrase “You can't be crazy when you're rich, only eccentric” been more accurate than when applied to my uncle. He'd made a fortune developing some kind of military grade software that I won't even pretend to understand and, after retiring at the ripe old age of 42, had decided to spend his... Continue Reading →
Once upon a time, my hometown decided it wanted to try and get its name on the map. It was the height of the real estate bubble and people were buying, developers were building, and our small city was looking forward to a sudden and steady growth spurt. The thing about bubbles, though, is that... Continue Reading →
Stories By S.H. Cooper 