Originally written for Jolene Haley’s Spooky Showcase blog tour in 2017. “It’s just a story, Cam. It’s not like there’s actually a monster in the lake.” Everly hops on one foot, adorably trying to pull her other sneaker on without untying it. “Everyone knows that’s just something the counselors made up years ago to scare […]
Read MoreOf Gods and Ravens
It was the simple tasks, sometimes, that were the hardest. Even after all these years, she still moved wrong, moved in ways that once were so easy. Tried to extend that arm further than the shoulder would allow, twist in a direction that it never would again. She’d learned better, learned to compensate, but it […]
Read MoreJust a Kiss
She woke to a touch, the backs of her fingers caressing her cheek. They hesitated at her jaw line, until there was nothing but her presence. She could sense her there, so close that she didn’t dare open her eyes, even when she moved so close that her lips almost touched hers. Almost. She could […]
Read MoreIllusions of Reality
The shadows drip like black ink from the ceiling, pooling into lightless nothing on the floor. There’s light in the distance, outside the confines of my room. Probably the nurses’ station. Here, there is only silence. Darkness. Darkness, and the things I see in it. Last night I dreamt of chess pieces moving through the […]
Read MoreHell Hath No Fury
Thunder rumbled in the distance, overshadowing the slide and click of metal on metal. The tears that coursed down her face mingled unnoticed with the heavy rain as she made one last check through her gear. It had taken months of work and planning to get her to this point, and Rian was determined. Nothing […]
Read MoreAbsence, Longing, and Memory
The night air was cold in her lungs, a sharp contrast to the day now gone. Almost, she thought, looking around in the half-light, the moon sporadically obscured by the scattered clouds. Almost, in the dark, with the clouds still low after the storm… But no. These were not the mountains of her home, much […]
Read MoreA Drink With the Devil
Originally written for Jolene Haley’s Spooky Showcase 2019 blog tour. “No. No way in hell. No creepy-ass dolls. I draw the line.” Charlie scribbled Robert the Doll off the list so hard the pen wore through the paper. She went over it one more time for good measure, and shuddered. Quinn giggled, but rubbed Charlie’s […]
Read MoreBelow
I was drifting when she came to me. Four days alone in an empty sea, the wreckage of my ship the only break in a monotony of blue. At first I thought she wasn’t real. That sun, starvation, and dehydration had rendered me senseless and seeing things. Eyes in the debris. A face in the […]
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