by Mohit Saini We wander in the margins of a book, where footnotes bloom like untamed vines, each asterisk a door left slightly ajar— a breath of elsewhere. The spine cracks, and the chapters rebel, plotting detours in the subtext. We follow the scent of ink, lured by digressions dressed as roads. The author’s hand hesitates, then…
by Te’Mera Bell There are times when I still set the table for two. Perhaps it’s because of habit, or maybe it’s because of false hope. The mornings come with a heaviness that settles within me. It’s dark, and bleak. There is no sunshine, there is no true rest, there just is. Grief is there, holding on to the vows we used to…
by Erin Harer On good days, we dance. We sing Grace’s favorite songs while I cook a real dinner, with no boxes or frozen things, making our tiny redwood cabin smell like a home. We laugh at stupid jokes and let time pass without me having to force a smile or…
by Betty Stanton Hands smelled of smoke long before the match was struck. We stacked the wood too high, and it swayed with the weight of grief. The fire took its time choosing which bones to touch. Ash gathered in our throats, and we swallowed without protest. Someone said the word sacrifice, but it tasted…
by Michael Theroux Cutter Bill had all his fingers and was proud of it. Most loggers, especially “cutters” who reached the ripe old age of 60 or so like Bill, had left various body parts scattered amongst the logging slash, accidents many loggers didn’t walk away from. Not Bill. Nope. He had plenty of close calls,…
by Emily Brochu The Siren’s Song They say the sea remembers. Every secret whispered into her waves, every cry lost to her depths, she keeps. And so she remembers Lyra. Cast Overboard It was Roger who dragged her from the shadows of the lower deck. His hand was a vise on her wrist,…
by Shaun O. Ceallaigh Albert Clark shuffled along the empty church’s central aisle, countering the weight of the oxygen tank on his back with his walking stick. He stopped beside a pew and placed another printout of the Miracle Prayer on the bench. Once he had distributed all ten copies…
by Tony Moreira Time didn’t pass in the attic. It curled, coiled, and even lashed out. It also maintained a dark silence that remembered everything. Filled with timeless dust and shadows, the air carried the awful scent of dread from the years that passed. A single window in the room…
by Jeffrey Ronay Forty-year-old Tom Riley climbed into his spacesuit and dialed the helmet ring to the external setting. Angie, the Suit’s reassuring voice, confirmed, “Suit pressure is nominal—internal temperature set to seventy-one degrees.” A smile flashed on his weathered skin, tiny lines drawn from too much exposure to the…
by Johnathon Hannon I push the door open. The clang makes my chest seize, like a spotlight just hit me. The bar reeks of stale beer, sweat, and old regrets, tables sticky with history, booths crusted with secrets no one bothered to clean. People stumble, shout, grind, laugh too loud,…
by Kevin B We’d go out around one. Climbing through bedroom windows, we’d try to land softly on bushes and backyard lawns. Some of us went barefoot. Some hid a spare pair of sneakers under porches or tucked under tarps used for covering patio furniture. Some of us just liked…