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J. Otis Haas
Bio
Space Case
Achievements (9)
Stories (70/0)
They Take From Us As We Sleep . Top Story - July 2024.
“THEY TAKE FROM US AS WE SLEEP” had been sprayed on the overpass a year ago. The context of the words was not completely understood by anyone who drove under the statement, but a clear sense of agreement was felt by many of those who saw the vandal’s work. No one could say surely what had been lost over the last few or many years, but most would argue that some aspects of the world, once taken for granted, were now gone.
By J. Otis Haas14 days ago in Fiction
A Celebration in Cosgrove
In a dusty town square nestled among the western mountains of the former Divided States of America, a low table is set and spread with a meal larger than any of the assembled locals have ever seen. A sacrifice is being made and a child approaches the platters of rat filet with wild leeks, stunted corn dripping with dog butter, and grainy porridge swimming with berries. As the child sits at the small chair, a nearby elder grips a carving knife in anticipation.
By J. Otis Haas23 days ago in Fiction
Jack and the Rabid Dog
Jack’s cinema vérité point of view zooms down long concrete hallways with vaulted ceilings. He races down a corridor, approaching a closed vault door guarded on either side by an armed soldier. As Jack passses between them, the older of the two turns and looks directly at him, sending shivers of terror through whatever form this is, but he passes, without resistance, through the door without any sort of alarm being sounded.
By J. Otis Haasabout a month ago in Horror
Cape Town, South Africa (2015)
At one point in my life I was friendly with the tiger cult from that popular documentary series, you know the one. Drinking Twisted Teas with them one night, the conversation turned to Africa. “It feels like home,” I was told by a member who goes every year to do conservation work with cheetahs. He alluded to the idea that there is something about the African landscape or even the resonance of the earth itself there that speaks to some deeply buried instinctual memory within the human psyche which recognizes the birthplace of the species. At the time I was unsure of the veracity of these claims, but some years later I would find out the truth for myself.
By J. Otis Haas2 months ago in Wander
Just Another New York Minute
Your feet are tired from walking so far already today, and you’re looking forward to freshening up with a hot, sudsy shower before meeting up later with friends you haven’t seen in a while. The automated subway announcer’s chipper voice has made it known that your stop is next, less than a minute away and your body tenses as you prepare to prepare to rise without disturbing the sleeping woman in scrubs to the left of you. Her deep respirations speak of exhaustion and you will do your best to obey that unspoken rule of New York City, “Infringe on no other, or at least try not to.”
By J. Otis Haas3 months ago in Fiction
The Truly Cursed Life & Lingering Death of Captain Ward
Ward was Truly Cursed thrice in life. The first was upon his blood-soaked birthing bed, just after he was cut from his mother’s lifeless body. Surveying the scene, his grieving father had deemed the wailing newborn anathema and bid The Devil to take him as well, but it was merciful midwives who carried him off to the orphanage where he was raised on thin gruel and cruelty. Whether Old Scratch had a hand in the miseries to follow, only The Fates might say and they remain tight-lipped as always.
By J. Otis Haas4 months ago in Fiction
My Friend Caroline
The Christmas I thoughtlessly passed out lottery tickets to my then-girlfriend’s family I had no way of knowing that choice would alter the course of my life. Her parents had assumed guardianship of two teenage cousins who had lost their mother a few years prior and whose home-life had become increasingly untenable as their father’s grief and addictions consumed him. Unexpectedly, Caroline, fifteen at the time, won $5,000 on a scratch-off, which she graciously split with me, and for a while this was merely a funny anecdote, as she and I had nothing in common and little reason to engage.
By J. Otis Haas5 months ago in Motivation
The Alchemy of Love
Spoiler Alert: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is discussed, including the ending. The quest for love consumed me for most of my life, which was a dark and twisting labyrinthine affair filled with frustrating dead ends, prison cells of my own creation, and more monsters, both within and without, than I care to count. There was a gnawing, aching, ravenous void inside me, a black hole of self-loathing and depression, and my warped mind believed for decades that love was the only thing that could fill it up. It turns out I was right, but not in the way that I thought.
By J. Otis Haas5 months ago in Confessions
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