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"How Quincy Lost An Election" by Wayne McCray
Friday afternoon became interesting following a hard knock at the backdoor. I rose up from the kitchen table, abandoning my hot coffee...
Dec 11, 202210 min read


"The Permanent Marks left by the Broken Hearts Out on the 405" by Steve Passey
I Southern California smells of honeysuckle, pomelo, orange blossoms, lavender and the Pacific Ocean, always the ocean. All scents are...
Dec 11, 20229 min read


“Got Milk?” By Wayne McCray
My girlfriend, Jolene, took it and ran with it, but I figured I should let her know. Too bad an argument ensued and it ended abruptly....
Nov 27, 20229 min read


“Paranoia” by Tejaswinee Roychowdhury
We thought you’d remember us. Trisha dreamt her kid tumbled down the stairs and opened the flesh below his knees. She’d woken up,...
Nov 27, 20224 min read


“Red Maples” by Paul Ilechko
A crimson mist, shading to pinkish-brown, burnished the tips of the red maple trees, but otherwise it was still late winter drab as...
Nov 13, 202221 min read


"Appetite" by Mike Hickman
Matt hoped to God he wasn't wearing the Cookie Monster T-shirt. While he might be able to afford one or two minor embarrassments today,...
Nov 13, 20228 min read


“The Roach” by Swetha Amit
I saw him again, looking as creepy as ever. Dark brown silhouette and protruding antennae that towered his large eyes. He crawled with...
Oct 20, 20223 min read


"Intruders" by Edward Hagelstein
Germit Honely lopes out of jail into the sun, ready to leave the place in his rear-view for good this time. He side-eyes the squat brick...
Oct 20, 202214 min read


"In Which Jeffrey Attempts to See a Film" by William Taylor Jr.
Jeffrey was walking along Larkin Street through San Francisco's Tenderloin district towards the Civic Center Plaza. He was stopped at a...
Oct 17, 202210 min read


"Eternal Recurrence on Endless Loop, Over and Over Again" by Steve Passey
Vanessa logged out and picked up her keys. Garrett, a “team leader” was leaning into the next cubicle and his lower body was blocking her...
Oct 2, 202216 min read


"Against the Current" by Brittany Ackerman
I dress in the dark every morning for school. I don't want to wake up Lanny, who makes his own schedule for his marketing business that...
Oct 2, 202225 min read


“Serving Sushi” by Tim Frank
A small crowd of England soccer fans nursed plastic cups of local German beer while singing God Save the Queen. A couple of hours before...
Sep 18, 20224 min read


"For Girl X With Love James Wu" by Christine Kwon
He stood outside the Guggenheim, panicking. The light was about to change and his thoughts raced down 5th Avenue like a yellow taxi. God,...
Sep 18, 20229 min read


"Fraud" by Clyde Liffey
I sit at my desk, a nice one – yellow wood, not in the best condition but well-made – and think, “I’m a fraud.” This has nothing to do...
Aug 21, 20225 min read


"Oxen at the Well" by Ted Morrissey
Where could she be? It was snowing. Hard. And his sister was somewhere in the storm. Papa went to fetch the doctor—Mama’s baby was...
Jul 24, 202210 min read


"Tupperware Can Do Almost Anything" by Julia Halprin Jackson
“Believe it or not,” I say, hoisting the ice chest over my head, “I cannot control the river.” “Yeah, whatever,” Samantha says. “Just get...
Jul 10, 20228 min read


"Facing the Music" by Victoria Leigh Bennett
Esther was beginning to see what had happened. What had happened to the day; what had happened to the sun outside on the rooftop deck...
Jun 27, 202210 min read


"The Devil Comes as a Mother, a Sister, a Daughter, a Friend" by Steve Passey
Tom says there is an old man named Scotty and that Scotty has seen the Devil. Tom tells this to the new hire. You ask him, Tom says, and...
Jun 27, 20228 min read


"Fancy Nancy" by Lorraine Murphy
Fancy Nancy. That’s what Mammy calls me when I wear this red dress with black velvet trimming; the one Grandad bought it for me in...
Jun 12, 20223 min read


"All Our Known Yesterdays" by Victoria Leigh Bennett
NOTE TO THE READERS: This mild vintage horror is a tribute to the contribution of the form made by Rod Serling, the television host of...
Jun 12, 202213 min read
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