Horror

Condemned
The decision to move to upstate NY hadn’t been an easy one. It started when my wife Patricia brought it up to me as I lay convalescing in a hospital bed. Ten plus years I had walked the beat in the sleepy, seaside town of Belmar, NJ. Ten years of breaking up college parties, domestics, and the occasional purse snatcher. After all that relative peace, I hadn’t expected to get jumped and have my knees shattered by some tweakers in the middle of a midnight robbery. Here I was, though. Career decidedly ruined, painkillers not working as well as I would like, with a wife talking about uprooting our family to someplace “safer”. I wouldn’t be telling the truth if I said that, at that moment, I agreed to the idea just to shut her up. I was in pain. Not thinking clearly. In the end, consent laws may protect you from testifying when under the influence, but they mean less to nothing to an upset woman with a small child whose husband could have been killed. So, to the wonderful world of Zillow she went.
By Hill Burset5 years ago in Fiction
Dead Of Night
Dustin ran, stumbling into the open door of the old barn. He hit the straw covered ground, after hitting the doorframe, with a resounding thud. The desperate man scrambled to his feet as straw and dirt clung to the partial dried blood covering his clothing. Dustin closed the door, blocking it with a pitchfork, as he backed up.
By Cory Beaudry5 years ago in Fiction
The barn that stayed with me.
There is something peaceful about discovering the side of the world where it's purely natural and quiet. It's so pleasing to know that in the rural areas there's not a lot of people to worry about. It's just you, the cattle, and beautiful sunsets painted across the sky. There's just something beautiful about lonely places with old vintage-looking homes. It was almost as if the homes possessed hearts and the windows were the eyes in which to look into. But there can also be something horrific among the quiet and inside these homes.
By Cecilia Gonzalez 5 years ago in Fiction
The Singer
Vanessa climbed the ladder to the loft, cursing all the while. Below her, the horses and cows shifted. The boards of the old barn creaked as the wind battered against the sides. Rain pattered across the window panes, leaving streaks of water to distort the view of the outside. Not that there was much to distort. The sun had set, and with the storm in full swing, the main house and the farmland around couldn’t be seen. The old oak with its rope swing was only another black shape against darkness, lit occasionally by flashes of lightning.
By Drake5 years ago in Fiction
Ariadne Bell and the Ghost of Farmer Ames
“Come on, hurry up, Bell! It’s freezing out here!” Thirteen-year-old Ariadne Bell stood rooted to the ground, her fingers twiddling with the long braid of her dark brown hair as she debated whether to run or to walk inside the decrepit barn. After a moment, she decided to walk, taking a tentative step towards the yawning maw of the visage of rotting wood and rusted nails. The skies above the overgrown, abandoned farm were black with ominous clouds, the forest trees beyond the barn swaying in the rising winds.
By Kathryn Vanden Oever5 years ago in Fiction
Reap Day Sucked.
Reap Day sucked. That was the only thought in Mackenzie’s head. If he thought about it in any more detail, he’d throw up. The easiest way to comprehend what was happening to him was three little words: Reap Day sucked.
By Leigh Hooper5 years ago in Fiction
The Summoning
“This way!” Derek clasped his girlfriend Greta's arm so hard as they ran that she thought he might pull it out of its socket. The wind was blowing at their backs so hard that they were practically flying.
By Adam Wallace5 years ago in Fiction
Wampus
I first met "Clyde" 10 years ago at a small diner in Christiansburg Virginia. I had just graduated with a history degree and a minor in Appalachian studies from Radford University. Being a transplant from Michigan, I ended up falling in love with the New River Valley and chose to stay here after graduation. There's unfortunately not a lot of work in my field in this area so I worked for a landscape company and played historian in my spare time. My goal was to simulate what the Foxfire heritage organization had done, and create a collection of Appalachian knowledge, straight from the horses mouth, the only real difference being that it would have a distinct NRV flavor.
By Juan Martinez 5 years ago in Fiction
Shadow Creek
The barn was in the middle of the woods. It wasn’t just surrounded by trees, there were trees growing through it too. Dark, twisted trunks and branches, bursting through spots of rotten roof and squarish holes that had once held windows.
By Claude McKenna5 years ago in Fiction
Sally's New Life
I left that awful barn with Hunter and Jacob because he was insane. He never treated me right. I couldn’t let the boys see that now they’re older. It would ruin them.
By YesItsMocha5 years ago in Fiction
Follow At Your Own Risk
Rory didn't notice how badly I wanted to be her. Or maybe she was used to people acting strangely in her presence. She tended to get into trouble. Yet she could've smooth talked her way out of anything. I grew up on the straight and narrow side and I desperately craved the thrill of the risk.
By Danielle Eckhart5 years ago in Fiction
The Barn
“Lizzie, the barn isn’t real.” I didn’t even bother to contradict her. I’d heard those words too many times, from too many people, especially from Shelly. It was an argument that wasn’t worth having, particularly since I knew I was right.
By Miriam Rhodes5 years ago in Fiction