September 2024
With One's Own Eyes by: Perry Ruhland
When I applied to this menial remote position, I accepted that my days would be spent sequestered in my garret apartment, chained to an obsolete desktop computer, obligated to correct and authenticate an incessant deluge of near-identical charts, tables, and documents of a highly technical nature. This did not mean that I was prepared for its effect -- it is one thing to occupy dead time, and another to drown in it. During that period spent acclimating to the realities and rhythms of the position, my only escape was to be found through the teardrop window which rose behind my computer, a gothic eye fixed on flat roofs beneath a leaden sky. In this sight I found peace, but not stimulation; within weeks I ceased to dream. And so, in an attempt to reanimate my senses, I took up the habit of leisurely twilit walks....
YOu R sMellY by: Paul O'Neill
The kids rocket around my classroom, scream, wrestle, call each other wretched names. The word respect is foreign here. Nonetheless, it’s my job to mould their ten-year-old minds.....
Today is Tuesday. by: Justine Engelbrecht
I can see her walking into the coffee shop across the street. This is not the first time. My chest begins to tighten in my throat; every time I see her, it’s like looking in the mirror from a distance....
Camp (In)vocation by: Cassandra O'Sullivan Sachar
Jamie awoke to the sunlight streaming through the bare windows of the cabin. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying block it out, feeling every last drop of the shitty vodka she and the other camp counselors had sneaked the night before....
The Little One by: Scott Urban
Deirdre was sorry she had mentioned anything to Jeremy about going to De-Lish for lunch. By the time she had finished Saturday morning errands–clothes from the dry cleaners, books back to the library, payment on the phone bill–she was ready for nothing more than returning home and seeing if her son would hold still long enough to curl up with her and let them both enjoy a mid-day nap. But Jeremy knew that De-Lish was offering a Rockin’ Roller metal collector’s car with their children’s meals, and he had to collect all eight of them. He had seven–the special silver-flecked roadster remained elusive....
August 2024
The Scarring by: A.J. Brown
On the bed lay the drunken man, his eyes wide and blood shot. They darted from side to side. His mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, but he only managed a few strangled croaks. His arms and legs were bound to the bedposts with ropes. He was as naked as the day he came into the world.....
Falling Doom by: Gordon Linzner
“Barton! Thank god you’ve come!”
I’d barely had time to brush the snow from my overcoat when I felt the garment whisked off me, and I was physically pushed into the living room of my friend’s apartment. At least, the floor plan of the building probably called it a living room. I doubt that Ed called it anything at all, using it as den, office, guest room, or anything else he happened to need it for......
I’d barely had time to brush the snow from my overcoat when I felt the garment whisked off me, and I was physically pushed into the living room of my friend’s apartment. At least, the floor plan of the building probably called it a living room. I doubt that Ed called it anything at all, using it as den, office, guest room, or anything else he happened to need it for......
Contain and Control by: David O’Mahony
Bess rested one hand on the plexiglass as the other hovered over the incinerator switch. Her heart was rattling and her breathing ragged. When she swallowed it was hard like bitter tears. She shivered. The window ran the height of the room and had been made thick enough to keep the dead at bay, but it wasn’t thick enough to make what she had to do any easier.....
Friends in High Places by: Justin Alcala
Dad went to jail, and we went to Wrigleyville. It felt like our ninety-sixth move in three years and the latest apartment was the worst. A grubby stone three-flat with cracked bay windows strangled in pest filled ivy. Atop the roof’s east corner, the ugliest gargoyle ever sculpted glared down in resentment. On the west bend, a pillar of stone where it’s partner once mounted—taken, just like dad.....
Knot the Noose by: Clint Smith
I’m on the cliff now—the same remote outcrop Josh and I visited our first week in Negril. The climbing rope has been clumsily wound around my neck. The principle tall-thing in the ragged robe (I count three, but there are noises in the nearby forest) is limping toward Josh. This grayblue, pre-storm ceiling accentuates the shadowed vascularity of the tropical vegetation and the tall-things’ lineaments: grey, flaking skin inadequately imitating the texture of leprous, reptilian flesh.....
June/July 2024
Black pansies and the rictus of a smile by: D.X. Lewis
"Ooh yuck! I don’t want to live here, Daddy!"
Sophie, our seven-year-old daughter, has spotted seven tombstones at a property we’re visiting....
Sophie, our seven-year-old daughter, has spotted seven tombstones at a property we’re visiting....
A Summons in Spring by: Yermiyahu Ahron Taub
The drive was long but not winding. Direct, blunt even. The front gate locked but easily scalable. Dusted, not caked, with rust. Paint chipped. The young and not-so-young-but-still spry found their way through its pliant bars. The cameras were still on but no one checked the video. Who had time? Everyone knew about the museum. There had been talk some time ago of turning the building into artist studios. Or was it condos? Yes, that must have been it. The meetings had been well-attended and surprisingly calm. He hadn’t attended the meetings, remembers them only as a long-ago item in the metro section.....
May 2024
Date with Death by: D.X. Lewis
The crematorium is busy, the car park full. Pall-bearers carry lavish wreaths and “floral tributes” to the chapel. Someone important will soon go up in smoke. But I am not here to attend a VIP funeral. I am here to mark the 20th anniversary of my mother's sudden death, by visiting the spot where her ashes are scattered...
Lullaby by: Maria Rybakova
Billy who had cut his roommate into pieces and stuffed the pieces into black garbage bags told Dr. Chaikin during lunch that a Russian woman was teaching them a story about a card game. Billy said there was a man in the story, named Hermann, who made an old lady tell him the secret of winning:
“His only dream was to win at cards, and he thought the lady knew how. But the old woman had tricked him, and he lost it. Then he killed her.”...
“His only dream was to win at cards, and he thought the lady knew how. But the old woman had tricked him, and he lost it. Then he killed her.”...
On the Inside by: Rebecca Benison
“I’m seeing some cloudiness in your lungs,” the doctor said as she held up an X-ray, squinting in the light. She was a petite brunette who didn’t look old enough to have finished medical school, Harry thought to himself...
APRIL 2024
The House on G-16 by: David A. Elsensohn
Coming home from San Jose last September, I knew of two routes: take the 5 Freeway south to Los Angeles, or the 1 down the coast. The two paths split widely from each other, leaving a swath of unknown California between. I chose the scenic route down the coast, glad to finally be done with all the meetings.....
Neverending Carousel by: Morgan Chalfant
Tamsen Plante combed the small Berlin curio shop, while her fellow history graduate students went into a jewelry store next door. Eventually, she meandered down an aisle toward the back of the store. After a bit of perusing, her eyes caught sight of a small object half obscured by a pile of second-hand clothing. Brushing the garments aside, soon she was staring at a snow globe.....
Beast Charming by: Allister Nelson
Old wives' tales go thus: Behind every man, a monster. Behind every husband, beast. And roses become thorns in time.
But the curse of my egregious veins only ever comes at midnight: turning me to a monster....
But the curse of my egregious veins only ever comes at midnight: turning me to a monster....
Piper's Pain by: Sarah Kelderman
Piper wanted and craved her job every day. It was like a drug. That needle in her arm and heart, that rush as she entered internet land and the virtual bakery where she worked. She was aware of her body—laying on their mattress, in their dingy studio apartment downtown. It smelled like mold and fried fish, and she heard the constant drip from the rusted faucet, but she also could smell the bakery—the bread and donuts and cake and other sweet things, and it was warm, and she heard laughter and talking and music....
Past Fiction:
Pins and Needles by: Sarah Kelderman
I stood before two narrow staircases, both leading up. The hallway I stood in was dim and orange and covered with a dingy red, oriental rug. The pictures on the walls were smeared and crooked. Somehow I’d become lost inside this building. I’d become so lost I couldn’t even hear the rain and thunder outside anymore, pelting downwards, or hear the talking and laughter of my group of friends.....
I stood before two narrow staircases, both leading up. The hallway I stood in was dim and orange and covered with a dingy red, oriental rug. The pictures on the walls were smeared and crooked. Somehow I’d become lost inside this building. I’d become so lost I couldn’t even hear the rain and thunder outside anymore, pelting downwards, or hear the talking and laughter of my group of friends.....
Wanna Go On The Rollercoaster? by: Dom
A creepy, eerie music filled my ears as I looked around at the amusement park, that wasn’t fun at all. On top of that, a big circus was also in the amusement park, and me and my best friend didn’t go in there because Roxie knew how much I hated clowns, and how much they scared me.....
A creepy, eerie music filled my ears as I looked around at the amusement park, that wasn’t fun at all. On top of that, a big circus was also in the amusement park, and me and my best friend didn’t go in there because Roxie knew how much I hated clowns, and how much they scared me.....