Category: Haunted Passages

Haunted Passages: Five Poems by Howie Good

App-athetic (1) Strange how you arrive with no address in mind. Objects begin to misbehave, clocks to bend and stretch. And then a procession of pallbearers carrying empty coffins enters—creased, stained, stoop-shouldered. The century feels a lot longer than a hundred years. (2) Facebook announces a suicide prevention app. If the heart stops beating, it…
Haunted Passages: Two Poems by Matthew Weddig

after a generally positively reviewed yet deeply boomerfied slasher released in 2022 when you are too old to fuckall you have left to you is murder your only options now arerent out the farmhouse in the backblock the exits with your frail bodythe passage of time owes you this muchwhy should the young bodies be…
“Crabgrass,” a new short story by Michael Cole for Haunted Passages

Diane woke calling out for someone, startled, in the same way that she would occasionally wake with a laugh, or even crying, embarrassed at the sharp blow of emotion dealt from a dream that was already fading. “Hello?” she said, still half asleep, chasing after a specter that had run a cold finger down her…
Anybody Home? a horror novel by Michael J. Seidlinger, reviewed by Dave Fitzgerald

It’s sometimes disturbing to think about the ways in which traditions evolve. Nothing, after all, starts out as a tradition. The word, by definition, carries in it the implicit understanding that an idea or act has happened a number of times, across a lengthy period, with some level of sustained intentionality. Human civilization functions around,…
Haunted Passages: “Rooftops,” a new short story by Michael Cole

Just after 9:30 in the morning on a Wednesday in June, the creature tore down Michigan Avenue, upending taxi cabs, snagging awnings from storefronts, its talons leaving three-foot gashes in the asphalt. A few minutes later, the emergency sirens began to sound. In that time, the beast had emerged from Lake Michigan, traveled alongside the…
“Familiar,” a Haunted Passages short fiction by Betsy Sharp

Lara, taking the dark path behind. Lara, cold night air. Jacob in the kitchen, frying his ambition in kid-chatter. Jacob cupping plans like colored marbles, yearning for more than can fit in his two hands. He unpacks the lunchbox, Noah playing dinosaur on the back of the sofa with his jacket pulled over his head…
Haunted Passages: “The Lamp,” a flash fiction by Scott Daughtridge DeMer

Echo’s kids asked what secrets the lamp told. She didn’t answer, just stared at the bulb, lit to full brightness. She didn’t blink. Her husband asked what was wrong, asked if she planned to go back to work. Her friends came and tried to pull her away, but she shrugged them off and stayed in…
Haunted Passages: “The Tunnels,” a short story by Jordan Dilley

They say the tunnels were built between two wars, but no one knows for sure. To know for sure someone would have to spend time going over their construction, testing the age of the plaster, but no one spends more time there than they must. The tunnels are for hiding things, not for exploring. Everyone…
Haunted Passages: “A Guide to the Land of the Mist,” a hermit crab short story by Casey Reiland

*Ed.’s Note: click on images to view larger sizes. Casey Reiland’s work has appeared in trampset, On the Seawall, The Puritan, and elsewhere. She lives in Washington, DC, and you can find her on Twitter @CaseyReiland. Image: scifinow.co.uk