
The first sound I remember is the crystal—champagne flutes kissing each other in a bright, sharp clink—like the whole room…

The first thing that hit me wasn’t the betrayal. It was the cold. Chicago cold—the kind that crawls up through…

The storm didn’t arrive like weather. It arrived like a decision. One moment the Blue Ridge Parkway and the back…

The truth was, Sloane had never cared whether my allergy was real. She cared that it was inconvenient. That it…

The candle on our table trembled every time the front door opened, like it could sense trouble before I could….

A navy dress with pearl buttons shouldn’t feel like armor—but that night, standing alone in my dining room with eight…

The first time Samantha crashed my engagement like a firework gone wrong, it wasn’t in a bar or a group…

Snow was coming down hard over downtown Boston, the kind of thick, relentless snowfall that turned streetlights into blurred halos…

The snow came down in thick, hungry sheets, turning Maplewood, New Jersey into a postcard that lied. Because postcards don’t…

The first scream didn’t come from the dance floor. It came from the head table—sharp, strangled, and so loud it…

The first time the neon “PINE GROVE DINER” sign buzzed and sputtered to life that morning, it sounded like a…

Neon bled through the rain like a warning sign, pooling on the cracked pavement of a roadside motel off Route…

Dawn had not yet reached Oak Creek when the scream cut through the canyon. It was not the kind of…

The morning air over Brookwood High felt sharp enough to cut skin, the kind of early autumn chill that carried…

“DON’T MOVE.” The words weren’t spoken out loud. They arrived folded into a napkin and pressed into Robert Hamilton’s palm…

“Game over, Brandon.” The words came out steady, almost calm, which was the scariest part. My voice didn’t crack. My…

The chicken soup was still hot enough to fog the plastic lid when I pulled into the driveway, and for…

The first thing I learned about being a twin was that twelve minutes could decide your entire worth. I came…

The first thing that hit me wasn’t the picture—it was the sentence burning across it like a match dragged over…

A foghorn moaned across the gray water like something wounded and enormous, and I stood on the deck of a…