Appetizers I remember your fingertips—your fingertips. I remember your fingertips during our first dinner, and how I was nervous, but...

Don’t turn around. Throw your wallet behind you,” the raspy voice says. My breath escapes into the early morning air in the form of a...

A flash of fantail wing, a clack of beak on glass. Elena watches the bird zip between the windows of her study and the kitchen. She...

The forest preserve rumbles with the deep-throated song of frogs, holed-up in fallen trees or testing the frigid indigo of the lake. The...

From the diary of Cassandra Austen, sister of Jane Austen I have a choice, one which I fear may attract some consternation and regret....

She liked doing it to music. It relaxed her, she said, helped her focus. “On what?” I asked. “The situation,” she said. The niche between...

Hel is perched in the large bay window of Hemlock Tattoo Removal. Her serpentine tail curls around her, flicking in time with the sound...

You find condom wrappers in the couch while we wait for the power to come back on. It is an old couch, covered in torn, brown faux...

Lisle Donker (back row, second from the right) with daughters Anne, Freda, Dagmar, Maud, and grandchildren circa 1901 Long dresses still...

My previous expectations regarding the hereafter were closer to worms than to bareass comrades. Amazingly enough, Death was not it, and...

A sudden tap on the shoulder made her twitch. She looked up at the scruffy bearded man as she yanked a little oval pill out of his hand...

“Where does the moon go during the day?” The child stands with his hands in his pockets, his head craned towards the sky. A wide expanse...

Note from author: Soft Serve is a little piece voiced by two narrators, one a young girl full of enthusiasm and just making her way into...

Jody and I were in the strip club. Music blared and strobe lights pulsed on a small stage. In the spotlight, a dancer was wrapping, and...

On the day Sheila drives off in their new Chevy Silverado, John walks down to the lake and tests the ice. Thankfully, it holds, so he...

The creature visited her every September. One year, Sarah had stopped traffic, drawn to the ocean with dread in her heart. Another year,...

Something was off about the woman from the start. Danielle knew it, even though she pushed the feeling down. Something in the way she...

CW: self-harm, abuse I didn't know it then, but my friend Susan stole the five-dollar bill she gave me for my birthday right out of the...

Losing Face Don’t look in the mirror. Tilt ten degrees down: the phone, not the face. Tilt face to one side. Smile. Not a real smile. No...

I wince at the alien sound of my own voice. We’re bickering playfully in the clip. I’m awkward, pedantic. She’s adorably careless, as...