Tag Archive for: phobias

No More Dark

by M. Saffron

Blood was everywhere. How was she to know it had gotten this bad? Sure, every kid is afraid of the dark, but this—this is something different.

Sharp left onto Duponte St.

“It’ll be o-okay,” she shivered, rattling her thin fingers through Timmy’s hair, and against his oddly still shoulders.

“I’m okay, Mom. It’s better this way,” Timmy squeaked, blood running down his small, pink cheeks.

“Okay?!”

Timmy stared forward, smiling with the maniacal dark now a distant memory.

Her eyes trembled down to the two little white peelings on her lap.

“Can eyelids even be sewed back on?!”

M. Saffron

M. Saffron, born and raised in central Massachusetts, is an acting Army officer who has spent years in the corporate and cyber world. He’s found himself entangled in wires and cubicles—a sort of trap set by an unknown force—but yearns deeply for the wild and creative angles of life. “Balance at its finest,“ he sighs. He treats the pen as a sort of archaeologist’s spade, continually excavating an ever-deeper layer of wonder and confusion.

 

Almost Fearless

by Janessa Keeling

Rosa saw movement.

A brown recluse scurried toward her. Snapping her novel closed, she brought it down. The curled husk stuck to the spine. Venomous spiders were as prominent as the roaming cannibal packs that liked to bury people alive for roasting in ground ovens.

Flicking the corpse, Rosa continued reading—

Was it a car or a cat I saw?

A visceral response overtook her. Freezing her. She wanted to throw the book, but couldn’t. This phobia was ridiculous, but she was incapable of breaking free.

Aibohphobia.

The book tumbled from her hands, and she curled up to hug herself.

Janessa Keeling