fiction
-
The Hendersons found the house on Maple Street through a foreclosure listing, priced so low that Sarah joked they’d probably discover bodies in the basement. The ranch-style home from 1952 had been empty for three years, its previous owners having died in a car accident, leaving no heirs. Perfect for a young family trying to…
-
The manila folder contained seven pages of rules, each one more unsettling than the last. Ash read them again, his hands trembling slightly as he sat in the sterile break room of the Meridian Research Facility. Rule 1: Never look directly into the hole for more than three seconds at a time. Rule 2: If…
-
Maya discovered Sunflower Gardens in the discount bin at GameStop, wedged between old sports titles nobody wanted. The cover art looked hand-drawn—a girl with crayon-yellow pigtails watering cartoon flowers. At twelve, Maya was tired of her brother’s shooters and battle royales. This looked perfect. The game exceeded her expectations. Maya guided her character through meadows…
-
The first time Sarah walked in her sleep, I thought it was stress. She’d been working late shifts at the hospital, coming home exhausted, her scrubs still smelling of antiseptic and something else I couldn’t place. That night, I woke to find her standing at the foot of our bed, perfectly still, her eyes open…
-
The Blackwood Apartments stood like a monolith against the gray October sky, its brick facade weathered by decades of rain and neglect. When I first saw the listing—a spacious one-bedroom for half the market rate—I should have known something was wrong. But desperation has a way of blinding you to red flags, and after three…
-
The key felt heavier than it should have as I turned it in the lock of 47 Maple Street. The brass was tarnished, worn smooth by decades of use, and it scraped against the mechanism with a sound like fingernails on metal. The door swung open with a prolonged creak that seemed to echo through…