Category: Short Fiction
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In the Aftermath by Phil M. Robinson
Another synthetic sunrise. A plastic dawn. How long has it been now? It’s amazing what you can forget when you’ve spent so long chained to a bed, with webs of bloody tubes to tie you down. Each time I breathe, I feel the drain in my chest as it struggles and strains to filter the…
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Dear Robert by Gabriella Giambanco
Dear Robert, Do you remember how we first met? I think of it more often than I should. The air was cold that day, yet I felt inexplicably warm, almost as if some part of me already knew you. You said something ordinary; I can’t even recall the words. What I remember is the way…
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A Good Deed at the Hanging Tree by Kris Violet
August 1747, Shepherd’s Bush outside London, midday I can’t see its curdled waters, but the smell of the Thames coats my nostrils and the back of my throat. Who would have thought it could be worse after you’re dead? London is a crowded, sprawling pit where a man can find anything he needs on every…
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A Hell of a Tale by Drew Broussard
Addie hurried through the still-foggy morning streets towards the harbor, following the thick brine on the air. She’d overslept, which was rare enough in a house full of noises like hers—but today, of all days! She gritted her teeth and hustled on. Only when she turned the corner onto Dodson Street, with its falling slope…
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Quality Assurance by Moses Sukumaran
Every Wednesday at precisely 8:17 AM, the conveyor belt bled oil for one minute and seventeen seconds. For Soma, that meant a morning spent on his knees with a bucket and a quick ratcheting of loose bolts to get it running. He would grunt and curse his machine, trace the pipes for a while, tighten…
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The Lizard of Lamont Goods by Noah Gibson
LAMONT GOODS. Food you love. Food for your family. The slogan had been etched on banners and billboards all around town for years. Lamont Goods was your basic, run of the mill grocery store. The prices were fair. The products were good. The employees ranged from charming, professional adults to teens that didn’t give a…
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SCRATCH by John P. McEneny
The closet door was locked shut. For the first few hours, she kept expecting the door to open. Connolly Hall locked itself every night at ten. No one could remember when the rule had started. It was simply how things were done. Amy pounded the door with her fists and kicked at it the way…
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Good Luck, Mr. Flowers by Jimmy Frohman
He delivered the flowers a whole hour early. Patty N. hadn’t even finished pulling up the shades on the Juniper Street Market windows when his purple delivery truck pulled up to the curb, Mr. Flowers Florists emblazoned on the side. Even though Easter was days away, the air was crisp enough to need a coat,…
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The Doom That Blew Into Gnarlywood by J.T. Trigonis
The tumbleweed appeared out of nowhere. It had been a typical summer night in central Jersey, humid with the weariness of clouds trying to hold onto the rain a little longer. A flash of lightning later, and there it was. No rain, just a bramble of knotted twigs. It didn’t tumble as one might expect;…
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Salt in the Wound by Claire Sweetow
My mother died on a Wednesday night in February. I sat at the kitchen table, staring down at the pinpoints of salt dotted on the dark wood and pressed my hands down onto the granules, observing the particles that stuck versus the ones that simply made light impressions on my skin. The only sound I…