Stories by Marc Selby

“Hello?” comes a voice, piercing through the layers of my subconscious, rousing me from a lovely dream filled with warm sandy beaches, beautiful women, and a never ending supply of Corona’s. “Can you hear me?” comes the voice from across my room, which is rather dark, and what I can see is fuzzy. “Who’s there?” I ask groggily, wishing I hadn’t taken the Ambien before bed. “I’m lost.” The voice is familiar but I can’t place it. It sounds like someone my age, a male in his late twenties. “Who are you?” I ask the darkness across my room, though I get no response, and as my eyes adjust to the room I notice that there doesn’t seem to be anyone there. “What the-” I stutter out, wondering what the hell was going on. Wasn’t there someone in my room just now? Or was this the Ambien? “Can you help me?” This time the voice is echoing from outside my window. I sit up to look outside but I can’t see anyone due to the dark. I climb out of bed and make my way to the window, looking out...

I was nineteen when I first set foot at Fort Simcoe Job Corps. I was ushered into the dorm I would be spending the next seven months in, and was corralled quickly into a dorm room with several other boys who took one look at me and gave me my nickname. “We got a Lurch!” they cried. I was six foot eight inches tall at the time and towered over everyone. I smiled, this wasn’t exactly what I was expecting but it was a nice sentiment to someone in a completely new location. It was already near ten o’clock and I had been on the road since seven that morning, needless to say, I was tired. I got settled and after a string of questions about myself, we all finally went to bed around midnight. It was only 5 hours later and I woke up to everyone moving around. Apparently, we were to be up, dressed, and ready. Breakfast was in the cafeteria around 6:30 and we had to be back in our dorm at 7:30 for roll call. It was during breakfast I had been asked if the ghosts had messed with me. Apparentl...