“Man, these little punks are so freakin’ lucky,” Eddie said shaking his head. “Can you imagine if our elementary school had been next to a cemetery?”
“Yeah, I guess that would be kinda cool,” Max said. “But being in middle school is still better.”
“What’s wrong with you, man?” Eddie said. “Can’t you see the possibilities?”
“Guess not,” Max said.
The two boys were quiet again as they waited for their younger sisters. They stared at the new school and the old graveyard just on the other side of the playground.
The bell rang and kids came pouring out the front doors.
“You meet me back here tonight and I’ll show you the possibilities,” Eddie said. “And bring a shovel.”
“A shovel?” Max said. “That sounds uncool.”
“Just do it, female,” Eddie said.
“All right,” Max sighed. “What time?”
“Let’s say 9:00,” Eddie said.
Max bit his lip and nodded slowly.
***
They had been digging in the dark for 20 minutes.
“Why are we doing this again?” Max said, breathing hard.
“Because it’s here, man,” Eddie said. “We’re just looking for a chance to relive what we missed out on.”
“That doesn’t even make any sen—” Max didn’t finish.
Suddenly dirt had started flying up from under their feet.
Then a gray, bony hand reached up and grabbed Eddie by the ankle.
“I like your thinking, boy,” the corpse said, standing up. “Especially the part about re-living.”
Max pulled himself out of the grave and ran off screaming.
“Help me, man!” Eddie called after him in vain. “Help!”
The thing still held on tight to him.
“I’m sure you don’t mind if I borrow your body for a while,” it said in a gurgling voice. “Don’t wait up for me.”
Eddie dropped dead into the hole. Then he got up and started—
AAAAH!!!
Rachel had always been afraid to flush the toilet.
At first her parents thought it was cute. Later her sister would take turns making fun of her and being disgusted.
When she was younger, Rachel couldn’t wrap her mind around it or put it into words. She just knew there was something scary, lurking there in deep down in the water.
But as she got older, Rachel began to spend more and more time thinking about what it was that frightened her so. And the more she thought about it, the more her fear seemed to vanish.
By the time she was 15, her phobia had become something that belonged to her past. A funny, dark secret and nothing more.
But then one day Rachel was visiting a friend and had to use the bathroom. Suddenly the room was filled with the smell of terror. Then she heard a voice coming from somewhere below her.
“I’m the thing,” it said. “The thing you feared all those years. You were right to be afraid.”
Rachel felt herself being pulled down, down, down beneath the water, beneath the light. Beneath, beneath, beneath…