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Showing posts from March, 2013

Reflections

A few years ago I lived in a small college town in the mountains. Me and a few friends had this nice set up where we all lived in the same house, not like a rental or anything, but a house one of us had in our family. It was a new house, built around 2004 or so, but I think I remember hearing that there were some tenants renting out the place before we moved in, a fraternity or something. In random places throughout the house, you could still find their Greek letters drawn into the rafters or in some small obscure place under the sink. In a way I appreciated that they had left those small letters around. A kind of a way to mark that they had been there, that the house held importance to them as well as it would to us. When we moved in in the summer of 2009, it was barren. No furniture to speak of, no food or shampoo bottles, the little things that over time make a house a home. We were able to wrangle together a small couch, beds for each of us, and stocked the place wit

11 Miles

Do you have something that you truly, relentlessly desire? Despite your state of life, is there something else that you would go completely to the end of the world to get? Well lucky for you, there’s a way to achieve what you’re looking for and you won’t need to go to the end of the world to get it. But you will need to go somewhere, and the place may be too out of reach for some. It’s not far away, closer than one may believe but there’s requirements that some individuals may not possess. First, whatever it is that you seek, know that you MUST seriously desire what you want. In your eyes, it should be something you need. If you begin the journey without the correct state of mind, you will surely fail as it will be near impossible to turn back once the journey starts. The second requirement is that you will need a vehicle of a sort. Most use a car, as it gives one a false feeling of protection which may be what get’s you through. There have been a select few that have use

A Long Read

The pearly gates open. I walk inside, and brace myself for something wonderful. That wonder meets me the moment my eyes adjust to the light. Books. All the books that have ever been, and will ever be written are neatly arranged in countless bookshelves. “This is everything I’ve wanted!” I exclaim. An omnipresent voice echoes all around me. “Good to hear that. Now, these books aren’t going to read themselves.” I waste no time. Starting with the first book I get my hands on, I begin reading. I keep reading. All of the universe’s written knowledge. I take as much time as I want. I have all eternity to read. All eternity. “That was beyond anything.” I say as I put back the last of the books. My bliss is short-lived after the realization. I read everything too quickly. I still have eternity to kill. All eternity. — Credits to: photofreecreepypasta

A Confession

What I’m about to tell you may seem strange. It may seem like the rantings of someone lacking sleep, or even like I’m just fucking with you. But trust me when I say this is the honest truth. For as long as I can remember I’ve seen things that no one else sees. I’m not talking about paying more attention to the small details around me…though maybe that’s part of it. No, I’m talking about when you see things out of the corner of your eye when you’re sleep deprived, or high, or just watched a scary movie and it’s dark in your house. Those…things… that you see out of the corner of your eye…I see those as plain as day. The silhouette of a person that disappears when you blink, or turn to look at it? The one you convince yourself was your mind playing tricks or just your imagination? I can look directly at that silhouette, watch as it becomes a man, and watch even further as it twists itself into impossible shapes. I know. I know. I sound like a crazy person, some sort of schi

I Live with My Mother

I live with my Mother. It had been some time after the accident that had taken her legs away from her. I never actually saw the injuries, I don’t have the stomach for that sort of thing. But, apparently it had not only physically crippled her, but mentally as well. I would know, I haven’t heard her speak since before it happened. Unlike physical injuries, I suppose mental ones don’t heal over time. It had been months since I saw her face, maybe even a year. She shrouded herself in a quilt, and stayed curled up on the couch in my living room. I came to the conclusion that she only used her wheelchair at night, maybe it was pride, or that she didn’t want me to see her using it. I can always hear her using it, and then typically the hum of my microwave. Sometimes she even leaves a list of groceries for me to pick up on my next shopping trip. It’s always full of frozen junk food and TV dinners and on the rare occasion, alcohol, but I buy it for her anyway. I’m afraid of how s

Something Wants Me Out of Bed

I can’t sleep. It’s one-something in the morning, and I cannot even TRY to sleep. There are things in my house, and I think they may want me to get up. I know that I may sound like I am 10, talking about “monsters hiding under my bed”, but I KNOW there is something there. And whatever it is, it brought a friend, and I do not think they like me. Or maybe they DO like me, in an emaciated Donner party sort of way… Let me start from the beginning, before this page gets lost in the oblivion of the internet. I went to bed at roughly 10:00. It is lame for a Friday night, I know, but my job is exhausting and I have no friends in this town. Anyways, I wake up to what I thought was the sound of someone humming just outside my window. The tune sounded vaguely familiar to me, but I could not quiet pinpoint where I had heard it before. I began to get up to check. This is the first time in my life that I can ever say that I am glad that I am diabetic. My insulin pump got caught on the opp

Help the Homeless (to Help Yourself)

So, I’m in a bit of a sticky situation. Some quick, basic background information to help you along and then we’ll get started with the problem - Four months ago I moved to the west from the northeast, mainly because I hate the cold, but also because the city happened to house the college of my dreams. This means that my family currently lives literally across the country from my tiny, underfurnished apartment. My roommate Kate likes to stay out all night and drink. She pays half the rent and respects the tradition of pajama/movie night Thursday, though, so I keep her around. Anyway, about two weeks into my new life, I finally found a decent coffee shop to invest my time in. Seriously. Perfect. Not a big business, not over-busy in the morning, not so hot that it scalds my tongue every goddamn sip… It’s the perfect cup of joe, alright? Not kidding - the next day, while I am still riding the high of this glorious discovery, I find out a homeless tramp lives in the adjacent

Ghosts Don’t Scare Me

For years I believed in Ghosts. Ever since I was a child. How could I not? when one of my first and strongest memories was of seeing one? back between the ages of about four or six I woke one night to a figure in my room. Even now 30 years later I remember it clearly when other memories have faded and become jumbled I remember waking and seeing a figure silhouetted a against the light from the window. I remember the feeling of air rushing from my lungs as I screamed, I remember the fear but I don’t remember the sound or anything else. If my parents came to comfort me or if I simply hid under the blankets till morning I honestly couldn’t tell you. All I remember is that one small snapshot and nothing else. I don’t remember speaking about it to parents. As I grew up it seemed we always lived in old houses and as they breathed and settled in the night, I would lie awake, listening. Still too young to know what these noises were the image of the figure would come back to me

Off My Chest

In hindsight, I should have noticed it earlier. But when you’re always with somebody, sometimes you don’t see the bigger picture until you take a step back. One evening, after I got back from work, he was still lying in bed, with the covers over his head, body curled up and facing the wall. My partner had told me he needed a break, some extra rest, some time off work. But it had now been over three weeks. With each passing day, he said less and less. Getting a one word reply would have been a pleasant surprise. And no matter how much I tried, he wouldn’t eat during the day. Instead, I would sometimes wake in the middle of the night hearing him get something from the fridge, or putting something into the microwave. Eventually, I sought help. They would come over to try and talk to him, asking me politely to stay out of the apartment for a few hours, maybe do some shopping or watch a film or something. But it was no use. The harder we tried to reach out to him, the tighter

The Mermaid

So a little background information: My grandma’s an artist of sorts. She works in a kind of restoration, taking old objects like statues and window frames and decorating them with the shells and detritus she finds lying on the beach. She walks there every day, even though it’s almost an hour away, her pockets full of empty plastic bags that come back full of sand dollars and dried seaweed. It’s pretty interesting, and she’s being doing it for years, making bigger and bigger pieces as she went on. Overall, I like her stuff. Going to visit always meant getting to see her new work and gorging myself on the food I can’t get back in the States. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been here, so I was excited to see the newest one, but it’s…different. See, she made this mermaid. It’s life-sized, biggest she’s ever done, and inexpertly carved from stone. The face is rough: big lips and pupil-less eyes added with paint and spackle. The tail is thicker than I am, greyish pink and

Evaporation

Water. Water is the cornerstone of life. It nourishes us, irrigates our crops and waters our livestock. Water is vital for all known forms of life. We rely on it to wash our cars, clean our food and produce our power. It has an effect on almost every activity in everyday life. Without it, civilisation would cease to function. Governments would collapse, crippled by an undefeatable enemy – drought. It would be a matter of days – no longer than a week – before every living being on Earth perished. In short, we cannot live without water. Two days ago, we were forced to begin doing just that. I don’t know how it began. Nobody left alive does. During the initial hours of it, theories ranged from the barely plausible, like a new form of greenhouse gas, to the ridiculous, such as a new type of light, one that only evaporated water. I remember those hours fondly – the true enormity of what had happened had not yet sunk in and hysteria had not yet clutched the human race. What happened? I’ll pu

Wrong Man

This is an odd story that definitely makes me think about Death in a whole different way. My uncle and my great uncle have the same name; Michael. My uncle goes by the name Mikey and my great uncle by the name Michael. Mikey told his family of a nightmare that he had one night. It was about three men dressed in black who had come to visit him while he was sleeping. They asked him if his name was Michael and he nodded yes, they then told him to come with them because his time here was finished. My uncle not knowing what to do, did as they asked. He got up from his bed and started following them but before he could go any further another man appeared from the shadows and told them that this was not the Michael they needed. My uncle says that they then lead him back to his bed and told him to not worry that his time was not yet expired. This “dream” bothered my uncle and he told his family about it. They all told him that it was just a dream and to not worry about it so much. Thr

A New Radio Station

Ever have one of those days where your favourite music is annoying and you just want to hear something else? I had one of those days a few months back. I was really tired and the Top 40 stations I usually listen to were just grating on my nerves, so I tried my other saved stations. Country? No. Rock? No. Nothing was good, but I had a long drive ahead of me and I didn’t want to sit there in silence. So I decided to hit the Seek button until I found something I liked. Static. Static. Classical. Static. Static. French. Static. Static. Sports. Static. Static. Mid-2000’s. I stopped. I like mid 2000’s stuff. I hadn’t realized there was a station like that in my city. I looked at the radio. 107.9 FM. I didn’t think there were stations up that high, but I shrugged it off because Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes started playing. And boy, did I fall in love with that station. 107 The Beat it was called. Not the best name, but whatever. They played all the stuff I used to lov