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> “Smile for the camera.” — Unknown — - That night, I crashed on the couch, eyes fixed on the ceiling. Across from me, Sam lay stretched out, one arm slung over his face. We’d been there for hours, maybe more. No words. Just silence thick enough to suffocate. “You feel it too, don’t you?” he said finally, voice barely audible. He didn’t move, just spoke into the dark.

What are ghost stories, anyway?

I was driving down the highway to nowhere; I call it that because I haven’t seen a single thing for the past 3 hours. I was getting quite tired; I was bound to come across a rest stop eventually. Instead I stumbled upon a large metal gate with lanterns lit in the distance; I parked my car outside the gate and got out of the car. It said something above the gate but I couldn’t make out the words because they have faded away. Beyond this gate was a mildly lit building, it looked like a hospital…

"The best memories are made with friends." — Field journal, undated. 1985. — That morning began with brushing. I stepped into the hall and found Sam frozen mid-step, toothbrush in hand, eyes fixed on the bathroom. I followed his gaze. Ray stood at the sink, back to us, scrubbing his teeth in slow, mechanical strokes...up, down, up, down, as if he'd been at it for hours. Sam turned to me, brow knotted. "I just saw him outside," Sam whispered. "What?"

All the groups made by the teacher go to sit together, talking all the while, almost like when class has already ended. I too go to the group I will be making this project with. I'm glad to be in a good class, everyone seems to be getting along well even if we don't talk everyday or have the same hobbies or even clothing style. The project we've been given is to make a movie and really the only rules are to speak proper English and have at least 15 minutes of footage.

My girlfriend Amelie and I have packed for our vacation to Paris, she was excited to hear that when I surprised her on our 1 year anniversary. Our flight to Paris got her more ecstatic and her love for me was blossoming ever more slightly; I know we’ve been together only for a year but I’m going to propose to her in Paris, in a fancy restaurant and I can’t wait for her response and reaction. The flight went for 9 hours and I didn’t sleep at all, though Amelie slept soundly while I cuddled her.

“Time is a flat circle.” — Friedrich Nietzsche — - I hadn’t laughed like that in a long time. The van rattled as we bounced down the narrow gravel road, overgrown branches tapping the sides. Lexi was already filming everything with her phone, narrating in a mock-documentary voice: “Five survivors return to the place where all went wrong.” Jared howled in response, always being the loud one, and Elise shook her head, grinning, the wind tangling her curls.

Audio Transcript: Date: March 15, 2018 Time: 4:07 PM Location: NYPD interview room -- Officer Decha Noi: Before we begin our chat, would you mind stating your name? Nicholas Myers: Umm, yeah, sure. I'm Nicholas Myers, I'm turning 32 years old on December 8th, I live on 89 Elizabeth Street and... uh, is that enough?

It's all white... The room I'm in and the rest of this building is probably also all white. I don't know where I am. This cold blinding white, everything is this pale color, every object, all the furniture, every.... Everything. I'm all alone, in this unending place with only one color. At first, I didn't see it as much of a problem, I am quite introverted after all. Put other people in this room and I would find it all the more terrifying.

I have worn countless masks, but those most beloved is my mask of words. They refer to me as a play. A lie. A plague lay down in ink and breath. They tell me I am nothing more than a character within those pages of the volume, that yellow book whose words pour through comprehension. They are in error. I was not written. I wrote myself.

I spend most of my time at the park with just my thoughts. I find it peaceful and comforting; except the eyes by the tree. At first I thought the man was just like me, he loved coming to the park because it’s quiet, almost too quiet. But every day, he seemed to be staring at me more intently and it discomforts me. The day before, I was watching the news and it depicted a murderer who preys on teenagers. The murderer looked exactly like the man at the park; it really ticked me off provocatively.

Let me guess, you clicked on this story because of the title? Yeah, you did! Well, hopefully this love story, and yes this is a love story, will catch your attention long enough for you to finish it. For starters, I am Mathew Connors, and I graduated from Texas Tech a few years ago. I met my beautiful wife, Angela, in college. We have 2 amazing kids, Jonah, and Abigail, they are 10 and 8. They say that when you find the one you are destined to be, it’s like “Love at first sight”, well in our…

I recovered from a coma I had a while back; I can’t recall the date, but I was driving back from a convenience store for groceries, and one of the overhead cables blew out and hit my vehicle, and then I woke up; it was somewhere like my own home but not really.

This account was not meant to be kept with the others. It was filed incorrectly at first, tucked between some water damage report and a handwritten inventory of seasonal decorations. No one noticed because no one ever looks too closely at Christmas. We prefer it softened, rounded at the edges, safe to touch.  There are entire kinds of damage that go unrecorded when they happen in December. It is a season built on reassurance, and reassurance has a way of smoothing over things that should have…

I went to see the Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 movie as soon as it came out. I am not going to give any spoilers in case you haven’t seen it, and that’s not what this post is about. All I will say is it was a great movie, amazing for fans of the games, and it’s cool to see how far the series has come.

The sound of thunder echoes and booms in the night sky. The rain that falls to the ground is heavy and unforgiving. A bolt of white-hot lightning streaks across the sky, illuminating an eerie and unsettling sight. A young boy stands over the dead body of a grown woman. The water from the rain hides the tears that fall from the boy’s face. The woman’s body is bloody, beaten, and has a large gaping hole through her stomach. Blood no longer pools under the body; it is all washed away by the…

As the fire of the crimson candle flickered and danced... The darkness moved with the candlelight. I sat watching the darkness of the night outside. For I watched the starless night down to my driveway. There at the end of the driveway was a single lamppost stood tall, a creature covered head to toe in black, darkness, and shadows.... The only thing I could see of this creature was its eyes of amber glow. Then the light of the lamppost flickered and shuttered as it broke with a loud 'CRACK!'

“As Mark Twain famously never said; buy moons – they’re not making more of them,” the spryly old man said as he fanned out brochures advertising Lunar Real Estate in front of me. Orville’s Old-Fashioned Oddity Outlet was one of Sombermorey’s more infamous tourist traps, shelling out all manner of alleged paranormal paraphernalia. Whether it was clairvoyant goggles, haunted paintings, or possessed Halloween masks, you were guaranteed to find something out of the ordinary whenever you stopped in.

“I think we should get a fifth cat,” my wife, Mabel, told me. I looked at her, amused, as we are both cat people. We have four cats: Taco, a tortoiseshell-colored cat; Ginger, a brown cat; Gadget, a black Bombay cat; and Pingu, a black-and-white-colored kitten.

I am not feeling like myself anymore. I used to feel great whenever I did things for people. You know? But here lately, something inside just does not feel the same anymore. Even when I help others, it just leaves me empty and dead inside. I can’t explain it. I feel like a walking corpse, just void of happiness and any emotion. It’s like there are two people living inside me, the person that wants to help others, and the other person that just wants to watch the world suffer. Sometimes these…