by Mike O’Brien It seemed like a good idea at the time, mixing fish food in with seeds, suet, and lard to make fat balls to hang around the garden. Our feathered friends seemed to thrive on them. So we kept on making more. After a few months we began to notice subtle changes in…
by Kamy Callow The chamber was quiet. Soft lights pulsed along the white walls, shifting through gentle colors—rose, sapphire, gold—like the room itself was breathing. Children sat cross-legged on padded circles, perfectly spaced across the polished floor. They were six years old. They had no names—only numbers. 717 sat still,…
by Kristin Borders Sherrow had been sitting on the gray metal bench half the afternoon, deep in thought, when the moody stranger approached from the corner of Allan and Lamott. The kid was young, late twenties or early thirties maybe, but each step had a slight catch to it—a limp…
by Angelina Sandoval “Loretta! What’s growing up the side of the house?” Garth stomped in from the front door, dropping his fishing gear against the wall. His wife’s ever-present smile was beaming at his return. “Just some old vines,” she said. “I think they’re rather lovely. But don’t mind that….
by T.R. Healy A Man in Half “Easy now, easy,” Surtees cautioned himself after turning the corner so fast his tires squealed. As he applied his brakes, he noticed that the sharp turn caused the paper bag on the passenger seat to tip over. A few hundred-dollar bills fell on…
by Benjamin Drueke “Near the end of the twentieth century, humankind unlocked the human genome. At the end of the twenty-first, prenatal genetic manipulation was regulated, and all genetic disorders had been eliminated. In 2130, we had a stable colony on Mars. Twenty years later, global warming claimed Earth and…
by Robert Parry And suddenly he was awake. He looked at the clock on his bedside. It read three forty-seven AM. Nothing new about that. Must have been over twenty years since he didn’t have to get up at some point in the night to take a piss. But this…
by Gil Hoy On those windswept weekday mornings, asphalt driveway crusted with snow, my father would get up early, put on his secondhand boots and an old coat, and exit through our front door into the blue hour to get the motor running. That fifteen-year-old station wagon would stall if…
by Travis Michaelis Long had I heard tales of the abandoned church overlooking the town of Ashbrook. With its peeling wooden walls reminiscent of fingernails being pulled back to reveal putrid flesh below, and its slanted roof threatening to collapse in the final touches of the church’s death throes, it…
by Jesse Teller She was crying. I was in a cardboard-cutout restaurant, a place we have seen over and over again, trying to eat a soulless meal while I stole glances at my college Lit book. And this girl was weeping. It was the kind of crying you do when…
by Millie Sullivan That Which is Sweet Delia sat on the velvet settee, her back straight and her knees pressed together. The air was thick with the scent of citrus, undercut by cinnamon and a whisper of clove. Bowls of oranges—plump, dimpled—sat artfully arranged on the small coffee table before…