A Christmas Wish

It's Christmas time, and a lot of magical things happen during this season. There's that story about a stingy, mean, old man that was visited by ghosts. There's that Glee episode where Artie, a paraplegic, was able to walk. I've even heard my mother say that most of her wishes come true during this hallowed season. These are all merry things, hence the greeting, but magic can also have its opposite, terrifying edge even if it's the Christmas season.

Belief

Most of the time, we believe what we want to believe. We believe that we’ve been betrayed, loved, or ignored. We believe that we’ll get rich if we follow some superstition or experience a bout of bad luck if we break them. We will believe anything that will tickle our fancy, and we’ll hold it as truth no matter what happens. Sometimes, we even believe the most unlikely of things, and with the amount of energy that we’d put into it, we give rise to concrete manifestations of our belief, and ultimately, create self-fulfilling prophecies. Myri and Nikki are exactly like that; they have different personalities, but each hold on so stubbornly to what they believe that they were both proven right in the end.

Dryad

"Mark, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" asked Jason.
"Look, there's a woman hanging on the side of that big tree."

"What are you talking about? It's just a big moth,"
Jason irritatingly replied as he tried desperately
to look for the path that they were supposed to follow home.

Nemesis

Sometimes, we are enamored by our own brilliance. We tend to over-estimate ourselves and tend to underestimate others. This is what the Greeks called hubris. Sadly, hubris also leads to nemesis. While thinking about these concepts, I chanced upon a scenario where one person was betrayed by what he thought was a brilliant plan.

Yukino

"What are you doing in the dark? Come with me, so that nothing else can hurt you,"
said the mysterious woman that emerged from the dark winter night."

Blood of a Hunter

Being a hunter seems to be a much-coveted role both in the animal and human world. It denotes that the hunter has more power compared to the hunted. However, can we always assume the same thing? What if the hunter is the unwitting prey of what he thinks is a seemingly easy meal? Last night, on my way home, I imagined a scenario where the role reversal -- the hunter becomes the hunted -- proved to reveal something horrific and fatal.

Midnight Society Membership

We all want to belong. We strive to gain acceptance from our parents. We also try to look for a set of friends to click with. We even go through the proverbial hell just to be accepted. However, is it really worth it? Sometimes, this wish can come true -- with deadly consequences.

Counting Steps

After a power outage, one of my friends and fellow writing consultant, Noel, gave me a piece of useful information. He said, "Chad, did you know that when you take the stairs, just count 8 steps before a landing? Then, 9 before you turn, 10 again before the landing, and 11 steps to reach the ground floor." I considered the information carefully, and I realized that it could be useful if I can't see the steps. I just need to count them so I wont fall over, especially because of the phantom step effect -- you know, the falling feeling that people get when they assume that there's an extra step when there's really none. However, after further musings, I realized that it could also be a very scary thing, counting steps.

Wet Willy

Bullying is never good, but people invent millions of ways to bully the weak. There's name calling, hitting, and humiliating others with pranks. There's also pulling wedgies and throwing people either in the dumpster or in toilet bowls. However, one specific method of bullying inspired me to think up this scenario -- the wet willy.

At the Bottom of a Coffee Mug

As a coffeeholic, I've looked for various kinds of mugs to cater to my coffee obsession. I've bought tall mugs, thinking that it can hold more coffee in it. I've also bought mugs that looked much like bowls because they were wider than they were tall. I've also bought some that are wide and tall, which seems to be my pick until I was able to imagine a hair-raising scenario.

In the Mirror

Mirrors are curious objects. According to the Chinese, they can be portals that can be used by supernatural creatures. That is the reason why in decorating a bedroom, a geomancer will always recommend that mirrors are always covered or hidden. However, what can possibly happen if a mirror is placed in a public place that always gets used by people -- on an elevator perhaps? Obviously, creepy things can still happen when mirrors are involved due to the account of a young woman who saw a gruesome creature together with her reflection.