The sound of people cheering echoes through the closed doors of the stadium; the vibrations of their stomping feet and clapping hands rattle the windows and walls. Both excitement and unease electrify the air like a lightning storm, and I soak up every ounce of it as if it gives me life. This is it…this […]

His eyes had a sunken look to them, the whites so scarlet it was almost impossible to see the natural blue surrounding dilated pupils. Keeping my gun pressed to his temple, I brought the liquor bottle to swollen lips and forced him to take another drink. He swallowed audibly, slumping even further into himself. He’d […]

An annoyingly consistent buzzing pulled me from a dream that had been as vivid as the barking dog down the street. I reached blindly towards my nightstand, skimming my fingers over its surface until I found my cellphone. Rolling onto my back, I stared at the screen through squinted eyes an attempt to combat the […]

Pray to the devil. Devour flesh. Kill for survival. For thrills, too, if that’s what you’re into. Where I come from, all of this is as ordinary as the sky being blue. My world—the Badlands—is made up of dark fantasies and endless terrors. You must pick a brand of evil and dedicate your life to […]

I hated to admit it, but I was a sucker for a good psychopath. The sinister, mischievous smile always seemed to get me. It didn’t help that some of my own screws got knocked loose awhile ago. But I was a good person once. Being a good person ruined my life. I waited too late […]

Blood. Garish red in color. Metallic in taste. Crucial for survival. There was something absolutely fascinating about the substance that flowed through our veins. I watched it pool onto the concrete floor, the pitter-patter drowned out by the man gasping for air. He dangled helplessly from the ceiling, his bare and broken feet slowly splitting […]

What did the wolf want to do to Little Red? Devour her. And that’s exactly what he did. Jagged pieces of mulch dug into my spine as my back bowed, the plastic crinkling. The warped wall of the shed was the only thing near enough for my fingers to grasp at. Breaths shallow and quick, […]

I was born sick. Not with cancer, a blood disease, or a life-threatening infection. I wasn’t contagious. There was no cure. My sickness could not be placated by old wives’ tales, biblical scriptures, or home remedies. Mother forced me to hide it. She made me feel ashamed. In a dark neglected corner of my mind, […]

He was struggling to let me go. You would think I was going away for years or months instead of a mere two weeks. His brown eyes were surrounded by thin lines of concern, the corners of his mouth slightly turned down. “I’m going to be fine,” I repeated for what felt like the thousandth […]

Twenty minutes into our second session,my therapist looked me straight in the eye and told me I had a delicate mind. This was our sixth session. I wasn’t sure why I’d bothered coming after the first. Catching the end of Dr. Powell’s sentence, I shifted my doe brown eyes back to her from the distracting […]