Horror + Thriller

1964 The sideshow is a part of me. Crimson and cream strips wind about the helices of my genes. If I listen closely, I can still hear the calliope, its fluting notes echoing in the water traveling through the pipes in the walls. Sometimes, the shouting of the warden takes on the authoritative bark of […]

1 “It sounds like cats dying.” She said it in the glum tone of a child only just now being introduced to the disappointments life had in store. Mark Provaunce felt a twinge in his chest at the sound of it, thinking for the third time that morning of how his little girl was not […]

Pipeline Parents find little pink shoes at the gate between Pipeline Estate and Ezechi Estate. They squint at the dense forest of knotted trees and leafless shrubs that stretch thin like fingers behind the gate, the piece of land where Ezechi Estate begins. They look out for anything strange sifting through the trees. The pink […]

I spend the entire flight from Oakland to Florence telling myself I am safe. Every time I get up to use the bathroom, I expect to see my husband in one of the seats, or in the mirror behind me. I half expect to find him waiting for me at the arrival gate, or at […]

It’s not like I was going to marry him; we were just shacking up. But I was surprised Benji had the kind of money where he could buy a house. The real estate agent, Ryan, couldn’t have been much older than us, but his loafers, his aftershave, and his hair comb made him seem downright […]

The Girl Detective reads about her death on Twitter. She is surprised. She doesn’t remember much from the night before—a bar with Bess and George. A man. A drink. A struggle. A stumble home in the dark—but she is The Girl Detective. She can’t be dead. She has hamburgers already pattied for dinner tonight. She […]

On the first day of the Divine Feminine Kabbalah Power Retreat, it’s “hello my name is and I work in” with the other women executives over kefir and kombucha, everyone looking jetlagged and itchy in the natural fiber robes and vegan leather sandals we’d been handed at check-in. Hello, my name is Stephanie and I […]

First exposure There’s a convertible in the scrap yard covered in “PSYCHOLOGY RULEZ” and “Radio Nil Midnight Sessions” stickers. The owner must have been a fan of Grant’s show. We settle across the leather backseat with a squeak as the tape starts its loop over again. The top is down, and the stars and heat […]

Dirt crawled under Zuzi’s fingernail as she traced another letter into the shack floor, her secret game. When the door swung open, she hastily smoothed away the evidence. It could put her and Mama in danger. She couldn’t say why, but she certainly felt it. A mass, tangled as her hair, stuck in her throat. […]

She stood in the attic, holding the thin blanket to her chest, transfixed by the dark stain on the mattress. It was summer and the heat here under the slanted raw wood beams lowered itself like a cape around her shoulders. High up she heard a buzz, a fly banging against the one window, a […]

Notes made by DX (not real name), while observing Geoffrey Sidwell, during the period of almost 2 years in which Sidwell was resident at the care facility: They asked me to watch him and observe from a distance, and paid me good money. I have to make these notes. I am supposed to just sit […]

My ex-wife’s mother is buried in my backyard. And that’s not the creepy part of the story, I’m just telling you that to add a little context to the rest of my story. So maybe you’ll understand things a little better. It’s perfectly legal in some places to bury people on your property. I was […]