Horror and Wholesome
My son loved books. If the only thing the kid ever got as a gift was books, he’d have been the happiest person on earth. No idea where he got it from; his dad and I could barely bother skimming short news articles, much less intentionally sit down to slog through a book. Cole, though.... Continue Reading →
Out off the old county road, there’s a path that runs through the woods. It cuts across to what passes for a downtown around here. The trail itself isn’t much to write home about, just some wooden planks laid down to mark its edges and the occasional sign nailed to trees warning people not to... Continue Reading →
I think about death a lot. Not my own, not really, anyway, but my family’s. My parents, cousins, pets. I see them die over and over again, each time more gruesome and detailed than the last. And I’m just so tired. I was seven when Grandma died. It was my first brush with death, and... Continue Reading →
My family came over from the old country only a generation ago. Gran waddled off the boat in 1954, nine months along and ready to drop Dad the moment she set foot on American soil. She had the courtesy to wait until Granddad got her to their apartment in the Irish quarter, at least. Despite... Continue Reading →
The first word that came to mind when I met Jeremiah Goodwin was small. He was a short man with close-cropped, pale hair and a hunched posture. He looked almost childlike sitting in the office chair, save for the fact that his hands were shackled to his waist. I’d been told it was for my... Continue Reading →
Locals call it the Long Drop. It’s a half-mile of weathered steel that stretches across a river five hundred feet below. Built in the early 1930s, the bridge is still in use, although there have been attempts to close it. Even a few to destroy it full stop. It remains, though. The Long Drop has... Continue Reading →
My name is Dennis Majors. I’m 37 years old. I’m unemployed and don’t have any real friends or family. No one to miss me. That’s why I need you. I’ve been...going somewhere. But also nowhere. I wake up and I’m in my apartment, but it’s not my apartment. None of this makes sense, I know,... Continue Reading →
Do you know where the babies go? When the sun is set and sinking low? Crying all day, quiet at night How many babies are the down hag’s delight? One...two...three… Every little girl in my town knew the down hag’s diddy. We’d chant it while jumping rope, counting off how many times we could jump... Continue Reading →
You can only see her when you can’t see her. There are a lot of theories surrounding her: she was a great beauty who died of a wasting disease that left her hideous in death, she was attacked by a spurned suitor and committed suicide after he disfigured her face, she was murdered and mutilated... Continue Reading →
It snows at sea. Sometimes I forget that. Or, I try to, anyway. Frozen white on an endless field of black. It feels alien out there when it’s snowing. Maybe I’d feel differently if it hadn’t been snowing that night. But it was, and I don’t, and I’ll never know otherwise. Dad was a crabber.... Continue Reading →
