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This collection contains four short horror stories that are the kinds that would be told around campfires and to creep out friends. From a mysterious letter that keeps following you to a creepy clown that makes people uncontrollably happy, these tales leave a lasting impression despite their quick length.

Tales and Scares that Breathe Down Your Neck: Tale 4 – Overactive Imagination

Tale 4 – Overactive Imagination

My parents and I eat at a local diner that we haven’t been to for a while. When we arrive, we see that there are very few people here compared to what it was years ago, which is a shame. While we wait to eat, I notice that it’s taken the waiters about ten minutes to ask us what we want to drink. They haven’t even given us water yet. From our seats, I can see the waiters looking at us and talking to each other. What are they talking about? Why are they looking at us or are they just looking in our direction?

I can hear them talking from here and even though I can’t hear exactly what they’re saying, their tone of voice doesn’t sound good. Maybe the reason why not that many people are here is because of the waiters or maybe it’s just because it’s past dinner time and not that many people are out. This part of town has gotten worse over the years as well so that could also be the reason. Speaking about people looking at us, I could swear that I see shadows outside of the diner looking at us and running away as soon as I look at them. I also see these shadows or people looking at us in the diner. What is going on?

After fifteen minutes of waiting, the waiters finally ask us what we want to drink and eat. My mom goes to the bathroom while we wait. Five minutes pass and it seems like the diner is empty. The waiters are still looking in our direction and periodically talking to each other. A loud noise draws my attention to look outside where I see people near our car. I hope nothing happened to it.

This is all so strange to me. It reminds me of stories of people being set up to be kidnapped in a seemingly normal place. Wait, were those stories fictional or real, or did my imagination make them up? Whatever the case is, I tell my dad that I’m going to the bathroom as an excuse to check on her. I look over to the kitchen and see no one in there. Now that is really strange-wait! I heard my mom scream in the bathroom. The waiters don’t seem to mind as I walk as fast as I can to the women’s bathroom to see my mom walking out of it just fine.

It turns out that she slipped and almost fell because the floors were recently cleaned. Okay, that’s normal I guess but why didn’t anyone here come to see what happened when they heard her scream? When we get back to the table, the food is finally here. I should be more cautious about eating this especially since I didn’t see any cooks in the kitchen and because of the weird behavior of the waiters. Strangely, nothing happens and we get the check to leave not long after finishing and leave the diner.

Mom and dad talk about how the diners we’ve been to have fallen in quality over the years before they start the car. Wait, the car isn’t starting and the waiters are still staring at us through the window! What-oh, never mind. The car is fine. The wheel just had to be moved a bit while starting the car. I have to stop overanalyzing things. This overactive imagination of mine makes me think that the worst things will happen to me because I try to rationalize things that I don’t know about. Wait, why is someone running in front of the car? Were those people behind us always running behind the car?

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Tales and Scares that Breathe Down Your Neck: Tale 3 – Cursed Temptations

Tale 3 – Cursed Temptations

What? Where am I? I was just looking at something on my phone and now I’m…I don’t even know what I’m looking at. The walls, ceiling, and floors are covered in human body parts that writhe around with hands reaching out to touch me, and on top of it all, why am I naked? There are moaning noises all around and just walking on these bodies and limbs feel uncomfortable because of how wet they feel. I follow the noise of the moaning to see people being trapped by the arms in the area that grabs them with fleshy creatures made of arms tearing each other up to make them into decorations for the environment.

For some reason, I don’t want to help them and move on. It’s not like I can do anything to help. Besides, some of them look like they want to do it so who am I to judge? As I continue, I see more malformed people who touch each other in uncomfortable ways while moaning. They motion me to join them, but I decline. I’m not like them. I may be covered in the weird liquids of this place when I woke up in it, but I’m not as dirty as they are.

Things get worse and worse as I continue on and harder to avoid being touched by the people here. Is there an exit to this place or did I miss it? Was it back the way I came or am I stuck here forever? There doesn’t seem to be an exit no matter where I go. While wandering around, I find a singular woman, if you could call her that, in a room that I thought I was in before. She’s made of several kinds of male and female body types, has many faces, mouths, and more.

“How are you enjoying your time here?” she says in a voice that sounds like it’s mixed with a man’s voice.

“I’m…I don’t know,” I say.

“I can tell that you like what you see. Why else would you come here and pleasure yourself with its sights?”

“I didn’t do any of that!”

“Of course you did. That’s how everyone ends up here. It’s better to make yourself comfortable and join the fun because you’ll be here for the rest of your life.”

“I…”

“Come here. Embrace the pleasure. Embrace this wonderful temptation.”

“N-no, I won’t do it. This is wrong.”

I try to run and escape this place, but there doesn’t seem to be an exit no matter which way I go.

“You can’t escape from here. What’s the use of trying?” I can hear the voice of the woman say despite her not being around me, “This is what you wanted, wasn’t it?”

No, no, no! It’s not what I wanted. I don’t belong here. Where’s the exit?

“You think you don’t belong here, but you’re as filthy as everyone else here. You’re just like the rest of us even though you may not recognize it.”

“No!”

I blink my eyes and see that I’m back in my room looking at pornography on my phone.

“Piece of junk!” I say as I throw my phone against the wall.

After…whatever that was, I try to do whatever I can to break my addiction including going back to confession and praying, but every now and then while I try to sleep in my room, I feel the woman’s hands touching me and hear her voice whisper into my ear. Sometimes, I’m able to resist her while other times I can’t help but lose myself to my cursed temptations.

Tales and Scares that Breathe Down Your Neck: Tale 2 – Nothing but Smiles

Tale 2 – Nothing but Smiles

Life is miserable for me. College is stressful and useless because there’s no job that I want to get with my degree, but since my parents are adamant about me going to it, I have to go. It’s not like any of my job applications have been accepted or an alternative that they would approve of. I’m not like my outgoing friends who managed to land a decent job who have connections that let them get a job without going through college. My parents won’t let me forget it either because of how many times they talk about how other people are doing better than I am. It feels like I’m being disowned when they say it over and over again.

I’m at a loss in what to do with my life and I want it all to end. Sure, you could say that I have it better than most people who have no home, no job, and no family, but that doesn’t make it any better. Not when you feel like you’re a disappointment of a child and that it would be better if anyone else is in your place. This thinking is tearing me apart from the inside, so I go to my quiet place, a river down by the woods. It’s the place that I go to where I know no one will judge me or think less of me. I mean God is less judgmental than most people, myself included-I have to stop thinking about what other people think and just clear my head.

The sound of echoing distant laughing catches my ear and startles me a little. Since I have little concern for my own wellbeing, I follow the sound of the noise to a small cave that I didn’t know was over here. The river flows from the cave, and it looks like I can go into it if I head into the water. Of course, I’m not going to do that since I do have some concern for my wellbeing and not none.

“Whatcha see down there?” I hear someone say behind me that makes me fall into the river.

Once I get out of it, I see a creepy clown looking at me. He’s all black and white as if he walked out of an old cartoon and has hundreds of smiles on his clothes. Even the scars around his eyes and mouth look like they’re separate mouths that smile.

“Who are you?” I ask him.

“Me? My name is not important because I’m not but smiles. What’s your name?”

“That’s not important. I’m glad you’re always happy, but I have to go. Bye!”

I try to walk away from Smiles but he just appears from behind a tree in front of me as if he teleported.

“I’m glad to hear that you’re happy about my happiness. Most people today only care about their own happiness like your family and friends.”

“How do you even know that?”

“Since you’re not going to tell me your name, I’m not going to tell you how. All I’ll tell you is that it has something to do with all my smiles.”

“Okay, but I really have to go.”

Again, I try to get away from Smiles, and again, he teleports in front of me behind a tree.

“Go back to what? A life that you don’t enjoy living? I know what you’re going through. I lived through it myself before I got my smiles.”

“What do you want with me?”

“I want to make your life and the lives of many more happy through you. You want to impress people and make them happy, right?”

“Right…”

“Then embrace the smiles.”

“Why me though?”

“Because you remind me of myself and fate would have it that we met. So, what do you say? You don’t have many if any options in your life that will make you happy.”

“…fine. As long as it doesn’t hurt.”

“Oh, it doesn’t.”

I begin to feel my face uncontrollably smile and every part of my body starts growing mouths that smile and start to laugh. This can’t be real! This has to be a dream, and thankfully I wake up in my bed, though I still feel my face and skill twitch as if it’s still trying to smile. When I wake up and go downstairs to eat breakfast, I see some good news for once on the news channel, but my family doesn’t seem to be happy about it.

“Haven’t you been waiting for this to happen? I’m surprised that you’re not talking to the TV about how you were right this whole time,” I ask them.

“It’s great that we finally get a victory, but the media will play it down and plan to regain power somehow. Just you wait.”

“I know it’s disappointing but that’s just how politics is.”

Always so disappointed with everything. Why can’t you see the bright side of things? Why can’t you smile for once? Oh, I know what might get them to smile.

“I got my final grades this morning,” I mention.

“Did you make the Dean’s List?”

“N-no, but I got all As and four point GPA.”

“What about a job? Did you hear anything back from them?”

“No, not yet even though I keep emailing and calling them.”

“Eh, keep trying.”

You’re not happy even for that? But school is what you keep talking about and me getting good grades is a step forward for me to get into honors classes and the job that I’m aiming for. Now I see that making any effort to get this job will not make them happy. Instead making them smile and happy will make them happy. It’s so obvious that I’m surprised that I was so blind to it. The only question is how I’m supposed to do this.

There is getting them what they want, but what they want doesn’t always seem to make them happy and even if they do seem happy, they don’t stay happy for long. I need to make them feel happy for a long time possibly forever. Oh, I know what I can do. I still feel happy from that dream with Smiles. I smiled and felt happy for the first time in a while. I go to the bathroom so I can look at my smile in the mirror.

Yes! That smile on my face is new, genuine, and most of all, a face that will inspire happiness in others. The more that I smile the more smiles appear on my hands, face, eyes, and all over my body. What a blessing it was to meet Smiles! I touch every member of my family with my smiling hands to make them feel happy as I do. Though one or two try to run away, the power of my smiles and happiness gets my family to help me get them to see the goodness of the happiness that I offer. I’m actually glad that they ran away because it’s made me remember how I felt when I first saw Smiles.

I have to be careful with how I spread my smiles so I start small with comedy clubs. While talking and joking around, I touch one person and then another until the whole club is affected. Just like Smiles, I can teleport in front of people and keep them in the space around me. My audience grows until I get the opportunity to appear on a late night show where I’m interviewed by a big name and watched by a big audience.

“My, my! That smile is something else. It’s no wonder why you got so famous after a month of being in the business,” the show host says.

“What can I say? People like being happy and that what’s I aim to do,” I say.

My smile is already infecting people with lots of people in the audience smiling thanks to my followers that spread the joy.

“I’ve seen videos of you, and I do laugh, but I’m not sure what I find so funny. Can you explain your flavor of comedy to us?”

“It’s quite simple. If a person strives with every fiber of their being to achieve their goal, they’ll do it especially when they do it with a cheerful heart.”

“Haha, I like the idea, however, that’s not exactly true for everyone.”

“It’s true for me and I aim to inspire people to achieve the same.”

“I hope you do for their sake. Oh, and where's my manners. I forgot to ask your name since you don’t have a stage name and you didn’t give the show announcers your name either.”

“My name is not important because, heh, I’m nothing but Smiles.”

Check out this latest cover by An_dres_art and the short story that it's based on!

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Sargrantina is an opportunistic woman who is looking to get rich quick, so she allies herself with the Red King, one of the most dangerous bounty hunters, on his quest for one of the most dangerous bounties of all, Black Jack. Both of these people seem to have a history between them as the Red King doesn't want the sixty-million dollar reward for killing Black Jack.
What will happen on this life-changing, gunslinging experience for the money-hungry Sargrantina? Will the dangerous Red King change her ways?

Tales and Scares that Breathe Down Your Neck: Tale 1 – I’m Closer Now

Tale 1 – I’m Closer Now

Going through the mail is not as annoying as going through email, in my opinion. I don’t get spam and not as many advertisements that try to get me to buy stuff. What’s strange to me about today is that I got a letter in the mail that doesn’t say any address but mine and contains a letter that just says, “I’m closer now”. It’s probably prank mail though I don’t know who would give it to me. Maybe a group of misbehaving teenagers put it in my mailbox thinking that it would scare me. It’s a weird joke, so I throw away the letter.

After taking a bath, I find the letter from before unopened in my bathroom and on top of my change of clothes. Did I bring it in here by accident and why is it unopened? It still says, “I’m closer now”. Whatever. It’s best not to think too much of it so I throw away the letter for real this time and put it out of my mind. I’ve had a good day at work, I got paid, and the weekend is one sleep away. To celebrate it all, I order pizza and wings and start shopping online to reward myself and take note of some gifts to buy for my family and friends.

Wait, what’s this? Under my keyboard is the same letter from before, but now it says, “I’m even closer now”. What is going on? Who is sending these letters and how are they appearing here? “I’m even closer now”, what does that mean? How did these last two letters get here? Have I gotten these letters before and keep forgetting to trash them? I can’t let this drive me crazy, so I trash the letter and lay down to take a quick nap.

Ah! Now I feel better-wait, what?! I have the letter again! It was on top of me for whatever reason. “I’m even closer now” is still written on it, but on the back, it says, “I can see you”.

“If you can see me, then why don’t you just come out!” I say while getting a gun that I have in my bedroom.

No answer. Looking at the letter again, I see that it’s changed from “I can see you” to “I can smell you”.

“Do I smell good? Where are you?!”

Now, the letter has changed to “yes”. Oh, well thanks for letting me know I smell good, but why is the letter changing and responding to my questions? Ah! Something touched me! Huh? Whoever touched me put another letter in my pocket. It reads, “You feel nice”. Ah!

“Stop touching me!”

It keeps putting letters in my clothes, but I don’t read them because every time that I’ve read the letter, it’s gotten closer.

“I’m not reading your letters! I know your tricks so stop wasting your time and leave me alone!”

I keep getting touched and shooting wherever I hear a noise and in the direction that I feel the person who touches runs. This is so aggravating! Who or what is touching me and why can’t I see them?!

“Where are you?! Show yourself!”

“I’m closer now,” I hear whispered in my ear.

The voice freezes me in place as I feel a heavy presence behind me and arms begin to wrap around me. It’s hard for me to breathe and I don’t know what to do now. I can hardly even think.

“And now, we’ll be always close until the day you die.”