Tag: haunting

All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller

A Nobel Ending by Steven French

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Frank paused as he left the hotel and looked up and down Skomakargatan. With the sky shading into a deeper blue, lights were already coming on along the narrow street. To the left was Stortorget Square and Stockholm’s famous Christmas Market which he and Ellen had strolled around earlier that day. Exhausted from the jetlag and needing some rest from the bustle of the crowds, she was fast asleep in their room but Frank had too much nervous energy still and had decided to burn some off with a brisk walk.

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All Stories, Fantasy

Wailing Guitar by Steve Sibra 

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I was barely thirteen when my big brother Jimmy came home from school with a wailing guitar.  We were two kids caught up in an ongoing dispute between our parents over things we could not really understand, and we feared they were going to split up and we would become casualties of a broken home.   As a byproduct of this trauma the two of us had bonded over a budding and mutual love of rock music.  Somehow our mutual interest in rock guitar music had given us something to hang onto as our parents became more and more involved in petty bickering and outright bursts of anger.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Restless Souls by Alice Baburek

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No one really knows why restoration stopped on the abandoned St. Julian hotel, where commoners and kings once came to relax in luxury.But Bernie Yocum and her brother George Winton had their suspicions. The renovation/construction company they shared had been in their family for decades.

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All Stories, Fantasy

My Relationship With Frances Marie Sauvegeot, 1973 – 2001 By Martin Reid Sanchez

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HOW WE MET

You have to understand that my first glimpse of her was mostly obscured. The bar was dim and crowded, and I’d already had more than my share of scotch. And wasn’t feeling picky, having struck out three times already — so, after that first glimpse, I sidled right up and said the first slick thing I could think of, which ended up being something about how her dress caught the light. Only then did she turn to face me head-on, showing me what she was and exactly what I’d just done.

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All Stories, General Fiction

McKenzie and Sons by Ed Davis

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The kid sneaks in here every day, which is crazy because I’ve done my best to keep him out of my store. It wouldn’t be the first time a guitar, fiddle or banjo walked off. Kid likes to slide in while I’m with a customer talking trade or repair, head straight for the vintage instruments in the back room, get down the 1924 Gibson A-4 and start messing around.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Not For Sale by Guylaine Spencer

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An autumn evening, 1950

Along the Grand River, Ontario, Canada

Yes, sir, she’s a mighty fine mansion. And an unusual style for this neck of the woods. Looks a bit like a bank to me with that porch and pillars. The first owner built her back in 1845. She doesn’t get the attention she deserves these days. You can see that by the peeling paint and the boarded-up window. The brothers don’t live here full time now, but they do come down on occasion. Separately, always. That’s why they have the wife and me looking after the place as caretakers. We live in the house and keep an eye on things. The two brothers don’t speak to each other anymore. They send messages through me. They haven’t talked since the blowup they had over the repairs to the roof.

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All Stories, Fantasy

The Monster at the end of this Tale by Mohammed Babajide Mohammed

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Growing up as a Nigerian meant that your parents filled your head with all sorts of supernatural phenomena. When we were children, my mother would tell us these euphoric stories, a lot of which kept us up all night, like they kept a lot of other kids around us up at night as they too were being told these stories in their own homes.

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All Stories, Horror

The Smiling Man at the Foot of My Bed by Noah Love

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Tonight, there was a man in my room. He appeared when I turned out the lights. He wasn’t there before. And then he was. Crouched at the foot of my bed. Smiling

It’s just his white eyes. His dark pupils. Always looking at me. His teeth are glowing in a big smile as he stares at me. The whites of his eyes pronouncing the void of his pupils as their darkness looks unblinkingly at me. Ready to welcome me into bed.

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