Short horror stories with sometimes wholesome twists.
Nursing and being a nun aren’t really such different things. As the former, I help look after the body. As the latter, I help look after the soul. Nourishing both is important to leading a healthy, happy life. When I was a young woman, fresh out of my nursing program and fresher still out of... 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 →
He’d been watching for months. Waiting. Patient. Poised. And now, he was ready. Friday night. Seven o’clock. Her parents would be going out for their weekly dinner and movie. They’d be gone for almost four hours exactly. Never more, never less. They were the type of couple that the phrase “You could set your watch... Continue Reading →
I’d never been so certain of anything as I was in that moment. The first bell hadn’t rung yet and I was standing at my locker with Jade. I was still new to the school, an unfortunate position to be in for your senior year, and she was the only friend I’d managed to make.... 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 →
Home It was a single, innocuous word. Perfectly reasonable. A text message to let me know that Kelly had made it safely back to her apartment after her trip abroad. Except my daughter didn’t say, “Home”. Her word was, “Ring”. It was one of those small things that only made sense to us. She’d picked... Continue Reading →
We should have listened. But we didn’t. Even during the search, I kept thinking that. It was so surreal. To be out in those woods looking for my son, and in the midst of every other panicked thought screaming through my head, that one, eerily calm idea kept surfacing. We should have listened. But we... Continue Reading →
In March 1946, Robert O’Dell walked into Creek Haven Elementary with a shotgun and a pistol. Twelve children and a math teacher never made it home. O’Dell was arrested immediately following the massacre, after he’d fallen down a flight of stairs. When asked why he had done it, he didn’t answer. He just smiled. He... Continue Reading →
