Heavy Breathing

If you’re ever alone and in bed at night, and the only thing that you can hear is yourself breathing heavily, try this: suddenly and randomly stop breathing.

You’ll trip it up. Now you know it’s there. And now it knows too.

Sleep well.

No Refunds

Welcome to Ridgeland Mall!” yelped an obnoxious teenager stationed at the entrance of Ridgeland Mall, Jacob’s hometown mall.

“Sure,” Jacob muttered as he shuffled by the greeter, his head lowered as if to hid his face from everyone.

Jacob was at the mall to get some things for his wife, Rachel. He loathed her, and she loathed him. After ten years of steady decay, their marriage was on the brink of collapse. Jacob endured this excursion to pick up his wife’s medication from Andre’s Apothecary only so that he might see the cute cashier, even if she was years younger than himself.

“Morning, Mr. Woodall,” said Mary, the object of Jacob’s affection. “Is it time for a refill?”

“Yes,” he grumbled. Though it sounded like anger, his voice was truly gruff out of shyness.

“Very well. I’ll be ready in a few moments,” she said as she disappeared into the back room.

Jacob sighed and cast his gaze outward, toward the other shops in the mall, and the various vendor carts that dotted the path to credit card debt.

He caught site of something odd outside the Pharmacy. On a cart was the word, WISHES! in big, bright, bold letters.

“Got it!” said Mary as she came from the back, and rang Jacob up, cutting off his concentration momentarily.

“Um, thank you,” said Jacob as he hastily paid her and left, opting to rush to the ‘Wishes’ cart.

“Good morning, sir,” said an oddly-garbed man who stood behind the stand. “Here at Wishes!, we have the wishes to change the world for the be-.”

“That’s well and good,” said Jacob, almost angrily at the man’s assumption that he cared what his sales pitch was. “Do they work?” he asked, incredulously.

“Of course my good man. I have here the finest wishing apparatuses for sale. This ring,” he said, pulling a ring from a wooden box. The ring was a simple gold band with three like-sized diamonds set in a row. “This ring here will grant you three wishes. After each wish, one of the diamonds will turn to coal. When all three are gone, the ring itself will become coal.”

“Right, whatever, how much does this hoodoo cost?” asked Jacob, so miserable he was considering buying into whatever the strange man was trying to sell him.

The man adjusted his top hat and rolled up the sleeves on his pinstripe suit. “This isn’t anything that just anyone can have. The responsib-.”

“Price, man. I need to change the world!” said Jacob so loud people turned to stare.

“For you, one hundred dollars. Only because I see you wish to change the world. But I mus-.”

“Thanks,” said Jacob, cutting off the man, slapping five twenties on the counter of the stand, and snatching the ring from the man. The strange man shook his head as Jacob hurried away.

“Thank you!” said the door greeter as Jacob exited the mall, then transfixed on his new treasure.

“I wonder how it works,” Jacob asked out loud. “Wonder if I just put it on,” he said, slipping the conveniently-sized ring onto his finger. “I wish my wife was hot,” he said.

With a slight cracking sound, on of the diamonds on this ring turned to coal, just as the man had said.

Jacob could hardly believe himself. He was so happy; he had to avoid speeding home to see his new, hot wife.

However, when he got home, he was instead met with fire trucks around his house, blasting the remains of his home with water.

“What’s going on here?” he shouted as he ran up to a person wheeling a body bag on a stretcher away. “What happened to my house?”

“We responded to a fire alarm here. When we got here, there was a woman, dead and on fire. We barely made it out when the flames touched a pool of liquid and sent the house up in flames,” said a firefighter nearby. “Where were you?” he asked.

“At the mall, getting my wife some pills,” he said, showing the receipt to the man.

“Well, then, you couldn’t have done this. The alarm was set off before you could have made it back here.

Jacob couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His wife was dead. He was sad, but then his sorrow turned to joy, and then joy to scheming. He excused himself to his car and whispered to the ring, “I wish that Mary was madly in love with me.”

Again, one of the diamonds set in the ring crackled and turned into coal.

Deciding he had to go get Mary, he hurried back to the mall. However, when he got there, the mall was surrounded by police.

There, he saw Mary being escorted out of the mall in handcuffs. “Mary!” he shouted.

“Jacob?” she yelled back, then saw him. “Jacob! My love! I did this all for you!” she shouted as she told him how she had killed his wife.

Jacob waited until the police had left to go into the mall and to the ‘Wishes!’ stand.

“You!” yelled Jacob as he pulled the ring from his finger and slammed it onto the counter. “This doesn’t make my wishes come true. It’s horrible. I want my money back!”

The man there shook his head.

“Ok, I see how it’s going to be. This is used. How about this,” Jacob said angrily as he shoved the ring back onto his finger. “I wish for my money back!”

Nothing happened. The man behind the counter chuckled as Jacob twisted his face in confusion.

“Didn’t you read the sign?” the man asked as he pointed below the WISHES! sign.

There, under the bright, bold letters was another piece of paper with bold black letters.

NO REFUNDS.

That Painting

I loathed that painting. It sat on the wall across from our bed. It stared at me all night. Watched me as I slept.

For years it hung there, my wife adamant that all this was in my head. She was steadfast in her belief that it looked good.

I knew better. I could see its eyes. Always looking at me. Those eyes. They assaulted me as I slept.

I know what you’re thinking-that I’m crazy. Well I’m not! That painting was of some woman. But she stared at me. I couldn’t take it! For five years she looked at me. Plotting.

So one night, while she slept, I doused her with gasoline. My wife burned well.
I tossed the painting on the flames, just to show her. She told me I could get rid of it...over her dead body.

Valor Made Real

Remember the scary monster you feared as a kid? Remember how, over the years, you stopped believing in it? Remember how the fear began to fade away?

Be glad you stopped believing in it. Over time, and with the sheer power of belief, some things can manifest as reality.

Too bad, though. You thought about it, didn’t you? That’s all it needed. Be afraid.

Cloak and Dagger

Davis was a normal high school student at Bateman High. He kept decent grades with minimal effort. He even had a girlfriend, Rachel, who was a cheerleader. Davis’s school was in a small, southern town, barely big enough to justify the one red light it already had. Davis, however, lived in a bigger city thirty miles away. However, due to problems with students there, he chose to change schools to the one where his mother taught English.

It was Davis’s senior year, and prom was two weeks away. A student named Lucy had been struggling in his mother’s class, and Davis offered to help tutor her in English and math.

Davis was happy to help a fellow classmate, and the first day of tutoring went well. Lucy thanked Davis for his help, put on her long trench coat, and went out into the crisp autumn air.

However, all the tutoring didn’t stay easy. When Lucy found out he was dating someone the day Rachel walked in and told him the plan for Friday, she began to scheme.

From then on out, tutoring Lucy became an exercise in keeping Davis away from Rachel. Lucy would also follow Davis around at school, stalking him. Rachel could hardly be alone with him for five minutes before she would show up.

So, finally fed up with Lucy’s antics and with prom in two days, Davis told Lucy he could no longer help her.

“You’re stalking me. It’s getting out of hand,” Davis said to Lucy as he walked out of his mother’s room. “I can’t spend time with the woman I love because a certain someone is always there.”

Lucy frowned. “I think I know what you mean,” she said softly as she began to walk home.

The next day at school, everyone whispered as Davis walked by. In his first class, he noticed Rachel wasn’t there, which was unusual for her. Finally, after lunch, his best friend, Shane, pulled him aside.

“Dude, you’re looking awful upbeat. I hate to bust your happy cloud there, but you didn’t hear about Rachel?” he asked, wearing a grim expression.

Davis began to shake. “What are you talking about? She’s going to prom with me still, isn’t she?”

“No, Dave. She’s dead.”

Davis fell to his knees, his hands letting out a cry of agony as they dragged along the painted concrete wall.

“W…what happened?” he barely managed to vocalize.

“Well, word travels fast in this place, but still not everyone is sure. One guy says he saw some guy step out in front of her car, wearing a long coat and a wide-brimmed hat. I’m sure she was coming home from her dance class, but the point is she swerved. Swerved to miss the guy and ran into a tree. I’m sorry, bro,” said Shane solemnly.

Just then, Lucy walked by. “I’m sorry to hear about your friend. Still want someone to go to prom with?” she asked, smiling faintly.

Davis looked up at her and remembered, back to when he first tutored her. She wore a long, black trench coat whenever it was cold. Now, however, she was wearing a different coat. Davis knew what had happened. But now, without that coat, no one would believe him.

“Don’t be sad,” whispered Lucy as she grabbed Davis’s hand. Davis was too shocked to object. “Now that certain someone can’t stop you from being with the one you love.”