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The Exchange by Kaitlin Milliken-Flohr
I should have known when we left the town that safety was far behind us. Our trike blazed along the narrow asphalt over the estuary, while the world around us lay uncharacteristically still. The setting sun reflected in the ocean unbroken, not a breeze to ripple the water. With every kilometer, life thinned — not…
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Marnie by Chelsie Blackwell
“And the winner for Best Actress in a Drama goes to…Marnie,” the seasoned actress whispers, choking on the name. She turns to the back of the stage, where the giant screen flickers on. A young woman appears, seemingly on stage, though her physical body is not. She holds the award in both hands, clutching tightly.…
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The House on the Hill by T. S. Parnell
Jamie stepped out of the taxi onto the gravel driveway. Pebbles popped under the soles of his polished shoes, unfit for countryside like this. He grabbed his suitcase and handed the driver a hundred-dollar bill for the extended trip. The driver gave him a curt nod before turning the car around and driving back down…
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Hunted by Johanna Elattar
For the women who came before me, and the women who came after me. But I sincerely hope that I was the end for this monster. The motion light above the garage snapped on.The sound was familiar. My landlady fed a feral colony in the backyard, cats she called by name, so the light came…
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The Boy in the Bayou by Alyce Lomax
Owen had lived nine years peaceful and alone in the bayou when it happened—the thing that changed everything. The dead boy. Owen was fishing on his boat, where he had seen all kinds of things float by on occasion. An alligator. An opossum, clinging to a piece of wood. A dead bear. An old tire…
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Flatlands by Redfern Jon Barrett
It didn’t seem like anything odd. After all, children do childish things, especially ones as young as little Molly. She were out playing in the back garden as I watched from the window, making sure she didn’t wander out into the fields. Those endless flat fields, with churned black soil as far as the eye…
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Scorned by Kaitlyn Downing
A woman is most likely to be murdered by her husband. It took only minutes for the police to suspect that the woman who “must’ve drowned in the bath” (according to her husband, Sam) had been murdered. Sam huddled on the sofa, head clenched between his hands, face blank. Suicide was immediately ruled out due…
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Fell Island by Nathan Poole Shannon
The scenery is losing its color. It looks like the landscape has been carved out of lead. In the shiny places it could be lit from within by ancient deadly radiations. Everything has been monochrome for some time, the flat charcoal of the water broken only by white ice, that of the land only by…
