Ever wondered why the early hours of the morning are so still, so silent, and yet so ... creepy? The Witching Hour isn't just when the bars close; it's an archaic belief that sinister forces emerge between the hours of midnight and 3am, growing heig...
Something is visiting Tommy in the insane asylum in the dead of night. Always at midnight; its arrival accompanied by the sound of dragging chains. What is it? Why is it stalking him? To answer those questions, Tommy must face his greatest fears.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
It was a little past midnight when Tommy heard the sound of chains dragging on the tile floor.
The noise came from outside the room and down the hall: links clinking, sliding, drawing closer. Three rooms down. Then two. Then one...
Something waited outside. He hid against the opposite wall, knees tucked to his chest. A shadow appeared between the bottom of the door and the floor but it was soon obscured by... mist. No, smoke. Drifting in through the narrow space. The haze wafted, billowed, rolled toward him as if driven by some unseen intelligence. When it overtook him a scent reached his nostrils and he recognized it, vaguely; frankincense? Myrrh? He couldn't remember. He couldn't remember much of anything.
A piercing skirl assaulted his ears: metal on metal. The thing outside, whatever it was, wanted in. But the door was locked. That was what you did with crazy people after all—
lock them up and throw away the key. And Tommy was most assuredly crazy.
Wasn't he?
He closed his eyes and tried once again to remember...
The troubles had started years ago, while Tommy's older brother Kent was still in high school.
It was, in his brother's own words, an awkward time. In many ways he was still trying to figure out who he was; what his preferences were. He had kissed a boy, and the news had spread. The local church, Dartmoor, had gotten word of it. They had initiated a campaign on social media, warning that God would punish the iniquitous. They said the earth would be cleansed of sodomites. They said Kent would incur God's wrath.
Dartmoor was a Baptist church, but the Baptists had denounced them. They were known to be a hate group. Most of their so-called congregation were members of the same inbred family. They were a black mark on the community, and most everyone in their small town knew that, and kept them at arm's length.
