Just a girl who walks dogs and hangs out in cemeteries. Stay feral, y'all.
It started with a loose cabinet handle. That was it. One tiny, slightly wobbly handle on one perfectly functional kitchen cabinet. A normal person would have tightened the screw and continued living a peaceful life. I am apparently not a normal person. Saturday morning, I grabbed a screwdriver and announced, “This will take two minutes.”... Continue Reading →
There are times in life when nothing is dramatically wrong, but somehow everything feels heavy. That was where Hannah found herself. The past few months had been a collection of small disappointments that had apparently formed a committee. Work had become stressful. A friendship she thought would last forever had quietly faded. Her car had... Continue Reading →
High on a hill overlooking the town of Junee, New South Wales, stands an imposing Victorian mansion known as Monte Cristo Homestead. Its balconies look out over the countryside, its rooms are filled with reminders of another century, and for decades its halls have carried stories of footsteps, voices, apparitions and strange lights appearing where... Continue Reading →
I went to the grocery store at 7:03am for one reason and one reason only: there would be no people. This wasn't a shopping trip. This was a tactical operation. I had calculated everything. Tuesday morning. Barely daylight. Most reasonable humans would either be sleeping, getting ready for work, or standing half-conscious in their kitchens... Continue Reading →
Every autumn, Clara complained about the leaves. They were beautiful for approximately eleven minutes, she thought. Then they landed on the lawn, clogged the gutters, stuck to her shoes, followed her into the house and somehow appeared in rooms nowhere near a door. Autumn was basically nature throwing confetti and refusing to clean it up.... Continue Reading →
In October 1955, William Roe set out alone into the mountains of British Columbia. He had no idea that before the afternoon was over, he would find himself sitting only feet away from a creature he could neither comfortably call human nor animal and that the experience would remain with him strongly enough that he... Continue Reading →
I went into the changeroom with exactly three shirts and the kind of optimism usually found in people who haven't yet been betrayed by retail architecture. This was supposed to take five minutes. Try on shirt. Look in mirror. Question every decision I've made since 1997. Put shirt back on hanger. Leave. Simple. The first... Continue Reading →
For a long time, Nora thought joy was supposed to be obvious. She imagined it arriving with fireworks. A fantastic new job. An unexpected vacation. A winning lottery ticket would certainly do the trick. Something big enough to make her stop in the middle of an ordinary Tuesday and think, There it is. Life is... Continue Reading →
In the spring of 1662, in the quiet Wiltshire countryside of England, John Mompesson could hardly have imagined that confiscating a wandering man's drum would lead to one of the most famous haunting stories of the seventeenth century. Mompesson was a landowner, magistrate and local official living with his family at Zouch Manor in Tedworth,... Continue Reading →
I decided to go to the cottage for the weekend because I needed to “get away from it all.” You know. Relax. Recharge. Reconnect with nature. Nature, as it turns out, had not been consulted about this arrangement. I packed Friday morning with the confidence of someone preparing for a casual two-day getaway and the... Continue Reading →
