“He swears she’s just an old friend,” Jenny said, staring down at her worn sneakers. They were the same ones she wore every day as she and Max walked their usual route—Max walking his elderly neighbor’s dog, while Jenny headed to her shift at the local drugstore. The sneakers could probably stand to be replaced, but Jenny’s mom would likely disagree if she brought it up. Besides, Jenny had been sa...

Jason Roberts was having a bad trip.

He didn’t remember taking mushrooms the night before, but that only seemed to confirm how many he must have had. Either he was tripping his face off, or his brain had gone permanently off-script. Jason was desperately hoping for the drug option.

There were far too many people in this hallucination for comfort—hundreds, maybe more—all dressed like extras from ...

The elders described them as angelic, with feathered wings and pearlescent hair.

No one mentioned anything about fangs.

The Ancestor tilted its head, studying me with an unsettling stillness—like a cat might study prey. I stumbled back, heart battering against my ribs, every instinct screaming to flee.

And yet… something older than fear held me in place, something deep and ancestral. It whispere...

Jonathan sat in the diner booth, jostling his leg nervously. The plasticky red seat squeaked with every bounce, drawing a glare from a hawk-nosed woman two booths down, her eyes peeking over the rim of her menu.

An old, boxy television buzzed from the corner, mounted just above a faux fern. On screen, a news anchor with slicked-back hair reported, “Tonight, Governor Maxum announced he will be rel...