Category Archives: Fiction
Zdravka Evtimova
Pop’s Meadow The vineyards withered in the heat, yellowish-green like the clouds in the sky. The clouds were wild hammers that killed the sun but gave no fresh air. Lyuda didn’t care about the sky. The vineyards stretched endless before her, she rode her old horse Matey through the hot leaves, cursing under her breath. [...]
Michael Graves
Fort Knox For Gram: I know that you wander through the shadows of our kitchen while I scratch up my notebooks. Thank you for watching. I see you too. Route 2’s overpass fence curls toward me: a frozen, mesh wave. Once again, I’m crunching cans through each diamond-shaped hole. I have chugged twelve Moxies, but [...]
David Madgalene
The Volunteer Todd was supposed to meet them at the supermarket. They’d give him a ride to the city. There were supposed to be a couple of other guys. They should be able to tell each other because they were all dressed in black. No one was there. They had blown up the car. Jason [...]
Stephen Muret
The Eye of God The wick and the flame were one and together they formed the cobra. The candle stood square and mystic and fit in the cup of his hand. The monk elevated the mystic candle to his eyes. He observed the cobra flickering back and forth. The cobra hissed. The cobra spit. Heat, [...]
Julio Peralta-Paulino
Niku Odori Japan’s not like anything you’d imagine before you get there. Godzilla, first of all, is not having sushi at the bistro where the popular plates are expertly pictured or set in pretty reproductions. Precious memories stir imprecisely like sugar in a morning coffee. I have it all and yet I don’t really trust [...]
Anthony Wright
SHAPE SHIFTER Marked peculiarities do not elicit sympathy from the common run of people—the great majority… And always must eccentric greatness pay a penalty; nay, not one, but numberless ones to the clamoring commonplace fool and the silent, envious knave. —DOUGLASS SHERLEY He was an old man, wrinkles hard and tanned and eyes a clear [...]
Gerald Keaney
The ET Code Few had heard the real ET Code, the actual repeating broadcast from the alien craft. Pretty quick the US military had managed to contain the range of the broadcast to just outside the secluded landing area, using all the usual excuses relating to freedom, apple pie and one’s nearest female ancestor. They [...]
Valery Oisteanu
The Life and Death of John Badum For me, the story began one morning when I observed a good-looking Middle Eastern man hanging out for hours in front of my window, just opposite Saint Mark’s Church. I wanted to photograph him, and by the time I fetched my camera he was gone. The next day [...]