I'm not sure why but I get a lot of ideas for fiction stories which I seldom write. They just come as bursts of ideas without enough steam for a long form. I try to build onto them and find a beginning, grow the middle and then give them an ending. But, by then the steam has evaporated and the story is mostly gone, or no longer seems important or worth writing.

Today, the old song "Take All of Me" came into my head and later, as I was washing dishes, this story shaped itself. This time I wrote it down, in short form. I'd guess its a horror story, but I'm not sure.

Taking All of Her

So then I chopped off her other foot. Then, when she could no longer stand, clinging to me, leaning on me and unable to leave me now for sure, I no longer wanted her. So I went back to the huge furnace in the industrial plant, and I asked it, "What can I do with her now, when she is no longer beautiful, when I no longer enjoy watching her even?" The furnace said to bring her there and throw her in. Her bones would melt and become part of skyscrapers being built, trucks used to build them and no one would ever blame me.

Written by Laura Brown February, 19, 2025

The words "never seen again" are the creepiest phrase I've ever heard. They show up in childhood fantasy tales, as well as horror stories. So any story, fiction or fact, with those words haunts me. They are creepy and fascinating and a mystery usually not solved.

I turned on Tubi and watched a few episodes of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction last night. One of the episodes, 'The Kid in the Closet', was about a boy with a monster in his closet. His older brother teased him about it and then, to prove there was no monster, he went into the closet and shut the door. They heard him making a ruckus, yelling and banging at the door, then it went quiet. The Mother came in to see what was going on. She opened the closet, no one was inside. No older brother. But, his shoes and a pile of the clothes he had been wearing were there, without him.

Police were called, inspected the closet and found no way for him to get out. At the end of the episode they said he was never seen again and claimed this story is based on a true event.

Any time someone is never seen again is creepy. The police thought the boy had run away. On the show they left that sort of hanging, but doubtful. Also, the police had not found any way he would have gotten out of the closet, other than the door. His clothes and shoes were left in the closet. Those two things seem a bit odd, even after I found out more.

It turns out, according to the source I found after a bit of a search, that the boy did run away. So, how did he get out of the closet? The police didn't notice the ceiling panel when they looked? I guess he was at least wearing his underwear, the show didn't say all his clothes were left in the closet. So, it is still a little puzzle. It is possible the whole thing really is a hoax, in spite of the show saying it was fact, not fiction.

A bit of digging turns up at least one comment on the show’s IMDB message board, posted on February 12, 2008, in which the commenter shared her correspondence with someone who had worked on Beyond Belief and knew the actual truth:

“The Beyond Belief: fact or fiction story about the monster in the kid’s closet was based on an actual event that I personally investigated,” she was told. “At the time it happened there was no explanation for the boy’s disappearance— until two weeks later when it was learned that he had climbed out of the closet through a ceiling panel and ran away from home. He stayed at a friend’s house surreptitiously until the friend’s mother discovered him hiding in the attic of their home and exposed the ruse.”

The show’s producer wouldn’t discover this very important detail until it was far too late.

Source: Stranger Dimensions - Beyond Belief: The Kid in the Closet

I found a 53 word short story contest. I like limited word story writing. You need to consider each word, work with the order of your words and still have it all make sense and be a good story. Short stories are very under appreciated.

This is the story I wrote. It's based on an idea I had very early this morning. A longer version would give details and explain everything. But, I think this short version gets the idea across.

I hadn't planned to spend my night waiting with the Witch and spoiled Asian cuisine in the abandoned restaurant.

"Bad business plan, cursing their annoying customers." The Witch toys with her magic glass jar.

A tiny Oriental doll in the jar, screams, unheard. Creepy. Will my bitchy little sister even say thank you?

Have you ever read something by H.P. Lovecraft?

Lovecraft was an urban explorer himself. He liked exploring old houses especially. In his books I've read descriptions of the old places which bring poetry to them I envy (as a writer and explorer myself). Anyone who has explored an old house, especially those who have explored many of them and still love finding yet another, will treasure reading Lovecraft's short stories.

I knew about his books for a very long time but thought they were too gruesome and frightening for me. I think that would have been true while I was still a young woman of high school age. But, now that I am nearing 50 and a seasoned explorer... they seem more like stories I've heard before. This is no fault of H.P. Lovecraft.

His stories were horrifying, terrifying and gruesome enough at the time he wrote them. But, like an old house, we have become weathered to horror, especially when it's in fiction. Lovecraft read horror, modern people see it in movies, which is far different than reading it in print.