fiction
Mrs. Anglerfish
I wake up. The morning sun is seeping in through the closed curtains. What a beautiful day!
A Visit from the Four Great Ones
By Tommy Cheis
Terror. In the sweat lodge. Drumming. Singing. Great Ones whispering.
The Vampire
The vampire was the only nice one at the party. He looked a little out of place, with his long cape and medallion, but very debonair and a little sad. He was standing near the counter dipping pita bread into the baba ganoush.
Milk Carton
Sandy drags Billy with her to evening Off-boarding. Billy’s excited because it feels like a special occasion.
Worknight
I stood and drank underneath the stuttering fluorescent lights and beside my husband Wes, who’d invited me to his office’s Christmas party. I was already halfway to being loaded when his boss caught us by the tree.
Under Branches
By Dylan Reber
There was a tree in our yard. It was our yard just as it had been the yard of the couple who planted the tree and propped it up with stakes so that if it stooped, it wouldn’t stoop too low and die there, leaning sadly toward the grass and its roots.
Fahrenheit S-E-X
By Ken O'Steen
We wore masks when we had sex for the camera, but there were things apparently that could give you away.
Compounds
By Fred Nolan
Uncle is half-into one of his things again: ‘...ten cents every dollar I make goes to agriculture. But look around, you think there’s farms out here? The soil is dead, the soil is ice...'
A Girl in Trouble
By Angela James
“Barbie and Ken should moan a bit. I think adults make a lot of noise when they’re doing it,” Dee says to Jennifer, as they smoosh their Barbie and Ken dolls together.
The Anxieties of a First-Time Pallbearer
By Colton Toews
One week ago, the news arrived: Grandpa had passed away.
By the Wooden Banks of the Neufnach (April 29, 1626)
By John K. Peck
I, Johannes Flavius nee Jan Floet of Antwerp, briefly of Augsburg, woodcutter and printer, killer of ants on vestibule and plate, eater of fried trotters and the smaller fried bits that fall off them, claim this few blessed metres as my home.
The Day The Moon Disappeared
By Sam Saxton
I don’t know if anyone truly believed the moon had disappeared. Your senses, famously, can get the better of you regarding such things. And invisibility is an exceptional disguise.