by James Croal Jackson The blue plaster walls are crackingwhich we should have been able to see as long asthis house has stood. I catch us looking different directions on the highway, cars zippingthrough; we nearly collide something cosmic. Meaning our souls are ready to ascendfrom our bodies to some…
by David Sapp Jim and I certainly weren’t colleagues. He finished a pharmacy degree, and I was an art school dropout – and couldn’t afford Kenyon. I drove a twenty-year-old Ford. He had a flashy new sportscar. He counted pills. I stocked shelves. He said, “That’s a pretty big word…
by Rachel Lawrence Godfrey It is springtime here on Grace Island. Still gray and dreary, but the temperatures are warming and we had three days in a row with a break from the constant Pacific Northwest drizzle. The air smells different, crisp and fresh, and buds are coming up on…
by Andrea Roylance A cold lake filled with wilted leaves, ash, and broken branches from a toxic tree sits at the edge of my consciousness. The lake’s waters are as still as death. Although the surface mirrors a pretty scene, the depths are murky with ghosts of the past, and…
by Moriah Canida The window in my room is special. Not as in a stained glass or creative design kind of way, but a truly magical way. The things I see through it don’t always make sense, but the scenes are always vivid and clear, as if it’s really happening….
by Ann Boaden It always began in brightness. He was home again, and a boy, and he and Amanda were in Narrow Lane, behind the house. The sea singing a long way off, like a sea in a shell. Mandy’s hand in his. Just the two of them, the beautiful…
by Lee Patton “Annalise! Dinner’s getting cold!” her mother’s voice shot upstairs, breaking through the faint, droning hum of the lamp nearby. Unresponsive, Annalise sat motionless, comatose, in front of the easel, her blank stare rivaled only by the canvas languishing in front of her. Her dark green eyes glazed…
by Michele L Tremblay They often did this and they were here again: falling on to the remnants of some long-forgotten road that led into dark and dense woods. As always, they didn’t know how they got there and they weren’t sure how they would get back. She imagined how…
By Crystal Jordan The moon loomed big and bright over the old Victorian mansion on Beeker Street. The light from the full moon bounced off the sharp angles of the building, throwing long, eerie shadows over the freshly manicured lawn. Ezra Ward gazed up at his new house through the…
by V. J. Hamilton After I left Shari’s place, the first person I encountered jumped to one side and gave an embarrassed chuckle, as if to say, “Now look what you made me do.” I patted my hair and looked back at the ramshackle house, where Shari’s kids tussled amid…
by Jordan Loveland (This story contains mentions of murder and suicide.) “What the hell,” Aria demands, “this is my sister?” She falters, face flush with anger and bottom lip trembling. “How do you know her?” Crumpled where her hand holds tightly to the page, the drawing isn’t one of my…