1. I stopped at a red light and saw an attractive young man jamming out to “Stairway to Heaven,” in a Chevy truck next to me, but as soon as I looked at him, he flashed his blinding white teeth at me as his eyes started oozing out tar and smoke billowed from his nostrils – then the light turned green, but when I pressed on the gas as hard as I could, the engine began to sputter.
2. Karen was 23 years old and pregnant when she died in a tragic accident three years ago, but her neighbors spotted a very lively little girl, who shared an uncanny resemblance with Karen, on the front yard, humming Karen’s favorite song with perfect pitch.
3. It was 1984 and Reverend Miller powered on his new Macintosh computer for the first time, eagerly anticipating a faster way to write newsletters for his ministry, but as soon as the screen flashed, the all-seeing eye blinked back at him.
4. We buried Grandpa Rick in the cemetery a week ago, but when I went to visit today, I saw him sitting on his own headstone, smiling back at me and holding the exact same bouquet of flowers I just bought this morning.
5. On the morning of her 13th birthday, Sheryl went to school and didn’t come home in the afternoon, so her mother assumed she was at a friend’s house, but by sundown, bits and pieces of her daughter’s body were delivered to the front porch with a note saying, “You whore, this is what you deserve for not marrying me 33 years ago.”
6. Drew decided to visit a woman with a troubled past, in hopes that he might be of help to her, but as soon as he bowed his head to pray, she started reciting The Lord’s Prayer…backwards, in a voice that sounded nothing like hers.
7. Tommy was fighting with his brother Kyle over a Power Ranger, but all of a sudden, the Power Ranger’s eyes flashed red and began slicing Kyle’s hands with a sharpness that couldn’t have possibly come from a plastic weapon.
8. Cameron found a recent-looking photo of himself eating ramen and drinking beer, but the problem was nobody ever hung out with him after work.
9. Nelly wanted to watch Sleeping Beauty and as a babysitter, I was obliged to make her happy, so after rewinding the tape, I pressed play, but when I turned around to head back to the couch, I saw Nelly frantically pointing somewhere behind me, and there was Maleficent…looking through the basement window as the TV screen went dark.
10. I heard my friend Therese screaming for help from the bathroom upstairs, so I was about to run up as fast as I could, but then I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around, astonished to see that she was next to me this whole time.
11. Kara’s car broke down while she was driving down a winding road literally in the middle of nowhere, so she sat by the side of the road for a while, unsure of what she should do when there isn’t service on her phone, but an hour later, a red car pulled up and parked behind her car, and then she heard from the inside of the car, “You look like you’re lost, baby girl,” but when the windows rolled down, there was neither a driver nor a passenger to be seen.
12. I just finished lighting 12 candles and needed to pee really bad, so I left for no longer than a minute, but when I returned to the table, I counted 13 of them, and the smoke detector went off.
13. Around 3 PM, I dropped my roommate off at the airport and Skyped her as soon as she landed safely in LA, but later that night, I kept hearing her moan as if she were still in the bed next to mine – I didn’t want to ask if everything was alright because I swore I was alone because I just fucking Skyped her a few hours ago.
14. My boyfriend Tyler called me saying that he’ll be home much later tonight, like an hour before midnight due to his heavy workload, so I was like “Okay babe, just don’t work your ass off too hard,” and when the call ended, I turned around to see him standing there naked asking, “Is there another man that I don’t know about?”
15. I just woke up from a nightmare in which I was being stabbed repeatedly by a pair of thugs, but as soon as I took off my clothes before stepping into the shower, I could see a large gash where my heart and lungs should have been…
16. Stacy’s mother died from breast cancer last year, but she received a call from her mother’s doctor who said, “Your mother’s expected to die today, but she wants to say goodbye for one last time, so please come as soon as you can.”
17. It was late at night, and I really couldn’t sleep, so against my better judgment, I decided to walk across the lovely bridge over the little stream in our quaint neighborhood park, but I froze when I heard “Bridge Over Troubled Water” playing very loudly as soon as I was halfway across that bridge, and at that moment, I fell through the planks.
18. Caitlyn and I were about to embark on our much-needed trip to the beach and we somehow were able to fit everything into the trunk while leaving nothing in the backseat, and after we were on the road for an hour, I felt someone grabbing me by the throat, so I screamed for Caitlyn to do something, but Caitlyn was no longer sitting next to me.
19. Jennifer was so ready to graduate, and she leaped out of her chair when her name was called, but not long before she reached the aisle, she saw herself already walking across the stage accepting the diploma and as they made eye contact, she felt her own body contorting and saw her other self grinning.
20. Casey was buried deep in guilt for tormenting the school’s nerd, Tegan, because she felt personally responsible for her suicide, so later on that day, she decided to visit Tegan’s family to confess what she had done, and as soon as she rang the doorbell, a bright and cheery Tegan answered the door.
21. I saw the reflection of three sad little girls in the mirror, but I tilted my head and saw that no was one behind me, so when I looked back into the mirror to confirm that I was just seeing things, I saw nothing, neither them nor even my own reflection.
22. I have a tendency to play music an hour before I fall asleep, but tonight, all of my songs are playing in reverse, no matter how many times I keep switching to a new song, and I’m really freaking out, so then I decide to restart my phone, but immediately, I hear someone hissing from the closet and the song starts blasting at full volume.
23. My friend put together a scrapbook with all our favorite photos of the best memories from the past decade, and when I wanted to look through it again that night, all I saw were photos of demons and messages written in blood…the blood of my friend who’s lying dead in the corner of my room.
24. Peyton shot a wolf in his yard and tied its dead carcass to a tree, since he was too tired to bury it, but the next morning, he saw the same wolf walking on his front yard again, growling as it was walking straight towards him with a vengeful glare in its eyes.
25. I completed a self-portrait, but I thought it sucked, so when I ripped it up, I felt my face being ripped in half, and I tried to scream, but I couldn’t because that portrait had no voice…neither did I.