The Omniscrolls

  I heard the sound of dogs barking and peeked through the window. Chills ran down my spine as I saw a man with a gun standing over a body. He saw me and began to walk towards my house. I rushed over to the safe and pulled out my gun. I heard the front door open and rushed downstairs to find the killer already in my living room. I tried to shoot him, but my gun jammed. He shot me instead. I felt my life force leave me as I hit the ground, but right then, the alarm rang and I woke up. I felt tired. I hadn't been able to sleep properly since that recurring nightmare started. That was the fifth day in a row I had it. I couldn't understand why it was happening, so I called my grandmother; she had an acquaintance called Samara who was a psychic, so I thought I could get her help. I called Samara and scheduled an appointment with her for the following day. I took my gun with me as well; I didn’t feel safe travelling alone since the nightmares began. When I arrived there, she just sto...

  The idea of being stuck in a parallel universe, away from my family, was terrifying. I crouched and held my face; I didn’t know what to do. “How are we getting back?” Alice crouched next to me and placed her hand on my shoulder. “We’ll figure something out, Clarissa.” Right then, a passerby handed five bucks to Alice and walked away. “Wait, did he think we’re…” “I guess so,” said Clement. I couldn’t help but burst into laughter, and Alice and Clement joined in. For a moment there, we forgot about the situation we were in because of the kindness of a stranger. “Maybe this is how we get our funding now,” said Alice. We went back to our table and had finished our meal. Afterward, we set out not knowing yet where to go or what to look for; but right then, a car stopped in front of us. A lady got out of the car and hugged Alice.  “Who are you?” “Alice, it's me, Lana: your mother.” “I lost my mother eighteen years ago.” “I didn't die; you did. How are you alive?” Alice tried to ex...

  “Clarissa, hurry, it's an emergency!” called out John from the other room. I left my desk and rushed over to find the lights flickering and the machine running wild. “Oh, no, we need to leave!” I reached for the alarm on the wall as John rushed towards the door, but we were instantly covered in a blinding light. I woke up with a headache, and a ringing in my ears. The world around me appeared as a haze; only smoke and faint glimmers surrounded me. I stood up as my vision returned and found John a few feet away from me. He was still unconscious. “John! John, are you alright?” I asked as I knelt next to him and raised his head. John wasn’t waking up, so I checked his pulse: I felt nothing. I tried performing CPR, but it was too late. I had lost him. Many of my colleagues laid lifeless around me. However, all hope was not lost; a couple of them were still alive. “Alice! Clement! I’m so glad you both are okay!” “Clarissa, what in the world happened?” Clement asked. “The machine grew ...

  It was just two more days until Halloween. My daughter Cleo and my son Ryan were choosing their costumes. Cleo decided to go as a witch, while Ryan chose a demon costume. Seeing their faces light up made me miss the days I had that same excitement for the holiday; I wished I was a kid again. Even after we arrived home, they put the costumes on once again and were playing around the house for a little while. However, as it was getting late, I told them they needed to go to bed, and that otherwise, there would be no Halloween for them. They wished to sleep with their costumes on, and I didn’t see any harm in it. I kissed them goodnight and left the room.  Moments later, I heard a knock on the front door. I opened it expecting to see my husband George back from his official visit to another state, but there was no one there. He called me afterwards and told me he was running late; his car had broken down on the way, so he said he would stay at a nearby hotel and come the next m...

I was on my way home when I received a radio message of a murder on Gordon Street. By the time I arrived at the scene of the crime, my partner Angelo was standing by the side of the road. The look on his face made me hesitate to open my car door; a decade in homicide and I had never seen him like that. The second I walked up to him, I knew why. The crime scene was not what I expected, though, in my experience, it was hardly a term with a clear definition. Before me was the body of a young boy who couldn’t have been more than fourteen years old. My guts wrenched at the grizzly site as my head grew heavy. The child had several stab wounds all over his body. I turned around to walk away and catch my breath when I saw officer Rohini Charles struggling to prevent her tears from rolling down her cheeks. She was quick to wipe them off when she saw me. Being a female cop was tough enough as it is; she didn’t want to let herself look ‘weak’, even in front of a fellow female colleague. “Onella, ...