Category: Haunted Passages

Hugh Behm-Steinberg Flash Fiction: “Wallace Stevens”

Anecdote of the Jar I placed a jar in Tennessee,And round it was, upon a hill.It made the slovenly wildernessSurround that hill. The wilderness rose up to it,And sprawled around, no longer wild.The jar was round upon the ground.And tall and of a port in air. It took dominion everywhere.The jar was gray and bare.It…
Jonathan Louis Duckworth: Three Wendigo Poems for Haunted Passages

Wendigo III Rasp of rawhide, knock of bone on hollow bone, clatter of loose broad teeth set in cervine jaw, jangle of beads of glass & obsidian & cowrie, sounds that fill your footprints like snowmelt. You know wendigo is following you. Dokeep walking. Do notlook back. Dorub your hands together—warmth will protect you. Do…
“The Ghosts at the Carwash Are Always Looking for Company”: Flash Fiction by Cathy Ulrich

There is a universe where all the carwashes are haunted. Where there are creaks and groans and disembodied hands dripping with carwash water. Where our mothers sat us down since we were young, said never go to the carwash, said or you could end up a haunt there too, said when the first carwash was…
“Unclear Motives”: Short Fiction for Haunted Passages by Chase Dearinger

The very last thing: the roof rose up seamlessly from the house, sat perfectly still a hundred feet above the lights and chaos in the street. The ground quaked and calmed, and a murder of countless crows poured out from the house, their oily, rainbow flap like a deck of cards splashed across a room.…
“Ghosts”: Five Poems by Conor Scruton for Haunted Passages

Pareidolia In summer we make stories for the ungrowing seasons,the sweatspeckled back of the blue sky made real in its telling,each winter to come. Some of what we know—we can only make out in contrast. I cannot give you muchbut another season’s worth of words, this basket I hold to my stomach,these petals I take…
“Unhaunted,” a short story for Haunted Passages by Madeleine Sardina

The ghosts had always been loud. Like rats or squirrels, they scampered in and out of our homes, tampering with the wiring and knocking on bedposts. We had our ways of softening their effects so we could keep our homes and schools and workplaces functional, but it was an art to keep them at bay…
Haunted Passages: Three Hypnophobia Poems by Ellie White

Hypnophobia[1] #17 In the basement of the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis, there is a carousel. Or at least, there used to be. As I descend into the first room, the music starts, and it is that music, only darker. The cheery notes all flattened out and squeaking, a mouse under a cat’s paw. It is…
The Future: “Anything Can Be a Weapon,” a collaborative short story by Dana Diehl & Melissa Goodrich (from The Classroom)

When the zombies overtook the Lakeshore School District, the Dads were the first to go. They were crossword Dads. Whiskery and near-sighted. They were dads with novelty bowties. Some say the zombies took the Dads first because they were the strongest, because the zombies were building an army and needed strong soldiers. But we know…
“He Came into the House,” a short story for Haunted Passages by Fraylie Nord

When the trap door swung down, the girl received it with her entire body. I saw it happen before I disappeared. It wasn’t intentional, and I knew I was in trouble. The door wasn’t engineered to hurt people. It was meant to hinge downward, hold the weight of a terrifying girl, and then swing back…