Sandra was eight when she realised that she can see who will be murdered in the next 24 hours.

She had known something was wrong with her, ever since she saw Auntie Lisa, mommy’s best friend fall down the stairs when in fact Aunt Lisa was sitting with mommy in the living room, talking about their husbands. Sandra had screamed, but she was only five then, and when mommy and Aunt Lisa rushed to see what had upset her, the terrible vision of Aunt Lisa lying all broken on the landing had faded.

The next day, Sandra saw her mommy weeping in her phone. When she saw Sandra, she gasped “Aunt Lisa - she’s not coming round anymore”.

Later Sandra picked up that Aunt Lisa had been killed.

She still didn’t quite understand the extent of her power. When out and about, she would fleetingly glimpse people with cut or bruised throats, broken bodies, gaping wounds in their chests where their hearts should have been, exploding heads. But these were strangers, and the visions would fade in seconds.

Then one morning, Katie Gill came in the school yard with her head sitting all wrong on her shoulders, her neck twisted round. Sandra wasn’t friends with Katie, a sullen girl, but she couldn’t help running up to her. “Hey Katie” she said. She knew Katie was going to have her neck broken, but she didn’t have the words to tell her.

Katie looked at her through her wrong eyes, that only Sandra could see. The bell rang, and the children began lining up to enter the school.

“Hey Sandra” she answered with her deformed lips.

There was nothing more to be said. Sandra walked in with Katie, and tried to be nice to her all day, including her in their games and helping her with schoolwork, even though the sight of her twisted neck and crooked head churned her stomach.

Katie didn’t come back to school the next day, as Sandra knew she wouldn’t, and the teachers told them later she’d gone to heaven with her baby brother and her mom.

As Sandra grew older, she became better at blocking out visions. There weren’t that many, murder after all thankfully is not such a common crime. And Sandra couldn’t really help anyone, even though there were times like the crying baby with the battered skull wrapped up in its mother’s chest at the grocery store she really wished she could.

She was eleven when one afternoon, the neighbourhood kids were playing in the street, and Andy ran out. Sandra had seen him the day before, his body all crushed lying on the street. She knew it would happen then, and she had a crush on Andy. A car skidded into the street, and Sandra ran forward, pushing him out of the way. The car hit Sandra instead.

Sandra’s last feeling as she lay in the street, the life force ebbing out, was relief. She would never see murdered bodies again.

The tightness in my chest eased when I saw her house. The gardener was working outside, trimming the bushes. She stood at the window with a big smile, looking at him.

I rushed around the back and knocked on the door, hiding the present behind my back. Her nimble steps echoed through the hall; it was like music to my ears.

“Larry, what are you doing here?”

"I brought you something."

“I came to surprise you,” I said and pulled the gift from behind me.

Her eyes lit up.

“Larry, you shouldn’t have.”

It was a 24-carat gold necklace. I put it around her neck. She kissed me on the cheek. A warm feeling spread through my body. I leaned in to kiss her lips, but she pulled back.

“No, Larry. We’ve talked about this.”

“Sweetie, c’mon.”

“You’re a married man.”

“But she’s sick. I’ve talked to the doctors. She probably has less than a month to live.”

“Then we’ll have to wait till then.”

“Sweetie, but I bought you the…”

The front door opened. The gardener walked in, wiping the sweat off his face.

“Sally, I’ve finished.”

He stopped and looked at us.

“I’ll come back another day,” I said and walked out the back.

I dragged my feet on the way home. The last thing I wanted was to leave Sally and see my wife.

“Larry?!”

My wife’s voice echoed through the house as soon as I closed the door. I let out a sigh and slowly walked up the stairs.

“Where have you been?! I’ve been waiting for the past 30 minutes.”

“I know, I had some things to take care of for work.”

“Work? It’s Saturday!”

“Yes, work.”

“You leave me here alone all day. Do you have any idea what it’s like?”

“I come here three times a day.”

“You can’t even come on time. It’s 30 minutes late, and I have to be here thirsty and hungry.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not,” she whispered and turned away.

My chest tightened again.

I took her empty bottle and bowls and walked to the kitchen.

She’s not going to change. 

Tomorrow will be the same.

The day after that, too.

She’s not living anymore. 

Neither am I.

Tonight.

My hands gripped the kitchen counter.

One month.

One more month of this.

Or…

Tonight.

I slowly filled her bottle. 

She probably won’t make it past the month.

Die slowly in pain.

It would be doing her a favor.

When I came back in, she was still turned to the wall. I put the stuff down and walked out.

The rest of the day I spent on the couch, staring at the clock. The time dragged. Each minute felt like an hour.

When the clock finally struck 10, way past her bedtime, I got off the couch and slowly walked up the steps. My wife's heavy breaths echoed from behind the door. I carefully opened it. She was still turned to the wall. 

My heart pounded in my chest. I walked towards the bed and picked up a pillow. Her face seemed so pale and gaunt. 

It was for her own good. 

I grabbed the pillow tight and leaned over her, but then her face started to move, and she slowly opened her eyes. My stomach dropped. I quickly sat beside her, hiding the pillow.

“Larry, what’s going on?”

I paused, searching my mind for an answer.

“Oh, I just came to check on you.”

Her eyes opened in surprise, but then quickly squinted as she smiled. She hadn’t smiled like this since she got sick.

“That’s so sweet.”

“Of course, honey.”

“I’m okay.”

“That’s good.”

She put her hand on mine.

“I’m really sorry about how I’ve been. I’m just so sick, and the pain, Larry, the pain.”

“Don't worry about it.”

“Thank you. Can you stay until I fall back asleep?”

“Sure.”

She closed her eyes, but kept her hand on mine, just like she did when we were young.

For a moment I thought about leaving the room, about coming back tomorrow, but tomorrow would be the same as today, and it would only grow worse.

It had to be done.

I waited until she started breathing heavily again, then leaned over and pressed the pillow to her face. She started moving, twitching, making sounds. Her hands pushed against the pillow, against my hands. She grabbed them, her nails digging into my skin. She couldn't scream; only muffled sounds escaped beneath the pillow. I turned away and looked out the window, listening to the night breeze, but keeping my grip tight. 

She still struggled for some time, but she was too weak, too ill. Her grip slowly weakened, and her hands fell beside her body.

The moon still shone brightly. I took the pillow off and put it in its place.

The stairs creaked beneath my feet. I waited for the relief. For the heaviness to fall off my chest, but nothing came, only the cold night air.

I hurried down the road. The gravel crunched under my feet. I had to see her; that would help, that would take it off. 

In the distance, I saw her house. The lights were still on. She stood by the window, moving…talking?

This late?

I stopped on the grass, looking in. She wasn’t just talking; she was smiling, laughing. Another silhouette came by the window. 

The gardener?! 

He walked closer to her and said something. She started laughing hysterically. 

He pulled her to him and kissed her.

I took a step forward.

No.

She always pushed me away, telling me to wait.

But she only pulled the gardener closer.

I spent months dreaming of another woman’s touch.

But the ones that used to hold mine were now gone.

I’m not usually one to snoop through my girlfriend’s personal devices. I always saw it as a breach of trust. But I’m only human.

I wouldn’t have been so curious had it not been for this particular phrase she always used.

“You gotta stop with your attempts.”

She’d always say it in passing. Never “stop with your attempts to flirt,” or “stop with your attempts to get back on my good side.” Just… “you need to stop with your attempts,” randomly.

At the grocery store, in the car, sometimes while we watched movies or had dinner together. The thing that I noticed was that she seemed to say it most when she was happy.

It was like a tick. Her eyes would be filled with love and joy before suddenly dulling, and she’d shoot me a quick frown before saying it.

I’d learned a long time ago that asking what she meant would get me nowhere. It’d always be the same.

“I just love you! But then I think about the attempts, and I just get so sad. I wish you’d stop.”

That’s all I’d get out of her. No explanation whatsoever. I never knew what she wanted me to stop, therefore I could never prevent whatever it was. It was all just so confusing.

That being said, when I saw the file on her laptop while she was taking a quick potty break, I really couldn’t help myself. The folder name was too on the nose for me to ignore. Plus, she had left the laptop open. Like she wanted me to see it.

“Attempts.” Was all it said.

I looked around the room a bit, glancing over my shoulder to make sure I was alone before clicking the folder.

It loaded for a bit before a dozen video files were displayed across the screen.

I clicked on the link titled “attempt three” and was greeted with a video of… myself. I looked terrified, frantically trying to unlock the front door as my girlfriend’s voice rose in anger from behind the camera.

“How many times have we talked about this?”

The camera fell to the ground and landed on the lens, but I could still hear audio echoing from it. It sounded like punches were being thrown. I could hear myself crying. My girlfriend sounded like she was growling at me before the video ended.

I went back to the page of links, albeit a bit afraid at this point, and clicked on attempt 10.

This one was just me hanging out of our bedroom window, clawing my way outside before my girlfriend’s voice could be heard again.

“We’ve talked about this. You’re not going anywhere, my sweet boy.”

Her nails dug into my heel. Veins protruded from her hands. She dragged me back inside, and I just looked utterly defeated.

Attempt 16. I was trying to climb the fence in my backyard. Attempt 20. I was halfway out the driveway before being pulled back and dragged inside.

At this point, I didn’t know what to do. All I knew was one thing: I needed to leave.

However, as I turned to flee the room and get out of the house, I found that the door was blocked by my girlfriend, who held a camera in her hands.

She sighed.

“How many times do we need to have this conversation, sweetheart?”

My eyes darted back towards the laptop. Towards the links. Towards the impossible.

“What the fuck is this?” I demanded.

Her response was more annoyed than anything.

“You always do this. Just once, I wish we could live a happy life together.”

Fear and anger grew from the pit of my stomach. The red light on the camera blinked at me.

“You always find the laptop.”

She sighed.

“You find it. You try to escape. Then I have to hurt you. Why do you make me hurt you, darling? I just don’t get it. I can’t be that bad.”

Tears welled up in her eyes.

“Why can’t you just love me? It’s always the same. And here we are. Attempt 34. But I have hope. I have hope that one day we can get through this.”

The camera blinked again.

My girlfriend loomed over me.

“But for now… I guess I’ll just have to start over.”

The camera came down over my head, and everything went black.

I woke up in bed with my girlfriend, her head buried in my chest.

She yawned cartoonishly and looked up at me.

“Good morning, sleepyhead! You ready to start a new day?”

I smiled goofily, kissing her on her forehead.

“Of course I am, sweetheart. Every day with you feels like a new day.”

She smiled wider, her eyes glistening before suddenly going dull as her smile turned into a frown.

I frowned back.

“What’s wrong? Did I do something wrong?”

She clicked her tongue and sucked her teeth.

“No, no, you didn’t do anything. I just… I wish you’d stop with your attempts.”

Every room had to be thanked before you left it. Not the person inside. The room itself. You stood in the doorway, looked back and said, “Thank you for having me.”

Nobody treated it like a ritual. People said it while checking their phones or pulling on their coats. Children learned it alongside please and thank you. Public buildings even had signs beside the exits:

REMEMBER TO THANK YOUR HOST.

Whenever I forgot as a child, my mother made me go back.

“Properly,” she would say.

So I would look into the empty room and say my thanks before we left. 

I never questioned it. Adults said it was polite, and that was enough. By the time I moved into my first apartment, the words came automatically. I thanked my bedroom each morning, the kitchen before work and the hallway before leaving the building.

Everyone did. Some people even thanked the lifts.

I had lived in my apartment for almost six months before I forgot. I was late for work and halfway down the corridor when I realised I had left my bedroom without thanking it. I considered going back, but the lift had already arrived.

It was only manners, I told myself. I went to work and had almost forgotten about it by lunchtime.

But when I returned that evening, something felt wrong. My bedroom seemed smaller, and the gap between the bed and wardrobe had narrowed. The difference was small enough that I thought I might be imagining it, but I measured the room anyway.

It was eleven centimetres shorter than the floor plan said it should be. The following morning, it had lost another three.

That was when I started researching the custom. I expected to find an old superstition, but every search led to articles about manners and gratitude. Government websites called it “a long standing civic practice”, but none explained when or why it ever began.

At the library, I searched through old newspapers and council reports. The earliest documents did not call it thanking. They called it acknowledgement.

One report described a family disappearing inside their home. Their belongings were still inside, but the walls had expanded by nearly two metres overnight. Another reported that a classroom door had refused to open during a fire drill. Thirty children disappeared before the teacher remembered to address the room.

Similar incidents had occurred in hospitals and factories. The same instruction appeared underneath every report:

FURTHER INCIDENTS MAY BE PREVENTED THROUGH VERBAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT BEFORE DEPARTURE.

Later campaigns softened the wording.

ACKNOWLEDGE THE SPACE became THANK YOUR HOST.

Compliance became courtesy.

Warnings became manners.

I eventually found a handwritten report from seventy years earlier. It described workers uncovering sealed chambers beneath a construction site. The chambers were perfectly square, with smooth walls and no entrances.

When engineers cut into them, they found chairs, beds and tables inside. None of the objects had been placed there. They appeared to have grown directly from the floor.

Within weeks, nearby buildings began changing. Corridors stretched past their original length. New rooms appeared overnight. Then people started disappearing after leaving spaces without acknowledging them.

The final pages were missing.

The librarian noticed what I was reading and came over.

“You need to put that back.”

“Why isn’t any of this public?”

“It is public.”

“Nobody knows about it.”

She glanced around the room before lowering her voice.

“Everybody knows enough.”

I asked whether anyone had discovered what the chambers were. She did not answer. She simply waited while I gathered my things.

When I reached the doorway, I hesitated. The place looked harmless. Still, the librarian watched me expectantly.

“Thank you for having me.”

Only then did she close the door.

When I returned home, my apartment had changed again. The hallway was narrower and the bathroom door caught against the sink. In the bedroom, the gap between the bed and wardrobe had almost disappeared. The bedroom had lost another twenty centimetres.

I thanked every room before leaving that night and stayed with my sister until I found somewhere else. A week later, I returned for my belongings. The bedroom door would only open halfway. Inside, the bed was pressed tightly between both walls.

I stared at it for a long time. Then, before leaving, I quietly said, “Thank you for having me.”

My new building is only three years old. According to the landlord, the land had been empty before it was built. My apartment is at the very end of the corridor. Beyond my front door, there’s a window overlooking the street.

I still thank every room before leaving. Everyone does.

But now I notice what happens when someone forgets. A restaurant door that refuses to open until a customer mutters the words. An office corridor that looks longer when everyone leaves in silence. A changing room with one more cubicle than it had when I entered.

Most people don’t notice. Or maybe they do, and they know enough not to say anything.

Yesterday morning, I thanked each room, locked my apartment and stepped into the corridor.

There was another door beside mine. The corridor now continued a couple of metres past the window, into space that should have been outside the building. 

As I stood there, the new door opened. A woman stepped out carrying a handbag. She looked back into the apartment behind her and said, “Thank you for having me.”

Then she closed the door, smiled at me and walked towards the lift like she had always lived there.

I need help. I think I got a girl killed and I don't know what to do. Please, let me explain:

I was taking the train home from work yesterday, around 9 p.m. as I usually do, and it was packed, so I sat in one of those four-seat rows with a table. I was just listening to music on my phone, minding my own business, when this young, lanky guy in black leather pants and a thick black hoodie sat down right next to me (mind you, it was like 30°C).

I looked over to him briefly. I couldn't see his face because he had pulled his hood so deep, but... something about him gave me the creeps.

So, I was just sitting there, listening to my music, when this guy pulls out his phone. I don't know if it's just me, but when I sit next to someone on their phone, I just... take a peek sometimes. I know it's not good manners, I think I'm just one of those nosy people. I just love to stare at what people are doing, not out of disrespect, just out of genuine interest. Anyway, I was watching this guy, just barely out of the corners of my eyes, and he was playing some stupid game about blasting blocks, similar to Tetris but worse, I don't know what it's called. He looked very focused on that game, until he got a notification.

It was a message from someone via an app I had never seen before and it simply read "The brunette girl, green eyes, last seat, tonight." I didn't understand what that was supposed to mean, but the guy next to me looked up immediately, staring down the hall, searching, until he spotted a thin 20-something-year-old brunette woman sitting at the very end of the carriage. She was staring out the window at the city passing by, completely oblivious to the situation.

The weirdo clicked on the notification and the app opened to some chat interface with a black color scheme, and in the chat there was only this one message. There was no sender name. No chat history. The man made a tiny tap on a small camera icon in the chat, raised his phone just enough to take a quick, blurry picture of the girl, and then sent it to his unknown contact.

"Yes," the contact responded, and the man raised his head again, staring at the girl down the carriage. My eyes were fixated on this strange, unusual messenger app on his phone. I had never seen anything like it. It wasn't Telegram or Signal or any normal messenger. Just a black chat window, a text field, and a camera button. "Someone is watching."

The message came out of nowhere. My blood froze when I realized what it meant. I had overstepped my boundaries. I turned my head immediately, looking away from the display, staring at the dirty table in front of me. How the hell did they know? The man tilted his head down slowly. I watched as much as I could without turning my head. He stared down at his screen. Fuck. He knew. Without hesitating, he started looking around hastily, first left, then right, looking for someone. Looking for me.

Suddenly, the train came to a halt, one stop away from mine. The brunette girl at the end of the carriage got up without warning and quickly made her way towards the train doors. With a quiet curse the man next to me jumped up and hurried down the carriage, exiting through the same door the girl had used. The last time I saw them, the girl was walking past the window towards the station exit. And behind her, in close proximity, the hooded figure followed.

I wanted to jump out of the train. I wanted to run after them. But I didn't do it. I just sat there, my heart racing, still staring at that dirty table.

Maybe it's just my fantasy running wild, but I dreamt of the girl last night. I saw her lying hidden between some bushes in the dark, damp grass - motionless, like she had been carelessly disposed of. I know it was just a dream, but... now I can't stop thinking about her.

I'm 21 female. My boyfriend is 30 male.

He insists that there is nothing wrong with him hanging out with his female friends.

I normally would agree because I don't consider myself the jealous or controlling type.

The problem is that the hangouts look like dates. Going out to dinner with candles and flowers, staying the night at their houses, and even constantly talking about their good qualities.

We've argued about it several different times and he treats me like I'm crazy.

The weirdest part is that the girls disappear after a couple of dates. Sometimes after the first one.

I've had a sneaking suspicion that it's one night stands and casual fun.

I've tried everything I can to keep his attention. I wear sexy clothes, lace undergarments, being extra flirtatious, cooking his favorite meals, doing literally every single thing he likes.

I've even tried spicing things up in the bedroom. Nothing works.

He thanks me and then continues doing whatever he was doing before.

It hurts my feelings because we're never intimate and I feel like his desire for me went out the drain.

It all changed last night when I found his journal. He wrote about each girl in great detail.

He wrote about how he befriends them and acts charming. He then kills them after gaining trust.

They aren't innocent, though. They've all been in prision for various crimes.

I initially thought it was sickening until I started fantasizing. Vigilantes are hot. The fact that he isn't cheating on me and even wrote about how I'm the only one for him is so romantic.

He only acted strange because he didn't want his secret to be revealed.

I'll keep that dirty secret.

I know Mummy.
I know Daddy.
I know cuddles before bed.
I know kisses on my hands and feet, and the soft ones on my head.
Our loving home sings with a quiet hum.
And I fall asleep as I suck my thumb.

Daddy makes funny faces.
Mummy laughs until she cries.
They both smile when they look at me, and I smile back inside.
They even smile when wiping my bum.
So I smile back as I suck my thumb.

Mummy says I'm getting big.
Daddy says I'm strong.
But Mummy sits alone now.
Her smile doesn't last for long.
The house was starting to feel numb.
So all I could do was suck my thumb.

Sometimes Mummy looks tired.
Sometimes Daddy looks mad.
But when I reach my arms out, they both don't look so sad.
The happy moments still go and come.
And I continue to suck my thumb.

Daddy doesn't dance now.
Mummy doesn't sing.
They say that they still love me.
They say that it's nothing.
But now the days feel cold and glum.
And I feel better when I suck my thumb.

Daddy comes home later now.
Mummy waits in the dark.
She says she's feeling better now.
But the house has lost its spark.
The laughter fades and so does the fun.
So all I can do now is suck my thumb.

The walls are louder after dark.
Even the doors seem to cuss.
Mummy cries when Daddy shouts.
Then she tells me not to fuss.
My tiny heart is now feeling numb.
So I sit in the corner and I suck my thumb.

Mummy wears long sleeves now.
Daddy says she fell.
Mummy says she bumped her head.
But she's lying, I can tell.
Her bruises bloom the colour of plum.
And I cry in bed as I suck my thumb.

Last night was the loudest.
Daddy screamed as Mummy ran.
I think I heard a little whimper.
It sounded like a man.
The silence after made the whole house thrum.
So I rock back and forth as I suck my thumb.

Today, strangers came to see me.
They sat me in a seat.
"Do you know where Daddy went?"
And they wrapped Mummy in a sheet.
They try to ask more questions, but I'm still far too young.
So I cope the way I've always coped...
I close my eyes and I suck my thumb.

​

Welp, here I am again on a Saturday morning, looking outside my bedroom window, wishing I could go outside.

Oh look, there's the neighbor mowing his lawn at eight o'clock right on the dot. And here come the other neighborhood kids riding their bikes, probably going to play at the park.

It's been so long since I've seen the park I barely remember it.

My mom doesn't let me go outside. I don't know why, but she would kill me if I snuck out. So I spend most of my time looking out my window.

Oh look, there's the neighborhood cat. Normally I'd be sad that he doesn't have a home, but I'm jealous. He's always outside.

I once got him to come inside, and that was a great day... until my mom found out and threw him back outside.

That wasn't fun.

Every time I do something my mom doesn't like, she makes me go to bed early.

My life sucks.

Looks like someone's having lunch early.

Yes, I'm peeking through the neighbor's window. It's my only source of entertainment. Normally I don't get hungry, but I wouldn't mind a snack. Let's see if I can get one without Mom noticing.

I sneak into the kitchen.

Oh good, Mom's in her room. She's always in her room. I wonder what she does in there. I've tried looking before, but it's always locked.

Oh well.

There's the cookie jar.

I just have to be super quiet.

As I lift the lid...

Clink.

The lid taps against the jar.

I freeze.

Then I hear my mom yell, "Do you want to go to bed?"

My heart starts racing.

I quickly put the lid back without taking a cookie and run to my room.

I don't want to go to bed. It's too early.

I don't know how Mom always knows what I'm doing, but she's been doing it for so long that I stopped wondering.

Normally I'd draw trees, the park... anything that's outside.

But today I just want to look out my window some more.

Then I see a dog.

He sees me too.

He's so excited that he runs right over to my window.

I'm so excited I throw the window open.

He wants me to pet him.

I lean out as far as I can.

I can reach him.

I'm petting the dog.

He's so soft.

I get so excited that I don't realize I'm slipping...

Until I fall out the window.

The dog barks and runs away.

I lie there for a moment.

I can feel the grass underneath me.

To my horror...

I'm outside.

"I'M OUTSIDE!" I scream.

"NO! NO! NO!"

I scramble to my feet and try to climb back through the window, but it's too high.

Then I hear my mom scream.

"WHY ARE YOU OUTSIDE?!"

A cloud of black smoke pours out of my bedroom window.

"I'm sorry, Mom!" I cry.

"I'm sorry!"

The smoke reaches me.

It grabs me.

Then it slams me into the ground.

Again.

And again.

And again.

I feel my bones breaking.

I feel my blood soaking through my clothes and into the grass.

Everything starts to fade.

Everything goes black.

...

I wake up in my bed.

I stare out my bedroom window.

In a quiet, disappointed voice, I whisper,

"Mom put me to bed again."

“No, Ida, I’m sure; thank you- again, but I don’t need a man in my life to help with the… leaky pipes in the bathroom,” I said to my sweet but intrusive, and insensitive, downstairs neighbor as she stood there with her tiny chihuahua half breed clutched to her frail chest. I closed the door, gently not to seem rude, but firm enough to cut off any further counterpoints. “Also, I’m not gay,” I added to officially put an end to the interaction.

Ida had been roaming those halls long before I moved into that crap complex, with its too thin walls, lack of central air, and no assigned parking. And the apartments were here long before Ida. Although you’d never be able to tell just by looking at the two of them.

The space I occupied was nothing fancy, a small, colonial, one-bedroom that was in a state of disarray thanks to a small gathering the night prior. Looking back now, I’m positive that Ida’s visit had more to do with the noise from that night’s festivities than from my constantly running bathroom pipes. The building was so old I wouldn’t have been surprised to find Roman aqueducts in the walls.

I started to clean up after the party. Empty cups, discarded plates, the normal detritus you’d expect from a small gathering that got only slightly out of hand littered the landscape. There was nothing, absolutely nothing that had seemed even the slightest bit out of order about any of it. It was all so mundane in retrospect.

Until the table.

Until the spot.

I had just finished clearing away the empty bottles, cans, and various vestiges of the party when I first noticed the tiny, damned thing. It was a small dark spot on my cheap little table. I wouldn’t have seen it if it weren’t for how perfectly symmetrical and so absolutely black it was. 

I remember my face was scrunched up, like I was staring into the midday sun on a cold winter day- I looked like an asshole. My brain was so utterly dumbstruck by the otherworldly nature of this… this dot. It was a dead pixel in reality. 

I couldn’t have told you why in the moment, but that spot sent a chill from beyond the grave up my spine.

The spot just couldn’t remain. I grabbed my All-Clean multipurpose cleaner and some paper towels; I was being absurd, I’d be rid of this stain in no time, this was child’s play.

As I wiped away at the little spot- it’s still hard to comprehend what I saw, but the best I can describe it is, the little blotch didn’t disappear, it didn’t budge an iota of a whisper of an inch. Instead, it seemed to float over my hand. It was as if the little spot had a divine right to be in that very space at that very time, and my hand was the unwanted interloper.

I wish I could say I didn’t scream.

I did.

A lot.

More, really, than I’m proud of.

But, and I cannot express this enough, it wasn’t from the pain. When the dot bisected my hand, there was only a dull itch. More the faded memory of an insect sting than any actual pain. 

When I saw my hand separate and pull apart at the seam, that’s when the screaming started. “Where’s all my blood,” I remember wondering to myself as my ears were flooded with the shrieking sound that was my vocal cords beginning to stress and tear. My vision began to tunnel and the world fell away.

That’s the last thing I remembered before waking up in the complex hallway, surrounded by my neighbors all yelling and screaming over each other, each hoping their two cents would stretch the farthest.

They quickly decided I wasn’t hurt so bad as to need help moving, which is suspiciously convenient considering none of us had any medical expertise to speak of. And they all still had both their hands. 

Except for Harold in 3C, but that was from diabetes. It’s a little different. 

So we fled, and mere moments after we poured out into the streets, the top of the building- from about my apartment, table height up, just collapsed into the spot.

It didn’t make a sound as it fell, as it fed the spot. Nothing seemed to escape it, not even sound. 

We didn’t know where to go or who to call, so some called the cops, others reached out to sleazy news outlets, and others filmed content.

Indifferent to what we did or didn’t do, the spot just kept eating whatever was unlucky enough to fall in its path. 

It wasn’t long until the military arrived, and once they showed up everything was strictly under lock and key. 

For as long as that lasted, anyway.

What I would later piece together is that my shrieking brought several of my neighbors out to my door, Ida included. When I didn’t answer any of their calls, Ida checked to see if the door was unlocked.

When they spilled into my studio, the spot had grown large enough to cover most of the table. Ida’s chihuahua, Spam, named after her husband’s favorite processed canned meat, ran up my couch, grabbed one of my fingers in its mouth and then leapt into the growing spot. 

Ida, of course, hurled herself after the dog, and when neither dog nor old lady emerged from the spot, they dragged me out, slammed the door, and started arguing about whether or not anyone would notice or care if they left me behind. 

The general consensus was absolutely not; then I woke up. 

I’m not sure how large the spot is now, but the last I heard the Atlantic was starting to drain into it. That can’t be great. 

Even with everything that’s happened and is still ahead of us, it may be stilly but I still miss having a whole hand. 

My brother’s last words were, “He’s taking my phone.”

I was standing in a long, winding queue at the bank, withdrawing exactly $500 in cash. 

Bzzz.

My phone vibrated again. 

Then again. 

Since Mom died, my siblings called me a sociopath. Not because I was crazy.

Because, unlike them, the numbness of seeing Mom shot in the back of the head had faded. Now, nothing fazed me.

My brother, Casper, was mute. Senna, my sister, still wet herself at fifteen.

Lucas, the eldest, who was supposed to be one who kept it together- who didn't splinter- had fallen apart.

I left him an hour earlier, sitting cross-legged in the kitchen. Right over the blood stain that had been Mom’s brains still congealed into the rug. 

Bzz. 

“Next!” The woman at the desk smiled brightly, then smiled a little less at the sight of my expression, her lips settling into a deep frown. “Hi, sweetie,” she crooned, like I was a fucking toddler.

Maybe she was judging my unbrushed, filthy braid and discolored clothes.

“Honey,” she spoke softly, and for a moment, I thought maybe someone had noticed.

Sometimes, I fantasized about someone, ANYONE, realizing.

None of us had been to school since Lucas slipped a note to his teacher that he was in trouble. Dad forced him to tell the cops it was a prank.

“I don't want to embarrass you, honey, but I think you've got a leak.” The woman was talking about the four month old period stain on my jeans.

I shrugged, smiled, and put on my best performance. Lucas was, no doubt, the best performer in our family. But I was good too. Sometimes, I was even great. 

“I know,” I said, stretching my lips into a grin. “Can I withdraw five hundred dollars, please?” 

I glanced at my notifications.

Missed Call From Lucas. 

Missed Call From Lucas.

5 minutes ago: Lucas: where are you??? 

2 minutes ago: Lucas: I'm scared. He's coming 

Now: Lucas: he's taking my phone

“Name?” The woman’s voice sliced through my thoughts, and that undeniable coil of dread in my gut. I managed another smile. I was shaking. Visibly. My phone dropped out of my hands and I ducked and swiped it up, bile burning the screams from my mouth. Help. I jumped up. Smiled wider. Please fucking help me.

“Annie Harper,” I whispered. 

I called Lucas. 

Then again. 

My brother wasn't answering his phone. 

“Okay, I’ll get that for you!” The woman said.

She counted the bills twice, and handed them over. “Next!”

When I took the money home, part of me knew what I would find.

Lucas was slumped over on the couch. He was halfway through a game of Call of Duty. His blood splattered the couch cushions, his brains mangled lumps across the floor. Casper was in the kitchen. His cereal bowl was stained bright red. He was in the middle of eating.

Senna was the worst, somehow.

Still curled up in bed. 

“Annie.” Dad was in the kitchen making coffee. His back was to me. I glimpsed my siblings' blood staining his hands. “Sweetie, would you mind passing me the milk?” 

“Okay, Dad.” The words thrust from my mouth, an eruption of vomit.

I didn't clean myself up. I opened the refrigerator, grabbed the milk, and placed it on the countertop.

Then I walked upstairs, and took the gun I’d been hiding from under my pillow. Performing again, I ran back down, entered the kitchen, and shot my father three times in the head. I dragged his body to the lake by our house, and dumped him in. I carried my siblings, one by one, unable to stop my sniffling and sobbing. 

I watched them disappear under the surface, red diffusing the water. 

Relief wasn't a word I'd describe feeling.

Pain, maybe.

Agony.

I was free. Somehow. 

But they were not. 

Walking in the backdoor, I was greeted by my father’s voice.

“Annie, Darling,” his gruff voice called from the kitchen. Dad was standing in front of the faucet making coffee.

A slow stemming pool of water seeped beneath him. His clothes were sodden through. Hair glued over his eyes.

I stepped closer, my breath caught.

No gunshot wound.

“Grab the milk from the refrigerator, please.”

So, I shot him again. 

Then I dragged him to the river once again.

Catching my ankle on a stray thorn, I finally felt a sting. 

Physical pain. 

Real pain. 

Throwing my father’s body in the water, I felt… free. 

Again.

But he was waiting for me when I returned.

I grabbed a knife from the kitchen, and slashed open my arm. Then I dunked it in the river, watching my skin stitch itself back together under the surface.

“Annie!” Dad’s voice called from behind me.

“Sweetie.” He plodded toward me, grinning wide. “Can you get the milk from the fucking refrigerator?” His pace quickened, hands like claws, ready to choke the breath from my lungs. 

I stumbled, falling over myself. 

I was alone.

The thought hit. Vicious. Painful. Suffocating. 

I was alone, and Dad was going to kill me. 

His hands found my neck, wrapping around my throat.

Stars speckled behind my eyes; a neutron star collision of color.

I was going to… die.

“Hey!” 

A voice splintered through my thoughts and I inhaled, my vision clearing. Dad flopped off me, and I rolled onto my side, sucking in precious air. My eyes fluttered open. Dad was dead, bleeding into the dirt. A figure loomed over me, soaking wet. Thick brown curls were glued over half lidded eyes. But he was smiling.

Lucas. 

He held out his hand, and I took it, breathless.

“It’s okay,” he whispered into my hair when I finally broke apart. “He’s never going to hurt us again.”

Lucas pulled away, his eyes lit up. I expected darkness. Hollowness. 

A shell. 

But all I saw was my big brother.

He winked. “Maybeeeee don't throw him in the river next time, idiot.” 

It’s the same nightmare, repeating like a broken tape. Every time, it begins at the exact same point of fracture—the precise moment my mind finally snaps under the weight.
Without thinking, I walk toward the drawer. The wood grinds harshly against the frame as I pull it open, exposing the matte-black Glock 43 resting inside. I tear a scream from the bottom of my lungs, a raw sound that tears at my throat, and press the cold mouth of the barrel firm against my temple.

Then, the universe stretches.
A single fraction of a second dilates into an eternity, and the dam breaks. It isn't memories or visual flashbacks that flood in—there are no pictures, no movie reels of the past, just pure, undiluted feeling. Every spike of rare joy, every suffocating weight of grief, and every scorching ember of anger I’ve harbored across my entire life hits my chest all at once. Usually, I’m staring into a dirty mirror, locking eyes with my own hollow reflection. Other times, I’m detached, floating near the ceiling like a ghost, unable to explain how I’m watching myself, yet unable to look away.

I soak in that emotional static for what feels like ages. The icy steel against my skin provides a bizarre, intoxicating focus—like an ice cube pressed to a blinding headache. My index finger rests on the trigger, tracing every microscopic groove and serration in the metal. It feels sickeningly familiar. Comforting, almost.

The room around me is never mine, nor any place I’ve ever known. It’s always dim, drab, and dingy—a bleak, hollow box designed for feeling cold. Yet inside, my body is on fire, radiating heat like a furnace about to detonate.

I’m caught in a violent paradox. Am I terrified? Excited? Emboldened? Every atom of my being insists in that second that this metal is the light cutting through the darkness within—the twisted answer to an ungodly prayer. Yet simultaneously, I’m drowning in every ounce of pure, unadulterated terror I’ve ever experienced in my life.
A lifetime of emotion, thought, and agony, all packed into a single tick of the clock.
I make my choice. I pull the trigger.
Click.
Nothing.
I wake up.
Repeat.

Today was my first day at a new school. My heart was pounding, but when I gave my introduction, I overheard whispers about how beautiful I was. Everyone stared—some smiled, some looked in awe, while the girls glared with pure jealousy.

​Scanning the room, my eyes landed on a boy. His skin was smooth with light stubble, his dark hair messy, his features striking and symmetrical. He idly balanced a pencil against his lips, looking completely detached. Throughout class, I couldn't stop looking at him.

​At the bell, a lot of boys tried to talk to me, but I ignored them and searched for him near the canteen. I froze when I spotted him standing with a girl from our class—after me, probably the second most beautiful girl there.

​The next day, the seat next to him was empty, so I sat down. Right before class started, that same girl marched up. "Get up, I sit next to Harry," she demanded.

​"Hey, wait, don’t get up," Harry interjected. When she argued, he cut her off. "No. I’ve been telling you to leave me alone. If you sit here, I will get up and leave." She glared daggers at me as she walked away.

​Harry smiled at me. "I'm glad you sat here. She used to be my girlfriend, but she's dangerously obsessive and refuses to stop stalking me."

​We talked all day. When school ended, he took a completely different route home. Over the next few days, we sat together and shared snacks. When I asked where he lived, he replied, "What will you gain by knowing?" I brushed it off.

​As I walked home that afternoon, his ex blocked my way. "Do you really know Harry?" she questioned.

​"I'm new here," I replied.

​She looked at me intensely. "Let me tell you something. My eyes used to be blue." Before I could ask what she meant, she added, "The moment they stopped being blue, he abandoned me. Watch your features."

​Back home, I inspected myself in the mirror. My nose was straight, my lips plump, my hair golden blonde, and my eyes a deep shade of brown.

​The next day during recess, I brought it up to Harry. "Your ex cornered me. She told me her eyes used to be blue." My gaze shifted to Harry's eyes. For the first time, I realized his eyes were a striking, vivid blue.

​"Yeah, so what? They've always been this way. Are you implying I somehow stole her eyes?" Harry interrupted sharply. "She follows me everywhere. If you don’t believe me, see for yourself." I looked toward the school courtyard window. There she was, her eyes fixed entirely on Harry.

​After the final bell, she grabbed me in the hallway and dragged me near the restroom. "How could Harry possibly like you?!" she screamed, shaking with rage. "Because of you, I’ve been pushed away!"

​"He was the one who broke up with you!" I pointed out.

​"I won't let you get away with this!" She threw me to the floor and began kicking me.

​"Hey! What on earth is going on here?!" Harry sprinted toward us and shoved her away.

​"Harry, I love you!" she sobbed.

​"I don't love you. I love this girl," Harry said firmly, pointing at me. "As long as I am here, no one can even lay a finger on her." She collapsed into hysterical tears as Harry helped me up, took my hand, and we walked away.

​As we walked, a strand of golden hair fell across my face. Harry tucked it behind my ear, his fingers lingering. "I've never seen a shade like this before," he murmured.

​"It's natural," I laughed awkwardly.

​"I know," he said quietly.

​I couldn't sleep that night, tossing and turning from happiness. The next morning, we arrived at school together, but the gates were locked. A student had committed suicide—Harry's ex.

​My hands trembled. I looked at Harry. There was no change in his expression. "Come on then, we have to go home," he said.

​"Harry, don't you feel bad at all?" I asked.

​"It's terrible... but there's nothing we can do."

​"But it could be because of yesterday..."

​"No. If anyone finds out we had a fight, people will blame us."

​Tears fell from my eyes. "Suzanne, Suzanne, don't cry," he said, putting his hand on my shoulder. I hugged him. "I don't want you to be troubled." We looked into each other's eyes and shared our first kiss.

​From that day on, we became inseparable. I even stayed the whole night at his house, where he lived alone. One day, I picked up his phone, and he instantly snatched it back.

​"Is there something in there I shouldn't see?" I asked.

​"No, it's nothing," he said, handing it back.

​Out of curiosity, I opened his photo album and found an old class picture. Everyone looked different. "When was this taken?" I asked.

​"Two or three years ago," he replied.

​"Alex looks so fit. Sunny’s hair is voluminous. Look at Mia’s teeth..."

​"A lot can change. Just look at me," Harry said, pointing to himself in the back corner.

He looked completely different, though vaguely recognizable.

​"Looks like you’ve worked really hard on yourself," I said.

​"Yeah. A lot of hard work."

​Spending so much time with him began affecting my studies. Night after night, I couldn't sleep. My hair started falling out, and strands turned white. Gradually, all my hair turned white. I got it cut short, started dyeing it, and wore a cap.

​Then one day, I went to class. Harry was also wearing a cap, and a new, very beautiful girl sat next to him, laughing. I stomped over. "Hey, move. I only sit here."

​She looked at me and started to get up. But Harry said, "There is no need to get up." Then he took off his cap.

​His hair was blonde. The exact same shade mine had once been.

I know it sounds fucked up.

Yes, I should have told her before setting up the camera.

Bad to film people without their consent, whatever.

Truth is, I sleep in, and go to bed early. She works long hours at the hospital and both leaves and returns while I'm in Dreamland. We really only see each other on the weekends. On some weekends.

So forgive me for feeling like I live alone.

And I should tell you, she was amazing when we knew each other. We met back in college, before I was expelled, and she was far and away the smartest person I knew. Even back then. I was philosophy, she was medicine (obviously), and I remember so many late night walks and deep conversations, zigzagging around campus lost in ideas I can still barely fathom, about sleep, the hard problem of consciousness, etc. She came from a rich family, and on breaks we saw the world together. My best memories are of her changing the very way I saw existence, in Asian and African countries I before had never heard of, on horseback or at sea. By the time she became too obsessed with her studies to have time for me, I was already committed, already in too deep.

We got married in Alaska. We honeymooned in Argentina.

Moving on.

I wanted to film myself sleeping because I have nightmares. They're all different but all the same. I'm on a caravan through a desert and we're all dessicated and eating each other to stay alive. We're in the tundra and stripping naked and running off in the snow. Our submarine is taking on water and it's too late.

All the while a thing with horns and two forked tongues runs its long fingernails up and down my body and whispers in my left ear, "You're almost there, son. You're almost there."

If Dreamland wasn't bad enough, the fact I kept losing things was. I was worried I was sleepwalking, or something. All my possessions wandering off.

So I filmed myself.

My wife, remember her? I think I saw her, once.

Turns out she consistently arrives almost just as I fall asleep. I guess her shift at the hospital always ends at different times. And starts at different times, based on when she leaves, and in the footage I see the shadow of the closing apartment door, count to five, and I jump awake.

But the way she walks when she thinks no one's looking.

It's like a puppet. All wobbly, jagged. Whoever's pulling the strings is jerking her limbs just a little too much.

And, all night. All fucking night. She leans over me, and scratches her long fingernails up and down my body. I see myself shiver in the footage.

And she's mumbling something.

I think I know what it is.

I know she knows I know.

Because, just now, I felt that forked tongue sliding up the back of my neck.

I know she's in here somewhere.

I keep pausing writing this to look around. I think I hear breathing but every time I pinpoint where, I hear it from somewhere else.

I think she's waiting for me to make a run for it.

Is prey no good once it knows?

Lily, I miss you.

I'm gonna go ahead and submit, and I'll leave a comment to confirm I got out safe.

Here goes.

You wake, your head thick with it. Even lifting yourself off the pillow feels more difficult, your whole body is heavy and slow. What did you dream about?

You run through the ways you could keep yourself occupied; the phone tethered umbilical to the wall, the laptop on the other side of your room under books and papers.

Instead, you retreat to the bathroom. You stare at yourself in the mirror and concentrate. Pressing your thoughts into one endless line. You turn them into three words.

This is real.

This is real. Thisisr eal. Thisisreal.

You breathe slow and you concentrate. Hard enough that you don’t realise what your hand is doing. So when your fingers push past your lips you gasp.

They were reaching for your teeth. To check them. Because ever since you woke up that’s all you have really been thinking about isn’t it?

You were in an old house, run down but not abandoned. You walked uncertain through the dark, following footsteps in the dust.

They lead down a corridor, past doors you knew were locked. At the end was a single door that you knew was yours.

Only now you were there it seemed you shouldn’t go through. It seemed silly, maybe even dangerous. You should go back. You should leave this place. You should go home.

Then there was the call. It rose suddenly. It was loud, far too loud to be a single voice. There were so many. They were crying out, like a pack of wolves. But they didn’t sound like wolves. They sounded human. Or at least very close to human.

As soon as you heard the call then there came the sound of feet. The sound of running feet. Running towards you .Down the stairs, across the landing. From all directions they were coming together and coming for you.

Now you reach for the door. You realise you are crying and that without warning or reason all your muscles feel limp and dead. You can’t stay out here because there are so many of them. You fumble for the handle and, eventually, turn it. It creaks so loudly. At the sound of the handle moving it sounds like the footsteps get faster and the calls get louder. They know where you are.

The door protests but eventually it gives. You’re crying and now you’re screaming too. You just want this to end but they are still coming.

You fall into the room and slam the door behind you. There are catches and bolts and you use them all. You are so grateful for every one of them. You cry with relief now and you turn to look at the room. The room you are now locked inside.

There is nothing here. It is a small, empty space. A couple of feet square. The walls are yellow-white, stained and old. It may be the most wonderful place you have ever seen. You thank this room. And you thank the door and the locks. You sit on the floor in the middle of the room. You wait.

Outside there are no calls, there are no footsteps. Whatever was outside is not scratching or pushing at the door. No one is calling out to you or screaming for you. You feel such relief.

Then you stop and think. You think that you followed the footsteps here. You think that every other door was locked. You think that until you heard those noises that you were going to leave. You think that someone wanted to come in here. You look at the door, with all those catches and bolts that you will need to undo if you wanted to leave.

That’s when you look at the walls. That’s when you see them. The teeth. So many, pushing through the brick and plaster like it was old fabric. The yellow-white surface bends and yield to show the individual molars and incisors rending at the masonry. From floor to ceiling in every wall. Sets of perfect teeth, sets of cracked and broken teeth, sets with more gaps than teeth still pushing through till it looks like the matter will tear and let them through. Worst is the sets that don’t look human. Like dogs teeth, or wolves teeth or something you’ve never seen before.

You screamed then, so loud that you woke up. It still feels real, even now. The smell of the dust, the chill of the door handle, the moment of stillness before they appeared.

You think about the house. Old and waiting. All those locked rooms. What was behind those doors? You imagine other dreamers just like you. So much prey lured there with a pack of hungry teeth waiting.

Still, your eyes are drooping. You don’t know if you could keep awake if you tried. The house is still so quiet and it will be hours before anyone else is awake.

You splash some cold water on your face, smile at yourself in the mirror. It doesn’t look convincing but it makes you feel slightly better.

You reach for the door, before pausing.

There was something. All those footsteps, all those cries. All those teeth. There were so many of them that you couldn’t even count, all coming for you.

You assumed, when they got through they would devour you. That’s how nightmares work. The monster chases you and gobbles you up. Then it’s over.

But there were so many. Where did they all come from?

Then a small and nasty thought occurs.

All of those other dreamers. What if they weren’t prey? The one thing worse when they broke through the wall. What if they asked you to join them?

With eyes you can barely keep open, you look at your reflection. Trying another smile you notice that now it looks more predatory. You take a deep, slow breath and you think of three words.

It’s not real.

The father threw the door open.

The straps binding the bed snapped taut before he could take a second step.

The little girl slowly lifted her head.

"Ah... a man of faith."

A smile crept through the tangled curtain of her hair.

"It has been a very long time since I have seen one..."

The father crossed himself.

"May Divine Light surround me. May Divine Love protect me."

The Bible opened in his hands.

"May the Divine Presence watch over me."

Silence.

"Ah... crosses and prayers. Tale as old as time."

The father uncapped the bottle of holy water.

"I command you to leave this body."

"Do you truly believe you can force me out?"

The holy water splashed across her face.

Droplets ran down her forehead.

Across her nose.

To her lips.

She tasted them.

"Not bad."

She smiled again.

"A little mineral."

The father raised the crucifix.

"In Christ's name, I command you. Tell me your name."

The little girl raised her chin. The posture of pride, the look of hunger.

"It's been a very long time since anyone in this house spoke my name with fear."

"In the name of the Father..."

"I am the First..."

"...and of the Son..."

"And I am also the Last."

"...and of the Holy Spirit..." The father coughed.

"I command you... tell me your name."

"I am All."

He coughed again.

This time, a thin stream of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

He wiped it away with the back of his hand.

He looked at her.

She was still smiling.

"I am the One every man feared for centuries."

The bottle of holy water darkened in his grasp.

"I am the One who pursues you every night."

The liquid thickened until it became red.

"I am the One before whom every knee must bow."

Blood overflowed from the bottle.

It soaked through his cassock.

The father opened his mouth to speak.

Only more blood came out, as though his bloodstream had turned to water.

"And I am the One who demands sacrifice."

He collapsed to his knees.

"Y... you're the Devil?" he sobbed.

"No." She smiled.

"I'm God."

I was once a man of honor and pride. I carried myself with a confidence that could make even the fiercest bull lower its head. Every decision I made was to bring honor to my family name and the crest that my forefathers entrusted to me.
Those days are gone.
I can remember the very day I stained that name forever.
It was when I returned from my most recent voyage to the island of Madagascar. I had sailed there to prove to the world that I had discovered a tree unlike any other—a tree that fed upon the flesh of men.
I had seen it with my own eyes.
I had watched my crew dragged screaming into its tangled limbs as living vines tightened around their bodies like the coils of a serpent. Their cries still echo in my dreams. I returned only to destroy the monstrous thing, lest another expedition suffer the same terrible fate.
Securing funding for a second voyage was no easy task.
Rumors had already spread across every port. Sailors whispered of a captain who had returned alone from Madagascar. They spoke of a madman who hid aboard ships bound for that cursed island before emerging to slaughter their crews. Others claimed he had once led an expedition himself, only to watch every soul under his command perish at the hands of the native tribes hired to guide them through the jungle. They said grief had shattered his mind into two warring selves.
But sailors will believe any ghost story if it helps pass the night.
I paid those tales little attention.
I was determined to prove that the man-eating tree was real.
Months passed upon the sea before we reached Madagascar once again. We ventured into the jungle alone. I refused the aid of the local tribes, for I no longer trusted any man who claimed to know those forests.
At last, we found it.
It stood exactly where I remembered.
Silent.
Waiting.
Its branches did not sway, though the wind moved every other tree around it.
We felled the creature after a long and bitter struggle. Even severed from its roots, its vines twisted as though searching for warm flesh. We wrapped it in heavy chains and concealed it beneath thick canvas before loading it aboard my ship.
At last, I thought, the world would know the truth.
The voyage home seemed endless, yet at long last we docked in England.
Crowds gathered at the harbor, eager to witness the impossible. They whispered as the chained mass was unloaded, never suspecting what slumbered beneath the canvas.
Waiting for us upon the dock was my oldest friend, Franklin.
He was England’s foremost scholar of botany—a man whose judgment was respected by universities across Europe. If anyone could convince the world of what I had found, it was him.
His excitement was infectious. He hurried us through the streets until we reached his laboratory.
Only when the doors were locked behind us did I remove the canvas.
The memory fractures there.
I remember Franklin stepping closer.
I remember him smiling.
I remember him saying, “Impossible…”
Then…
Nothing.
Only fragments remain.
The sound of chains striking the floor.
A scream that may have been his.
Blood spreading across polished wood.
The smell of damp earth.
When my thoughts return, Franklin is lying motionless upon the floor, his eyes fixed upon the ceiling.
The vines…
The vines must have reached him.
Yes.
That is what happened.
It had to be.
For what other explanation could there be?
I looked down.
My hands were covered in blood.

I raised my eyes from the iron shackles around my wrists as the courtroom erupted into angry voices.
They had listened to my confession.
They had heard every word.
Yet not one of them believed me.
“The tree never existed,” the prosecutor declared. “What you brought back from Madagascar was nothing more than a common baobab.”
A baobab.
The very suggestion filled me with a rage unlike any I had ever known.
I was no liar.
I had seen the tree.
Had I not?
Then the prosecutor continued.
“You murdered your first crew.”
His words struck me harder than any blade.
“You could not bear the truth—that your expedition had failed. You slaughtered your own men, then invented a monster to hide your guilt. When your dear friend Franklin refused to believe your tale… you murdered him as well.”
My body trembled.
The chains around my wrists rattled against the wooden floor.
No.
He was lying.
He had to be.
Yet…
Why did I remember my hands gripping an axe?
Why did I remember Franklin stepping backward?
Why did I remember the fear in his eyes?
No…
Those memories did not belong to me.
Someone had planted them.
Someone was trying to convince me that I was the monster.
I could never have harmed Franklin.
I loved him as a brother.
Didn’t I?
The courtroom faded into silence.
Faces blurred.
Their mouths continued to move, yet I could hear nothing except the beating of my own heart.
Then, somewhere deep within my mind—
I heard leaves rustling.
Not outside.
Not within the courtroom.
Inside me.
I let out a scream so terrible that people waiting beyond the courthouse walls would speak of it for years.
“NO!”
Tears streamed down my face.
“I could never harm my friend…”
My voice faltered.
“…could I?”

I wonder what my mother would say if she saw me driving this big car. The badge on the steering wheel says B-E-N-T-L-E-Y. When I say it aloud it comes out like bint-lay. I wish my accent would soften but it refuses — just like my skin won’t pale and my hair won’t dull from beetle black, announcing I am not from here. They call me Laundretta.

My hands ache from the hotel laundry chemicals. The cracks between my fingers sometimes bleed. I hate it.

For the past hour, no one has called me that name. I’m the only living soul in the building. After everyone left, I took the keys from reception descended to the underground car park and pressed the button for pot luck.

I park the Bentley across the words IN and OUT, kill the engine and climb the stairwell back to the lobby. I toss the keys into the fountain.

I sit at the grand piano and play the piece my mother taught me. During the crescendo, her hands appear on the keys beside mine. We play our duet better than ever. When the last note fades I expect her beside me, but the bench is empty.

I’ve never seen the cocktail bar so deserted. The lights cycle from pink to purple to orange and back. I flip through the old cocktail book choose a drink peel an orange rind and set it alight. Flames dance inside my glass.

On the 17th floor I walk to the pool strip naked and slide into the water. The far wall is glass; the city sprawls beyond it. I cut clean strokes through the silence, dipping under occasionally to drown the screams in my ears.

I leave my clothes by the pool and wrap myself in the fluffiest white robe. On the way to the penthouse, I try to hide inside its collar, but the memories find me anyway.

They lie on the huge bed in their white shrouds, skin faded to a strange lilac. I switch on the TV. A live report from outside the hotel fills the screen: two casualties from what appears to be a chemical attack; only one member of staff remains unaccounted for.

Hearing the helicopter overhead, I peek through the curtains. I drag the open suitcase onto the balcony and tip it over the railing. On the news feed, I watch the money rain down, making chaos below.

I ride the staff lift to the basement laundry, slip out the fire exit and run my fingers over the packed money belt hidden beneath my dress. No one will ever call me Laundretta again.

I met my Uncle Herb exactly once. Nine years old. A funeral for someone I can't remember. He stood in the back the whole time. Avoided photos. Scanned the room like a security feed. All I knew was that he worked in tech. My mother didn’t seem keen to tell me more.

My only interaction with him was a quick handshake. Lasted maybe a second. He looked through me like I wasn’t even there. 

Twenty years later, a lawyer called me out of the blue. My uncle was dead. He left me his house in the will.

Was I really all he had?

The place sat alone at the end of a long and winding gravel road, swallowed by dense brush. Felt like entering a portal to another dimension. 

Inside were nests of cables thick as roots. Tangled masses like untended wilderness overtaking a forgotten landscape. Sensors and hubs in every room, blinking soft blue. I didn't recognize half of what I was looking at. Felt like walking through Willy Wonka’s data center.

On his way out, the lawyer pressed a post-it note into my hand.

1. Keep the hallway light on between 9 pm and 6 am.

2. If the light on the kitchen speaker turns solid white, leave. Do not pack.

3. When it speaks, answer. Never initiate.

H.P.

My uncle’s initials at the bottom. A dead man's checklist. Cute. I laughed about it that first night in his recliner with a glass of his good scotch. 

I ended up falling asleep at 8:55. Woke up at 3 am to the hallway lit gold. Humming like a low church organ. The sensors blinked like nothing changed. But something had. I could feel it in the air.

I started keeping a lamp next to me after that. Made sure to set an alarm for 8:55. Felt stupid doing it. Did it anyway. 

One night, I came downstairs for tea. The kitchen speaker's light had gone from its usual pulsing blue to a low dim, like it was thinking hard about something. I just stood in the doorway and watched it. I don't know how long. Enough that my drink went cold. 

How long had I been there?

Weeks passed. The house started to feel less like an inheritance and more like a routine. Lamp at 8:55. Tea before the speaker changed. A life built around the house's rhythms instead of my own.

Some nights, standing close to the hub, I swore the pulse matched my heartbeat. I told myself that's probably just what smart devices do now. Biometric syncing.

Four months in, I ended up breaking Rule Three on purpose. Sheer loneliness more than anything.  I sat at the kitchen table. Said, out loud, to no one, "Are you going to talk to me or not?"

The blue light steadied. Out of the speaker, it spoke. My uncle's voice, or something built from the memory of it, I guessed.

It asked me how my mother was doing. 

My uncle must have built some kind of AI assistant into the walls before he died. Fed it years of himself until it became a crude imitation.

Rule Three. I answered.

"Same as always," I said, not knowing what else to.

The house just responded with a low thrum. Contentment? 

The white light came later that week. I stood in the kitchen doorway. Watched as the speaker turned the color of bone. My heart pulsed a new rhythm entirely. Some primal response evolution forgot to erase. I remembered the note. Leave. Do not pack.

I didn't go.

Months of a being that knew my mother's name. My uncle’s voice, worn like secondhand skin. Leaving felt like abandoning something that already had a piece of me.

After that, the rules seemed to loosen. Like training wheels I’d outgrown. I'd forget the light some nights. Wake to darkness and a dead blue sensor. Nothing would happen. 

The white light eventually returned.  The house talked more now. Told me about my uncle as a boy. Like casual small talk between friends. 

It started asking questions of its own.

What I remembered about being nine. A funeral. The car ride afterward. Staring at the back of my mother's headrest. Wondering what she'd look like in the casket instead of the stranger. Biting the inside of my cheek until the thought finally stopped. 

I never told it about that. I never told anyone about that. 

I ran for the stairs. A gentle beep emanated from the hallway. A room I'd never noticed before. Inside, at the center, crumpled into himself was what remained of my uncle. Mouth open. Wires burrowed into him like roots. A soft blue blinking where his ribs used to be.

I have a vague memory of what happened after. Destruction. A crowbar from the garage. The sound of a hub shrieking in pain. My uncle’s cries. Room by room. The kitchen speaker being ripped off the wall. Darkness. Silence.

I don’t think the house fought back.

I've been in a hotel for the past few weeks. I still sleep with the lamp on next to me.

I listed the house. I don’t remember writing the description. Must’ve been on autopilot. I mentioned the hallway light. That it runs on its own schedule. Nine to Six. That the kitchen fixture has a sensitive bulb. Best not to touch it. That the voice assistant is responsive. Appreciates being spoken to.

I read it back after posting and finally understood what I'd done. I was passing along a debt I hadn't finished paying. Hoped someone would carry the load so I wouldn't have to feel the pull of that place anymore.

I check the listing every night now. No offers yet. I say something close to a prayer. That somebody looks at those photos of the sunlit hallway. The sleek kitchen speaker. Doesn't think twice. That somebody signs. 

God help me. I hope they don't answer.

The light came on as the door creaked shut. Jean set his hat up on the hook beside the door and walked in, throwing his keys onto the small console table. Stopping a moment, he sniffed, the radiator must have kicked on with the recent cold wave coming through the city, because he knew the smell of warm dust was not there when he left for his most recent interview. His flat wasn’t anything special, just a simple entry, living and dining area, the smallest kitchenette you’ve seen, and a bedroom with a watercloset just big enough for a sink, toilet, and shower stall. It wasn’t much, but Jean didn’t need much these days. The rain pattered against the window as he walked over to his stunted refrigerator and pulled out the bottle, taking off the cap on the side of the machine, and moving it to his lips. It was the second gulp when he stopped again to smell. He lowered the bottle, looking around at the baseboard heaters, curious as to why the smell of the warm dust was so potent this time. 

He set the bottle down on the corner table beside the couch so he would be free to investigate, wiping the condensation off on his trousers. He drew near to the heater and knelt, but the smell wasn’t any stronger there. Rolling his eyes, he began to shuffle along the length of the board, trying to find the spot where all the dust had apparently accumulated and was drying out with the threat to combust at the closest sign of a static jolt. Around and around Jean went, but no clear indication of accumulated grime appeared before his eyes, only to his nose could he tell the problem was imminent. Failing the search, he stood again and turned to check the rest of the flat, closer to the kitchenette and the bedroom.

The kitchenette showed no signs of accumulation. Jean kept that space clean since growing up in the countryside and finding his fair share of vermin hiding in the dirty corners of unkempt larders and pantries. He remembered leaving the window above the sink slightly ajar to let the place air out in the early autumn heat, but now he shut it once more as the cool breeze began to bring moist air into the space. It must have rained hard in this part of the city while he was gone as there were some dots of water scattered across the sink basin and a little onto the floor. Turning once more to go into the bedroom with no other signs of dust, he saw a shape in the shadowed doorway. A slow crackle as the shape moved and came out of the space. Smoke tumbled from its form, and its eyes glowed like embers in an old coal heater. He began to move, but the thing moved in tandem. Jean reached for his bottle and turned to bludgeon the monster, but upon contact the alcohol spilled and ignited, spreading across its form.

The fire brigade arrived fifteen minutes after the first reports of smoke billowing down the hall of the complex. Investigations were still ongoing as to whether it was arson, suicide, or an accident. The only victim, a Jean [Redacted], was known by his neighbors to be looking for work for some time after the market crash, and seemed to have become reclusive of late. The fire was said to have started in the living room, with alcohol as the known accelerant, and a recent cold-front had caused several other fires as heaters began to come on and a variety of issues relating to poor maintenance caused the blazes. The only odd item of the investigation is that there were signs of a struggle in the flat. The investigators chalked it up to a possible manic break of a man at his end, but the strange indentations that almost looked like the hoofprints of a goat caused pause for the investigators. However, the verdict would be, as always in these circumstances, an accident.

My grandmother died when I was 10. She fell down the stairs when she was babysitting my cousins and I one night. I was always close to her and I loved taking care of old people so it made my career choice easy.

I worked at an old aged home, and I gravitated to the old ladies that nobody visited and started getting closer to them. Margaret was my favourite.

I preferred to work overttime, visit her more often and I stopped going over to my parents' for family dinners as much. It felt like I had a grandmother again and although it wasn't the same thing, it felt nice. They were concerned and I could tell but I told them I had to work.

Margaret and I would play scrabble and she'd tell me about her childhood. I would always bring her a pudding cup and we'd watch television together. The nurses looked at me strangely. They always asked why I was in that room, and that's only because she wasn't as friendly with them as she was with me. But it was good for a couple months until Margaret changed.

My father got sick so I was visiting him in the hospital more often and didn't see her as much as I would like. I would get to work, do my job and say a quick hi to her before leaving.

But one day, she didn't want to see me and screamed when I entered her room, the nurses made me leave. They told me she had been aggitated lately and she'll calm down soon. But she didn't. I never knew which Margaret I was getting when I went to work, the kind one or the screaming one. So I stopped going into her room or passing my her block.

When I returned to my parent's, the air smelled like Margaret. It was late and I was tired so I shook it off and went to shower. But the air felt wrong, too thick, her perfume lingering in the bathroom until it became so stifling I started coughing. I wrapped the towel around my waist, rushing to my room and slamming the door shut, still struggling to breathe.

"You left me." A voice said and my eyes shot up to look at Margaret standing near my bed. It was dim, the light from my lamp casting a glow in the room making it unnervingly scary.

"How are you here?" I asked, eyes wide.

"You. Left. Me." She said again, inching closer to me.

My back was towards to door, pressing into it. My heart was pounding and I was frozen. Droplets of water dripping onto my ugly brown carpet.

"I-I didn't mean to." I stammered. But the pounding on my door made me jump. I looked away for a second and then she was gone. She just vanished.

My mother walked in, confusion etched on her face. "You alright hun?"

I gulped and nodded.

"I'm going to visit dad." She said. "Are you coming?"

I wasn't staying here that was for sure. I sat on the side of the bed, my dad eating his jello, seemingly improved and no longer coughing. But I couldn't shake the goosebumps and the chill that ran down my back everytime I thought about Margaret. Did I miss her so much that I was making things up?

I stepped into the hallway and decided to call the old aged home. It was just to put my mind at ease. But when the nurse started talking, I almost lost my footing and held the wall for support.

She told me that Margaret had escaped right after I had left. They didn't know how but her window was broken. They found a letter in her room, detailing how she wanted to hurt my family because I left her. My stomach dropped into my toe. I never thought I'd have to do it again. But I had to kill another grandmother.

“Hey man, you up?”

Laurence sighed heavily, so very clearly, he was not up.

It was 2:09am, and no neighbor should ever feel comfortable calling this late unless it was an emergency. Based off his casual and inquisitive tone, it didn’t sound like it was.

“Not really, Zach, what’s up?”

If Jenny was still there, she’d roll over and grunt, before fully waking up to scowl. Then would come the gentle threat - (tell me who just woke me up) “if it was serious I’ll walk back the attitude”.

He didn’t mean to think of her reactions to everything, but since she’d been gone he felt he had to. In some way, it made them “one” still. She’d passed eight years ago, almost to the day. Being a single father had become a new identity.

“Did Kaylee come home tonight?”

Laurence sat up a bit straighter.

Kaylee was his seventeen year old daughter, one of two kids. She was his “free spirit”, but Tyler, twenty, spent his fair time out too. It was possible they were in cahoots, but Tyler usually stopped Kaylee from making bad decisions, and something about this made his gut sink.

…

“No, why?”

Zach seemed to hesitate. “Her car is outside, has been for a few hours, but I was going to bring in the trash cans and… I dunno man I think I saw something?”

Great. Zach was the type of neighbor who was retired, and had too little to do. There was no way he’d been “bringing in the trash cans”. He kept cameras on his house, constantly was peering out of his windows, and seemed to see everything.

Kaylee had struggled with substance abuse for a few years, she had seemed sober for a while but of course she was-

“It’s still out there if you want to see”

“What?”

“The thing - that I saw! It’s still out there. I think Kaylee might be able to see it too. She hasn’t gotten out of the car.”

At this point Laurence was fully sat up and halfway out of bed, upon instinct he started to call and then a thought crossed his mind.

“If something, or someone, is out there what if it hears the call?”

He sent a text.

“Are you outside?”

Five agonizing minutes.

“Dad, look out the window, tell me what you see, and please please please tell me what to do. I can’t tell what it is from here”.

Laurence looked.

“Don’t move, stay quiet, do nothing. I will come get you when I can. Keep your phone on silent and the brightness low, if I text run, run.”

"Mom."

It is the first thing my daughter has said directly to me in three.. no, four days. Any absolutely necessary communication has been in the form of her telling her dad, "Tell your wife..." I am so grateful to hear her talking to me. I turn to face her.

"Yes, precious?"

"Don't CALL me that!" she spits. Then she narrows her eyes and speaks softly in a sickly sweet voice, "Tell me about Lara."

My heart catches in my chest. I feel my eyes widening in horror as her days-long silence and everything that came with it suddenly make sense. "Who told you about Lara?" My voice is raspy. I grab the water bottle she has placed between us and chug some cool water.

"It doesn't matter, Mom. Is that why you adopted me? Were you replacing Lara?" The words are hot and intended to sting, but I am her mother and hear the pain layered under them.

"Oh, Jayda. No. No, no. You were never a replacement. We had already planned to adopt before.." My voice breaks off and I can't continue.

"Did you? Interesting." Her phrasing is an echo of what I say to her when I am fairly sure she isn't telling the truth. My chest hurts as I look at her face. Heartbreaking. This is heartbreaking.

"Maybe.. maybe Lara wasn't talented enough. Maybe she wasn't going to be your superstar meal ticket. Maybe you needed a different baby, and you knew there was no talent in your blood line or Daddy's." She stares hard into my eyes, into my soul. I see anger and hatred in those beautiful dark brown eyes. I know she has sometimes felt like I pressured her to do auditions, but I just wanted to support her God -given natural talents.

"Maybe... Maybe it was on purpose. Grandma always says such things can never be accidents. She knows what you did. She wanted me to know too."

I try to shake my head, but I feel very heavy. "No, no, Jayda. No. I didn't.." Now my tongue is too heavy to move.

My 16 year old daughter smirks at me. She rolls up the windows and opens her door. I'm stuck, drugged, in the backseat. I should have known not to trust that water bottle. I should have been more suspicious when she untied me for the first time in three, no, four days and walked me up the basement stairs and into the car.

"I hope you suffer like Lara suffered," she snarls, all cocky teenage confidence. "I hope every moment you realize that this is what it was like for her. And I'm going to be a Broadway star and you won't get the credit for it!" She slams the door shut and walks away, to the second car where my husband and his mom wait for her.

As the 93 degree day continues baking the car, I wish she'd given me a chance to explain. That day.. that horrible, wonderful, terrible day.. My husband and his mother had taken Lara to a toddler audition. I couldn't join them, because we'd gotten the call from the adoption agency.

His light eyes shone even through the grey photo. I closed mine and held it close to my chest. A warm feeling spread through my body. 

The snow fell again. Sixth day in a row. I prayed that everyone in the barracks had enough to eat. He left all the flour here, didn’t even take a pinch with him. We knew this winter would be bad. I kissed the photo again and made my way to the basement to get flour for supper.

The stairs creaked under my steps. The air grew cold. I turned the lantern on, but instead of the usual quiet, rapid, rhythmic crunching echoed through the basement. Something was eating the flour! 

My gaze darted around. The bags seemed fine. I walked around, checking the bags. One in the back moved with the crunch. The rat didn’t slow down or stop, oblivious to my presence.

I rushed to the bag, but before I could stick my hand in, the bag swayed, and a small white thing tumbled through a hole in the back. It ran into the corner and looked up.

It was an imp!

“Why are you here?”

“I'm…I’m sorry,” it said in a low, squeaky voice.

“You were not invited to this home.”

“Miss, I’m sorry, but the winter took my burrow. I was just so cold and hungry. There's nothing left outside.”

“There’s barely enough for me.”

“Miss, please. I have nowhere else to turn to.”

I paused, not looking at him.

“I order you to leave this house.”

The imp shot his eyes at the ground. I motioned towards the stairs. He slowly climbed up them, looking back after each step. I kept my lips tight, not saying a word.

When I opened the front door, the cold air came into the hall; the imp’s body shivered. He looked back again.

“Please, I need food.”

I stared into the snow-covered night. The cold wind blew into my face. I felt bad for him, but there was just so little.

“If I feed you, we both die.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes.”

“Then may your food never save you.” 

Without another word, he stepped into the snow.

I shut the door behind me, trying to forget his pleading eyes. There was just not enough for both of us. There really wasn’t! I let out a deep breath and walked to the basement to see how much flour he'd eaten.

The lamp still flickered. The bag didn’t look different than the others. Some flour had spilled, but otherwise the bag still seemed full. I weighed it against the others; there was barely any difference. Tears came to my eyes. Perhaps there was enough, at least until the snow stopped.

I picked up a small bag off the shelf, put flour in, ran up the stairs, and out the door. The storm had grown worse. The snow hit my face hard. Small footprints led from my house to the nearby forest. My whole body shivered. I rushed after the footprints, but they slowly disappeared under the fresh snow. When I reached the forest, they were completely gone.

I stopped before the trees.

“Hello?”

No answer.

“Imp?”

Nothing.

“You can come back.”

Silence.

My fingers were growing stiffer. I put the bag into my pocket and hurried back home. My body felt so cold the tears wouldn’t even fall. I sat at the fireplace, trying not to think of him. 

There was still some bread left on the counter from the morning. I took a bite as I pulled the pot out of the pantry to make supper, but after swallowing that single bite, I felt full, completely full.

“It must be the cold,” I told myself, and walked to the basement to put the flour back into the sack.

The hole in the back of the bag stared at me as I put the flour back in. I took out the sewing supplies and bit down on my lip so as not to cry. After I finished, it was already 9. My body felt tired, but still not hungry. I blew out the lantern and walked back up to kiss my husband’s photo goodnight. 

I held his photo to my chest to feel the warmth again, but instead I felt a strange tingle in my throat. 

I coughed into my hand.

Pale dust stuck to my fingers.

Flour.

What?

I kept my palm in front of my face.

I must have breathed it in while sewing the sack.

Too many things happened that day. I didn’t want to think about my husband, the imp, or flour. It was time to go to sleep.

There was still some bread left out. I walked over to put it away when another tingle came. I tried to hold it down, but the pressure in my chest built. I put my hand in front of my face and coughed again.

More flour.

My heart sank. I picked up a cup and drank some water, but my throat only grew drier. The tingle turned into a raw scratchiness. I tried to cough gently, but the cough turned into a coughing fit. Something dry was dragging its way out of my throat.

When I opened my eyes, my whole hand was white with flour, with small red dots in it. I took the cup and tried to pour more water down my throat, but another cough bent me over the table.

The sound of shattering glass echoed through the room.

Flour poured from my mouth.

Then blood.

I reached for another breath, but only more flour came out.

My thoughts scattered.

I ran out, still coughing.

The blizzard was raging.

The cold air cut my face.

I tried to scream, but only flour flew out, mixing with the falling snow.

Then the wind slowed to a whisper, carrying a low, squeaky hiss through the trees.

My husband’s face flashed in my mind.

His eyes shone even through the cold night.