The Omniscrolls

Every Friday night, I would visit the same pub after work. I loved the atmosphere of the establishment; there were never any arguments or fights, and every face I saw was a regular. I found it odd that the exact same crowd gathered there each time I went there, but I figured everyone enjoyed the experience there. Zana, the owner of the establishment, who was also its bartender, was a kind woman who made sure that I went home safely every night. She’d ask me to leave my keys on the counter and take a taxi home. I agreed without question. However, I didn’t realise anything strange about the pub until I invited a friend from work, Gen, to have drinks there. When we arrived at the pub, Gen asked me if I was joking. Confused, I asked what she meant. Gen then said that the pub was closed a decade ago following a fire that killed everyone inside, including the bartender. Turning my gaze from her to the building, after hearing those words, left me frozen. The pub I saw was not the same one I v...

Strange presences and energies were common phenomena I came across as a child. Once, I stumbled upon an area near our home garden that felt so eerie that I had my parents dig up the site, only to find two skeletons in a shallow grave. The police were immediately called to the scene, and the site was revealed to be a mass grave. The years passed by and similar experiences became a common occurrence around me, so much so that people started calling me a witch. This led us to move a couple of times before we found a relatively friendlier neighbourhood. When I was 11, I wandered off into the woods near my school, feeling a strange presence calling out to me. I stumbled upon a cave and ventured deep into it until, suddenly, I felt everything around me dissolve into shadows. I woke up hours later and found a smoky humanoid figure standing before me, almost as if they were a being of dark energy. “It’s not safe for you here; you must leave at once,” the figure said. “Who are you?” I asked. “A...

Since I was small, I had this lingering sense that something was missing, or rather, suppressed. I couldn’t understand what it was, or even why I felt that way, and whenever I brought it up with my parents, they were quick to talk about anything else. As the years passed, however, I began to notice things others didn’t: patterns that no one else but me could see. Whenever I was happy, I saw that everyone around me was peaceful and content, but whenever I was sad or angry, only misfortune seemed to encircle the people I cared about. My parents had fights, my siblings failed their classes, and even my grandfather fell ill. When I reached my teens, things became worse. My parents’ marriage was strained to the point where they were considering a divorce, and both my siblings were slowly isolating themselves and sinking deeper into depression. I asked my parents’ advice and saw a therapist, but even though I saw better progress over time, it seemed like my family’s mental health was yet to ...