365 Short Horrors

 My therapist tells me that I need to write, even when I don't feel up to it. So, here it goes. Hi, I'm Tara. My friends call me Tari for whatever reason. I forget why, I don't know. It's easier for them to pronounce or something?     But I think the reason I feel like I need to be writing, or at least what my therapist tells me, is because of what happened to me. She says what I experienced was some kind of trauma but in reality, I just wanna go home and sleep. It's late and I just wanna curl up on my couch and watch some TV. That's not so much to ask for, right?     Well, if I have to tell my story, I might as well start at the beginning. It was cold that night. Not cold enough to see your breath but just cold enough where you regret not wearing a jacket. But my friends and I were on our way to McDonner's, some fast food place across town. We were hungry and just wanted to split and 20 pack of chicken nuggets. Okay, and maybe some large Coke's. We were...

 The air was cool against me skin as the cool breeze swept over me. Gracefully, I leaped into the air, my feet leaving the ground. For a moment, I felt untouchable. I felt like I was leaving the world behind to some place more peaceful.     But before too long, my joy left me as gravity pulled me back into its twisted grasp. I was a prisoner to its will. Until the ground I landed on sunk down lower and lower. I landed hard on my feet, but the springy ground I landed on stretched beneath my feet, inviting me back slowly to the earth. Until my legs denied its request and I leapt into the air once more. I could feel that same cool breeze against my skin as I ascended. It felt so good to be free like this. The tug and pull between the soul and the body that anchored it.     A few more times, I jumped and fell back to my feet and jumped back up. The feeling was something I could only describe as heavenly. Peaceful. Tranquil, even. But over all, it was fun.   ...

 Never trust a new apartment building. I made that mistake and will never again live in one by myself.     It all started a few months ago. There was a 3 story brick apartment that looked quaint. The inside looked a little run down with a literal fresh coat of paint on the walls. It seemed like this place had some age. It wasn't exactly the best apartment in town but it seemed to do the job. I mean, the bedroom was a decent size. I had a kitchen with a stove. I had a washer and dryer. It felt kinda cozy. And for how much I was paying for it, I hoped it would be.     As the days turned to weeks, the place felt more like home to me. I moved around some furnature,  got some book shelves for me library of novels. I hung up some posters and art and such. I even had friends over from time to time and I'd cook and we'd play games and get a little drunk. Heck, I even had a girlfriend while I was here. Granted it didn't work out. But this place had life within its w...

 I have to write this quickly and hope that someone will believe me! Cuz I didn't do this!     So, there are sometimes these piles of garbage and stuff that people leave outside their house on the side of the road, right? It's right next to where they leave their garbage cans. Everything they leave out there is free for the taking. It's brilliant, a perfect way to get some stuff like furniture or rugs or books that other people don't want.     And everything seemed perfectly normal when we pulled up. There were a bunch of rugs that were rolled up tight. I saw them and thought they would look cute in my new apartment. I didn't have much to furnish the place, so i needed to get some rugs and chairs and stuff. And I figured the rugs would help tie the rooms together. So I stopped and picked them up.     But the rugs were a little heavier than they seemed. I hoisted them in to my back seat one at a time. They were some brutal things to move, but I somehow ...

 My van slowed to a stop as we pulled up to the mountain. My boyfriend and I had been looking forward to this trip for a while and now that we were here I could feel the excitement bubbling up inside me. It felt like I was ready to burst.     My boyfriend James took the key out of the ignition, his gaze unbreaking from the tall grassy mountain in the distance. He turned to me with a smirk, seeing how excited I was.     "Are you ready to explore some caves?" he asked.     I let out a sigh, smiled at him in a way that screamed, "Did you really just ask me that?"     We climbed out of the van and headed to the back. I opened the back door and we grabbed our bags. He grabbed his flashlight an clicked it a few times. "You can never be too careful," he said.     I closed the back door and we headed down the gravel path through the ankle-high grass and vegetation as we made our way to the cave opening on the side of the mountain. As we wal...

     Sometimes people wonder why their package is running late. The only thing I can say is, you wouldn't believe me if I told you.     I remember one of the first runs I ever did as a delivery guy. I'd have to wake up pretty early and head to work. They'd be loading up the truck while I sat back and watched. One of the guys came up to me as they were doing their thing. He patted me on the shoulder and wished me luck. I rolled my eyes with a smile. I mean, I had heard the horror stories about package deliverers having to deliver to so many houses and buildings in such quick succession to meet the heavy demands of the company, but this truck was so much smaller than the ones I was used to seeing out and about.     It didn't take long before the packages were all loaded. I climbed into the truck, turned on my GPS, hit a few buttons, and the route was underway. This was going to be a breeze, I thought. Oh, how wrong I was.     ***     ...

     Do you ever feel like you're being watched? I would hope not, for you own safety.     See, there was a point when everything was normal. People could walk into restaurants or drive down the road or talk to each other. Normal things. That was until last week. The day started out like any other. The sun hanging high in the sky, beating down on those who walked beneath it with a vengeance. Everybody found their own way of cooling off. For some it meant diving into an ice cold pool. For others, it meant sitting inside with the AC blasting.     But as the heat continued to swell, I sat alone in my apartment. I stood in front of the mirror, running a comb through my hair to touch it up a bit after my shower. After setting the comb down, I admired myself for a few moments, making sure I looked ready to take on the day. I sure felt like I was.     I left the bathroom, threw on some clothes, and stepped outside. The sudden heat felt good against ...

There are things that happen to you that can be defeating, things that can tear apart your soul with no hope of stitching back together. And then there are things that cannot be fully explained no matter how hard you try. And one of those things happened to me earlier today.     It was my day off. It had been a long week so I decided to hang out at my house alone. It was a day where I could get lost in pure lazy bliss and I was loving every second of it. My favorite show was on NextFlix so I decided to binge watch the first season. It was about this guy who goes to space and gets sucked into this time vortex, so now he wakes up in a different year every week.     But as the seventh episode was nearing its end, my stomach started to growl. I looked over to my phone. I had been watching TV for five straight hours. I knew I needed to stretch a bit, so I stood from my couch with a groan and went to my kitchen.     I looked around my kitchen. What was I hungry f...

          This is a story I wasn't meant to write. Now, I know this sounds ominous, but let me explain. As the day started, everything was absolutely normal. Everything in my bedroom was just as I had left it. The sounds were normal, the smells were normal. I even spoke something rather random so that I could verify that my voice was normal. This, however, was abnormal. Why was I so concerned with everything being so normal? What was up with the sudden feeling like something might be off? Was there something off? Everything around me seemed like it was. Maybe I was starting to lose my mind. Maybe the dreams I had last night felt too realistic, and I needed to ground myself. But what did I even dream about last night? This question lingered in my head as I made my way to the bathroom to freshen up for the oncoming day. But as the thought lingered, I realized I don't remember dreaming. That was normal, of course. People rarely remember their dreams. They ...

 There I sat, in front of my computer as another video played. It wasn't much, just some form of entertainment to tear my mind away from the real world and all the devastation that comes with it. And then there was another thump from upstairs. In an attempt to drown it out, I turned the volume up higher on my headphones. I was so sick of my upstairs neighbors feeling like they needed to constantly make as much noise as possible. It's like sitting in a car while some kid is sitting behind you, constantly kicking the back of your seat. For the first few times its a little annoying but you try to ignore it. But it just keeps happening and you blood starts to boil. Eventually you reach a point where you have to do something, else your heart might leap out of your chest and do it for you. And right now, I was getting close to that tipping point. I didn't want to start any kind of beef with them, but with the constant banging, it was hard not to get irritated. I could go up t...

  The shadows crept in through the window is the dark clouds overtook the mid-afternoon sky. A feeling of dread and hopelessness flooded me, tying my stomach into a knot. Looking at the clouds, I saw a streak of purple lightning streaking across the sky until it crashed down somewhere along the skyline with a thunderous boom, followed shortly by the ground rumbling beneath my feet. It was jarring. what started as a regular summer afternoon was quickly turning into something dreadful. The nearby trees were all swaying lightly in the breeze as rain gradually started pouring down, eventually creating a curtain of turrential downpour that threatened to flood the streets. Another flash of light followed by another thunderous boom forced me to look away from the window. It was becoming far too real for me. The oncoming storm was becoming too much to bear. I walked back into my bedroom and sat in front of my television. There was a news guy standing before a weather map. He was po...