The Spelunker’s Cave had been one of my favorite rides since I was a kid. I wasn’t a kid anymore. I was almost fourteen. But, I still loved it. My friends did too. Toni, Andra, Caroline, and I piled into the boat, ready for the darkness. Five other boats were lined in front of us. Ours was the sixth and final boat. A long, long line of amusement park thrill seekers awaited their turns. We jerked forward; whooping and hollering. Toni clapped and whistled. Andra waved her hands through the cool, pumped-in air, and Caroline crooned in deep, ominous tones. “Don’t scare me, y’all,” I laughed. “Oh, poor Lilah,” Toni teased, “boogedy, boogedy.” She pulled my hair from the back…

Sarah had always been an early riser. Her job as a nurse required it, and after years on the same schedule, her body woke her before the sun even began to rise. This morning was no different. As she shuffled into the kitchen, she flicked on the light and set the kettle to boil. While waiting for her tea, Sarah glanced out the window. It was still dark outside, but she could just make out the silhouette of the large oak tree in her backyard, its branches swaying gently in the pre-dawn breeze. But something was different today. There, among the leaves, she saw a figure. Her heart skipped a beat. It looked like a person, standing perfectly still in…

“Are you looking to bring sparkle and pizazz to your life? Are you looking for a brand new ambiance? Well come join us at Shadow Haynes’ Circus this Saturday! Watch death defying feats that will simply amaze you! Laugh with the clown acts! See our contortionists, magicians, living statues and more! You won’t believe your eyes! Come one, come all!” The man on the corner sounded like a canival barker. In a way, I suppose he was. Advertising and enticing with a fake, syrupy charm. Dressed in a too-small, pin-striped suit and a shabby top hat, he certainly looked the part. His black, handlebar mustache didn’t hurt either. My best friend Kissy Preston punched me in the arm. “Hey, wanna…

It’s stuck in my mind, trapped and buried in the deepest regions, only to resurface when my mind wonders. I’ll be on the brink of sleep, drifting off when the haunting memories return to me. It was to become a man they told me, but it simply made me less of a human. Decades ago, the summer heat rained down on our small town in Texas. The only safety for the younglings was the shade of trees as our parents forced us outside til the dinner bell rang. School was out, and there was almost nothing to do. Worse of all, my parents refused to take me to the local pool, citing health concerns. Alas, there was a saving grace.…

It began in an attic; dim and eerie with nothing visible past two feet ahead of you. I don’t know what I was doing there to be honest, all I know is, I woke up there with no memory of how I happened to be in that room. The worst part of it was… my house didn’t have an attic, meaning I was in someone else’s home I didn’t know of. There was a thick silence that was almost suffocating to me because the smallest of movements that I made sounded throughout the entire room. I remember observing the place, or at least what I could make out nearby me, until I heard a sound that was quite out of…

Ever since she was a little girl, 14-year-old Nicole had a fascination of exploring unfamiliar places. For this expedition, she wanted to explore a patch of forest she recently discovered near her house. She brought along a flashlight in case there were any dark places worthy of investigation. The forest was about two blocks down her street. A small dirt path winded through it, and there was still plenty of daylight to see everything. Nicole was giddy with anticipation of what lay ahead. As she walked along the main path, separate trails split off into different directions. “Well, I’ll be back another time,” Nicole said to herself. “Eventually, I’ll explore every one of these paths to see where they lead…