365 Short Horrors

  My head was pounding, a headache ringing through my skull as my upstairs neighbors continued to stomp and jump around, leaving the things in my apartment nearly shaking. I tried banging on the ceiling and talking to them in person but no matter what I tried it wouldn't end. I just needed some rest. Especially after a long day at the gym. You see, I've been struggling with weight problems for a while now. And as the year was nearing its end, I figured it would be the perfect time for me to try and shed a few pounds. The most unfortunate thing for me during this whole venture is the fact that I didn't have the funds to get a personal trainer, nor was I able to find a good app to help me find the best diets and exercise. Not without paying nearly $100 on it. So, I went for the next best thing, an Ai chatbot. I'd been using it for a while. I've been telling it all the specifics about me, my weight, my goals, what kind of food I wanted to eat. And as soon as I ...

  The night was cold as I sat home alone. The snow was coming down outside in sheets, blanketing the already flooded world of white as far as the eye could see. I was grateful at least that I still had power to the house. There was still enough heat circulating that I could feel comfortable rather than having to drown myself in blankets to preserve heat. I still vaguely remember needing to do that a few years back. I was never fond of that memory. But as the night continued on, I gazed out the window to the front lawn. The neighbors kids had built a snowman. It was complete with sticks for arms and a carrot sticking out of the center of its face. It was strange though. I don't remember ever seeing anyone out there to build it. But I shrugged that thought off. Just because I didn't see it doesn't mean it didn't happen. After all, I was staring at the evidence of its existence. I walked away and sat down at my couch. I grabbed my remote to turn on the TV when the ...

  I took one final look at myself in the mirror after using lipstick for the first time. I didn't do too bad of a job, I thought. I might have missed a spot or two, but it didn't look bad. "Where is my lipstick?!" I could hear my sister angrily yelling from outside of my bedroom door. The door swung open violently. I turned around to see my sister staring me down, a look of rage in her eyes. "Are you serious?!" she shouted, racing toward me. I jumped to my feet and dodged her. She made a swipe for the lipstick tube in my hand but I snatched it away just in time. She began to stumble. I looked back, laughing at her as I ran. Until I felt my feet fall out from beneath me, leaving me tumbling forward, the tube of lipstick falling from my hand and onto the ground. My sister ran past me and grabbed the tube from the ground. She started picking the hair from the lipstick, a disgusted look on her face. "Keep your hands off my stuff!" she deman...

  The moon hung high overhead, helping to illuminate the woods surrounding us as we made our way down the seemingly endless road. We'd been driving all day, traveling between states to get to some amusement park my wife wanted to visit. We thought it would be fun to have a road trip together, but an argument left things rather awkward between us. The silence lingering. "Maybe we should find a place for the night," she suggested. "And where do you suggest we go, out in the middle of the woods?" I said, mild irritation in my voice. "Look around, there's nothing for miles." "I was just trying to help," she shot back. "You don't have to be so rude about it." "I'm not-" I started before I bit my tongue, ending the argument there. "Fine, if I see a place to stop, we'll rest there for the night." She muttered something under her breath that I couldn't quite hear before turning her head to...

  The gentle breeze whispered through our hair as the sun hung low in the sky on this early Spring afternoon. The sun was still rising in the sky, resulting in a purple and orange gradient that looked too incredible to peel my eyes away from. And yet I barely managed to, as my wife was standing before me. We stood outside of the offices of NASA, a large space shuttle visibly revealing itself from the back of the building. The same space ship that my woman was about to ride up in. I held her close, not wanting for her to leave. But her team was unfortunately going to have to tear us apart for the next few months. I let her go, her arms still wrapped around me. She looked up at me, tears welling in her eyes. We kissed each other and said our goodbyes before two men came out of the building and picked up her bags from the ground. She grabbed the last one and waved at me before disappearing behind the front doors. *** Returning home, I changed the tv channel over to NASA so t...

  The plane finally landed after countless hours up in the sky. I was thankful to finally be back on land, for my feet to finally touch the ground without the feeling of motion sickness threatening my stomach with a less than ideal time. The first thing I did following the de-boarding of the plane was run to the bathroom. It had been a while since I'd been in there. I didn't exactly trust airplane bathrooms. You always hear all those horror stories about your insides being sucked out of the plane after a single flush. As I took my place upon the white bowl in the stall, I finally felt relief. I was nearly done when I heard two other women enter the bathroom. "Do you think they saw us?" One of them asked as they stood before the sinks. "I don't think so," the other one replied. "I think we got away with it?" The first woman breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, I guess it's time for the plan to fully roll out then." ...