Not Now, Not Here

This episode offers to you a world not so different from your own—a world found not too long from now, a world found not too far from here. Just like us, the citizens of this new world have problems. They have bad days, they have bad luck, and they have the little tragedies that haunt their every footstep. They lock their doors against them, and huddle together in the face of them, seeking warmth and light and life…wherever they can.   Each of these people alone must face their troubles, just like us, and they, too, must take charge and wrestle control away from the onslaught. Their goal, to make the best of their time on their disparate Earth.   However, their obstacles, unlike ours, have been given a face. Not only a face. Their worries have been given wings, claws, and teeth…their troubles have been given names.

Ugly Mary Wilcox wants to be a different girl. She's tired of the looks, tired of the taunting, tired of being who she is. When Mary sees a chance to change her appearance, she'll do anything to seize the opportunity. But what will be the cost? And how will she manage to pay the magical elephant, Sambo?

In this week's episode, the new librarian at the King Library in the township of Lee makes a startling discovery. After the old librarian takes ill, strange things begin happening...but what could be causing them? What could make a library leak?

In this week's episode, two strangers meet by chance while waiting for a bus. Before the ride is over, one of their lives will be changed. And the other...well, the other isn't really alive at all...

In this week’s episode, a pair of newlyweds are off on an adventure, starting their new lives together. The hope and optimism they feel is quickly and quietly taken from them. And when the new bride takes a look back in the mirror, she finds a terrifying other world—a world where the fears of what she is leaving behind become real enough to see…real enough to look right back.

Each Spring, Charlie and James go camping. This year, however, there is an uninvited guest at their mountain retreat. A face like an all-seeing moon appears on the horizon, watching their every move and issuing a bellow that shakes the mountains to their core. But who is this visitor? Why has he come, and what does he want? Will the mountains ever be the same after the arrival of Noom?

"To say that Chase was jealous of the little girl wouldn't have been entirely accurate...well, now that he thought about it, maybe he was. Chase was jealous of the girl. Actually he was jealous of everybody, but mostly it was her. He called her Tree Girl because she was always sitting in a tree." In this week's episode, Chase must come to terms with being the most unlucky person on Earth. Only after recieving a letter from a complete stranger does Chase begin to understand the truth...

There was a particular bench in the woods. Plain, unassuming, worn down from years of children and picnics and rain. No one ever came there on purpose. The bench was only discovered by accident, and the ones who first built it had gone far away. The old boards were soft and comfortable now, but more than the boards had been worn down there in the woods. Time was worn down, too. Worn thin.

The rain isn't stopping. All the people in town are talking, and when they talk, they talk about the...things in the water that is slowly flooding the entire town. The things with yellow eyes and hands as strong as waves. In this week's episode of Not Now, Not Here, one family will face the rising waters in their own way. With fear, with anger...and perhaps with hope. But what hope is there to be found when the waters never cease?

"On May 5th, in Burlinger Park, I died." Those were the first words in the journal Andrew found under the park bench. In Episode 05 of Not Now, Not Here, a mysterious journal shows the strength of the written word. A strength in the way moments are caught firm and held fast. It's a power of which we must be wary, for there is no telling what you might find in the prison of the printed page. No telling what specters wait to haunt us through paper and ink. Where and when will you find yourself under this familiar spell?

In this chilling tale, young Neil is home alone with his grandfather when he makes a startling discovery. It's a discovery that will change everything in his tiny world. It's the discovery of words.

He wasn't a man, but he looked like one when he came into the bedroom. His skin was black--actual black, like paint--and his clothes were dripping shadows. In the dim light from the hall through the open door, Ted could barely see behind the shock of dark hair that flowed down his face. "Don't look away," the stranger said. His voice didn't come from his mouth. Episode 03 of Not Now, Not Here is about the strangers who prowl the night, making unspoken bargains with those who summon them.

In this week's chilling episode of Not Now, Not Here, the daughter of a traveling salesman can make your dreams come true…and not just any dreams. Nightmares. But who would want a nightmare brought to life? And to what lengths will they go to bring their terror out of the darkness and into the waking world?

The first story in the collection "Not Now, Not Here," features a young boy named Charles Ward. It was winter when Charles Ward first started seeing monsters. But the monsters he sees are not the kind you'd expect...and they can only be seen by those who have the right eyes for it.