Jamestown Fort, January 1609 Sarah awoke in the dark. The first thing she noticed was the cold. It had seeped through the clothing she wore, through the blanket that she had wrapped herself in, through the very ground; reaching for her like the icy, cold fingers of death. She exhaled and watched her breath become visible in the grey, early light of dawn that crept through the cracks of the door. Immediately after the cold...

Suddenly, the warning of the tribal elder and Wasad’s explanation came rushing back to us. The entire, horrible truth came crashing down upon me in a rush. I realized that the body we had seen in the hole was indeed a ghoul. The images we had seen of the torture and execution were not an attempt by the Republican Guard to execute an innocent man, but an attempt to rid themselves of a scourge. We also came to the sickening...

Once packed, we had nothing else to do but hurry up and wait. Sam and I were conflicted about leaving. We felt that it was wrong that we were leaving Chris, but we had searched all over for him, the grunts had searched for him, but there was absolutely no trace. We kept hoping against hope that he would show up by random chance one day, but as the days went by and there was no Chris, we began to lose hope. Finally, the da...

At around 5 o'clock the next morning, I was awakened by Sam shaking my shoulder. “Dave, you need to get up,” he said. “What? What? Why? What's happening? What’s going on?” was my reply. “It's Chris,” Sam said. “He's missing; he's not here.” “What do you mean he’s missing,” I asked, sitting up. I wiped the sleep from my eyes, and I saw that Sam was speaking the truth. There was no sign of Chris. We hadn’t had any equipment...

Chris and I both groaned. We knew Sam was one to go a little bit too far, but this was too much. “That’s absolutely disgusting,” I said. “That used to be a person. That is so disrespectful. You’re unbelievable. How would you feel if someone pissed on you when you were dead?” “I wouldn’t care,” Sam called back over his shoulder as he finished up. “I’d be dead. Plus, I already told you this country and these people cost me...

Chris jumped in after Sam got out, and, on our signal, he mashed the accelerator down, and he was off. As we watched him race around the track, I considered asked Sam if he had felt uneasy in the warehouse like I had, but decided against it. Sam was a good friend, but he could be brutal and borderline cruel if you were acting, in his opinion, like anything other than a man. I turned my attention back to Chris as he raced...

The Ghoul The following happened about ten years ago. There are times that I still wake up in the middle of the night, sweating in the grips of a nightmare. When this occurs, I know that getting back to sleep will be a losing proposition, so I instead get up and make a pot of coffee. As time has passed, the nightmares have lessened, but like a virus, they have never truly left. I will have a good couple weeks, maybe even...

Silent fog rolls in from the south Holding hangs to navigate This long-forgotten world A testament to the dead The couple walks past the tombstones Treading carefully to avoid Suffocation, possession Attack from a vengeful spirit Hands break grasp When a crow swoops down Man and woman run separate ways The fog isolates them Thirteen minutes pass And a phantom bell sounds Ringing thru the night The source is unknown Man an...

He lay stretched out on the narrow iron framed bed Idly staring at the cracked and blotchy ceiling, Its surface resembling a map of no man's land, A senseless wilderness of craters and barbed wire. Unthinking, his mind was empty of all feeling Other than a sense of utter futility, A weariness that had seeped into his marrow Like the water bleeding from the walls of the trench Whose narrow confines had become his entire wo...

A mighty midnight monstercomes creeping and crawling.It wants your blood, wants to devour you.It lurks ‘neath the bed, biding its time,plotting, scheming... It must have your flesh.Its pointy teeth are sharper than cheese,its claws are enough to make you beg “please!”A growling laugh, a moaning bellow,it’s really not a very nice fellow.Under the bed is from whence it creeps,whilst its victim innocently sleeps.Eyes of blac...

It’s a demon, he thought. It has to be. For the past week, he had had migraine-like headaches which he believed was a supernatural occurrence. This spirit had gained entry to his mind, and now it wanted to get out, but it couldn’t, so banged away at his skull in an attempt to find an exit, rather like a spider in a bath, unaware of the plughole from which it came. He took all the pills he could without overdosing, but the...

He had craved the taste of his very last bottle of beer waiting for him in the fridge the entire way home. By the time he placed his hand on the knob of the front door he could feel the lightly carbonated ale sliding down his throat, tickling his taste buds with an almost divine satisfaction. Stepping inside he wasn’t greeted by Charlie as he normally was. Although he found that somewhat odd, he paid no mind to it, stroll...

“My heart hurts,” Joe replied when asked how he was feeling by his doctor and long-time acquaintance, Farnsworth Banes. Blinded by the light being shined in his eyes, Joe thought about what he was going to eat for dinner when he got home, his mind wandering off as Doctor Banes pressed his hand firmly against his chest and asked him to breathe in. “Any other unusual symptoms? Dizziness? Difficulty breathing?” “No.” “Blurre...

The bus came to a halt and Bob Clement stepped off, nodded an acknowledgment to the driver who drove away, leaving him with a light breeze under the bright sun and cloudless sky. He was in unfamiliar territory, so he had no idea where to go first, and thought he would find a local pub or café as the locals there might know where to find who he was looking for. After around ten minutes, he was sat outside a café, drinking...

It didn't take the prince long to find Snow White. As he entered the small hut of a house, he could smell freshly made tea. And sure enough, there sat his fair lady sipping from a tea cup, with a body split in two beside her. “How did you find me?” Asked Snow White. “All the animals have returned from hiding, my fair lady, so I figured there was no one left in the forest to disturb them.” Said the prince as he bowed. The...