by Angela Townsend If Lana knows that people underestimate her, she does not show it. She shows up to committee meetings with freshly purpled hair. It is not intended to be subtle or ironic, qualities that search in vain for a place to touch down in Lana. Big birds have…
by Allan Deligi Tom wasn’t the kind of man people noticed—not in a good way, anyway. He moved through life like a shadow, a worn figure. His once-thick, vibrant-red hair had receded into a few pale, wiry strands that clung stubbornly to his scalp. His ears stuck out too far,…
by Alex Carrigan After Erik Fuhrer. For Cici Cooper, Scream 2 (1997) Sober Sistersitting on thesofa surfing channelspast the static,suppressingthe silence ofthe sorority house.Sober Sistersacrifices a nightof shots, slipsof tongues in kisses,sentimental momentsof a sorority life.Sober Sisterspeaks on the phoneto a stranger,stumped to findshe’s specifiedto die tonight.Sober Sister,sinner in the…
by Peter Mladinic No, you’re not bothering me at all. Waiter, another coffee. It’s open-ended.All I say, all my narrator says is Annaand Gurov went on meeting in hotelsin various cities. They can’t be togetheras a married couple, but they can betogether. Alive and willing to rendezvousat times, in places of…
by Stasha Powell Even then, I wrote delusions, nightmares easier to slip into than face the truth. I traced perfect curves on crooked lines, lost in the rhythm, losing time, punctuation a casualty in the chaos of my mind. I hid secret friends in the cracks of fantasy, their whispers easier to hear than the noise outside. Phone calls…
by Joan Mazza You are the master of your unspoken words, but a slave to the words you have spoken. ~Winston Churchill To hold a small treasure hidden in the palm or pocket,to know no one knows what you know, the delicate,intricate details of lacework, net of devious deceptions, distractions,…
by Rebecca Ponichtera Two long weeks have passed since the young girl’s parents first admitted her to the crumbling hospital in the center of the city. Like her own waning heart, the sanitarium hopelessly continues to beat against the expanding reach of death as it captures one broken street at…
by Rachel Lawrence Godfrey *This story contains sensitive content.* As twenty-five-year-old Nancy Godfrey headed into her first pregnancy’s twenty-three-week embryonic scan, she was giddy with excitement while apprehensive about the procedure. The ten-week ultrasound image looked like a Jelly-Belly candy. Her husband Patrick had nicknamed it Jelly-Baby. This scan though,…
by Karly Tomasi My dream that night was darker than black, something more vast and fluid. As I swam through the dark, a tinge of restless sleep curdled my vision of inky smoothness, but I couldn’t wake the sleeping raven beside me, so I simply ignored the discomfort. I let…
by D.R. James A butterfly’s flapping over Costa Rica,it’s sometimes considered, could initiatethe chain that leads to tornados in Toledo,hopping and ripping the heartfrom every-other quotidian home. Or maybe its deft stretch-and-glidecould instigate the violent Mississippi’ssurprising rise beyond its subtle, stolid realm—the dainty queen behind that vast rebellion. So I…