Harry was working on his 1953 Mercury convertible. This was in the 1960s. He loved to work on cars. He was a natural mechanic. He found he needed a part that would be necessary to keep the car on the road. It would drive, but the part was going bad, and needed to be replaced soon, or it would die on him sometime along the highway. About 20 miles away was a junkyard. He could go there, find an old Merc, or perhaps a Ford,...

A few weeks had passed since ‘that’ event and Rufus was still rather distraught. After all, Amy was such a huge part of his life, that he didn’t really know how to live it without her. It was the small things he missed - getting up and seeing her standing at the fridge, which was her favourite place to lurk, waiting for him, or hearing her ghostly whispers as he walked past.Cynthia tried all she could think of to get Rufu...

He'd been swimming fine at first- perfectly fine- but there was a current and nobody was watching. He tried and tried to swim to the surface, desperate to get out, his lungs burning. He couldn't hold his breath much longer, he struggled, he could see the sunlight, but he couldn't reach it and his mouth opened and he felt the water clog his lungs and run down his throat. He was choking and he could stop it. Jeremy thought...

You've been playing outside in the snow for the past half hour, and even with the gloves on your hands, they are frozen, and so's the rest of you. Your dad opens the door and you rush inside to find a slightly steaming bowl of Alphabet soup! Your mother smiles as you giggle, looking through the letters, trying to make your name, Laura. You finally do so and point to it for everyone to see- even the baby brother in your mo...

I've walked past this dining room many times. When I was seven, I walked past it, out the door and to the car. We were headed to the hospital to see my Daddy. Mother didn't say at the time, but I know now that he was dying and I was leaving to say goodbye. I remember the passage through the room being a happy one, because we were visiting Daddy, but now, looking back, it has a very morbid, depressing tone to it. I got my...

***Setting: Right before the dividing line of apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic, meaning that the creatures that were killing during the apocalypse aren't quite dead yet and any other changes that happened haven't yet been fixed or undone, but the human race, what's left of it, is starting to come out of hiding in slow trickles. Testing the waters, if you please, to see if Earth is still able to house us. This is about two hun...

It felt good to sit at the long table with all the other girls. I’d never felt accepted by other kids at school before. At my last school, I was one of a handful of kids that weren’t Mormon, and they didn’t play with non-Mormons, but they weren’t mean to me. At the next table there was a boy named Tracey eating alone. He was tall with dark brown hair and blue eyes. He had a speech impediment that made him sound like he wa...

An intruder alert comes over the intercom, and the other students hide under their desks. She was talking to the teacher and his sort-of teacher's aid, so she's now heading under her desk. The door slams open and a man with a gun walks in before the teacher has time to lock the door or even react fast enough. The shooter is familiar to her, but she has no time to register anything- the gun is pointed at her teacher and sh...

The boat was sinking; my friends scrambled to gather all that they could. In the distance, a tidal wave headed this way. Why were we on a cruise ship? All the movies about these ships ended with people dying and the boat sunk. At least shore was not far away. I ushered my friends to hurry out the door, to the last lifeboat I had waiting for us. I remembered, I had to get the necklace my mother gave me, a beautiful, expens...

They ran into the courtyard. The trial had just begun; the king had started the prosecution of the murderer. Two girls, one dressed in red with gold embroidery, the other in jade green with silver embroidery, wanted a good clear view of the trial, but being so small, they could not see over the crowd. One turned and saw a window with ivy cascading down from the ledge. Iron bars covered the glass for show. The girls quickl...

The dim light from outside the window seeped through the slots of the closet door. I stifled my breath and held back the tears that burned my face. Heavy footsteps were heard on the other side if the door. He looked for me, his next target. Tears blinded me as he passed into my room, his gun reflecting the light. I pressed my back against the wall, letting the coats and jackets conceal me. The door opened in a flash then...

When we landed it was about noon- though we didn't care much about time, we cared about the light in the sky- and at the point that I started realizing what was happening (the moment when I start remembering), I'd say it was about two o'clock. Some guys (of about eighteen to twenty-one in age) start shouting about swimming out. I think it's a good idea- what's the worst that could happen?Nobody stops the guys- nobody real...

Before you get all excited like I'm going to tell you juicy details of a cruise gone wrong — chill. It was not a cruise ship, it was a ferry. We were actually heading to an island a few miles out from that one — a normal island. The ferry driver decided to check out what was in the mist, so instead of continuing straight forward he shifted left a touch. (I suspect he was new and naive and had never heard about the suspici...

An island, small enough to travel by foot at day, and dangerous enough that if you are on the ground after the sun starts setting, you will be killed. An island of nocturnal creatures specifically created to kill humans... acidic water for fifteen feet out on all sides... then mist that gives away nothing and stops everything within from escaping. This is the story of how I survived all of this and got away alive, but thi...

I am flying back and forth in the large room where we live in the rafters, when my sonar map shows a hole. A blank spot, how exciting. A new room to explore. I swiff through and my sonar begins giving my mind a map of the smaller rectangular room that I'm in, and yet another blank spot. This is so exciting, new rooms to explore. The guys say that the other parts of this house are haunted by monsters, but I'm a brave bat,...