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Warehouse Workings
By Charles. K. Carpenter I nearly spill my morning coffee when I notice the big, black headlines on the front page of the newspaper. “BODIES FOUND!” it screams, and my eyes shoot to the accompanying photograph of the warehouse where I used to work. I can’t believe this. Reading farther doesn’t help me much either. [...]
4Feb2012 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedWatchfires
by Matthew Cherry He peeled back the blinds and thought about all the movies and TV shows he’d ever seen in which someone peeled back the blinds only to be spotted by the bad guys and shot thirty-eight times from the deeply-tinted window of a Lincoln Towncar. The street outside spoke in whispers and [...]
1Feb2012 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedUnwound
By Matthew Cherry The beer was good, although it was cold. Mr. D knew they both preferred it warm: hot, in fact. It was Guinness, and though D’s personal experiences with the Irish, especially during the 20th century, had not been pleasant, he had to admit that they produced a fine beer. “How much [...]
1Feb2012 | admin | 1 comment | ContinuedMasked
By Matthew Cherry Oliver stood in the field. He stretched out his hand and brushed his palm against the heads of the wild hay stalks. It was greener and thicker than any hay had a right to be, and it sprang from a clean churn of black spring mud freckled with hayseed and hoofstamp and [...]
1Feb2012 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedDeath by Water
By Douglas W. Bowers Mike couldn’t believe how warm the Florida water felt on his toes. The rare times he had been in the ocean were on the Western side of the country. He could get used to the chill of the Pacific, but the water rolling onto the Jacksonville’s McNichols Beach did not [...]
31Jan2012 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedSELLING OUT
By Douglas W. Bowers The loose gravel crunched beneath the BMW’s rubber. Elizabeth sat in her car long after she cut the engine, wanting to cry more than anything. Before her, framed by the windshield, stood the two-story farmhouse where she grew up. Her childhood was painted white with green shingles that probably needed [...]
30Jan2012 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Megalith
By J. Patrick Carr I first encountered the megalith as a young man, lost and wandering deep in the Greenwood. I found it standing tall in the center of an open glade. Its black granite was smoothed by countless years of weathering and it had no markings upon it save for a perfect circle on [...]
24Jan2012 | admin | 1 comment | ContinuedDesert Flower
By Marc Colten In his teens Jack Cohen had felt incredibly superior to the grease stained kids who dropped out of Andrew Jackson High to go to the local Vo-Tech. Vo-Tech’s were considered the lowest of the low, even lower than the “special schools” because at least those kids were retarded. The kids who went [...]
19Jan2012 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedAlternate
By Aaron Fitzgerald I remember a light shining in my eyes. I felt weak and I couldn’t recall my name. I heard a voice echoing in my head. It sounded like what you hear when standing in a large cavern. I was slowly regaining consciousness. As my eyesight became clearer I could make out a [...]
18Jan2012 | admin | 4 comments | ContinuedConfidante
By Michael Barber The guy at Shamrock Personnel rifled through his index cards and picked one out – a possible four-leaf clover in a cluster of maybes – and rattled off some of his notes: “Let’s see now . . . Four Seasons Travel, Madeline Madison, owner, looking for a CPA immediately, had to fire [...]
16Jan2012 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedPsycho Drama
By EKG I suppose it is odd for a eighteen year old to adopt a fourteen year old. However, I was a mature young adult. I had a place of my own, which I paid for by being a mature young child. I was equipped to raise him. It wasn’t legal adoption per se. He [...]
16Jan2012 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedLow Ground
By Matthew Cherry A bright bead of fire lanced into the noon sky. Neither of them saw it; Miller was chasing sleep with his cover tilted low over his eyes and Winters was face-down in a George R.R. Martin paperback. When the sound came, low barrel thunder, Winters looked up and saw the chalky contrail [...]
16Jan2012 | admin | 1 comment | ContinuedThree Nuts and a Cracker
by Alice Baburek Over the years life was more than good to her. Young, thin, successful. A convenient marriage, to suit her needs, her desires, and most of all her best interests. She climbed to the top in no time—no time at all. It didn’t matter how she did it. How many people she used, [...]
2Apr2011 | admin | 1 comment | ContinuedMiles To Go Before I Sleep
by Yousef Algahtani Exhaustion crept through him as night began to fall, or better yet, day fell and night began its rise. His horse trotted along at a slow pace, though steady and making time, leaving tracks with every step in the perfect blanket of snow. “Not much further now, old boy.” The man whispered [...]
25Mar2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedLast Rites
by Marc Colten Cathy Epstein could not resist relocating some of the floral offerings. Since some people had so many, while others seemed to have been forgotten, it didn’t seem wrong to take a few flowers from one to leave for someone else, at least those she could reach. It had never bothered Cathy that [...]
24Mar2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Call of the Wind
By Keith Deininger Jake lived in the industrial part of town and hated it. Most buildings around the train tracks were rundown and unused, their walls dirty and crumbling. It was like a fucking ghost town. Even the houses in the neighborhoods behind the old warehouses – those massive and windowless behemoths – were empty [...]
15Mar2011 | admin | 1 comment | ContinuedCastle Heldeur
by Michael Futch “The locals call this place Burcht Heldeur,” Greenberg said. He broke the silence amongst the four soldiers, who walked through the fields outside of Eindhoven, Holland. “It was built in 1452 by -” “I have to tell you, Greenberg, I don’t give a rat’s ass.” Campbell looked over his shoulder at Greenberg [...]
11Mar2011 | admin | 2 comments | ContinuedBogeymen
by Keith Deininger It started with the book, that damn book. It’d felt unnatural – greasy. But it was just a book, wasn’t it? Now, the dark terrified her; and those quiet moments alone. It happened at night, while she lay in bed, quivering, sweating, too petrified to dare expose herself from beneath the covers; [...]
4Mar2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedDeath Hates His Job
By Wodke Hawkinson G hated his job. It wasn’t just a strong dislike; it was actual loathing. He thought about it as he pulled on his blue jeans, gray t-shirt, and bent to fasten his black boots. With a feeling like weariness, which was surely impossible for him, he shrugged into his black hoodie and [...]
4Mar2011 | admin | 1 comment | ContinuedAn Unburdening
by John Elliott The man shuffled into his study, the silence of the empty mansion enhancing every step through the dark halls of the labyrinthine upper floor. The lights in the study were dim, altered years earlier to ease the stress on his aging eyes. After entering, the man paused at the doorway listening to [...]
28Feb2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedDragonstoen: An Amulet for a Prince
by Phillip J. Boucher Addler Berrington jumped down from Nesra’s saddle and knelt on one knee, looking at the tracks in the fresh wet grass, then to the note he held in his hand. His dragon snorted a small plume of smoke and turned its head as the sound of another set of wings whooshed [...]
22Feb2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedBurning
By Bill Danner James thrashed out of bed as though he were drowning. His phone screamed at him from the night stand where the clock showed 2:15 am. Even though he had been at Strenk Funeral Home for the past six months, he wasn’t used to these damn night calls. He answered the phone, his [...]
14Feb2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedHouse of Sam
by Brian Haynes One of the things Sam thought about every morning, when she finished brushing her hair and looked in to the mirror was the simple fact that she was unhappy. Sam also lived in fear, though many who knew her did not know about this fear nor would never understand if they had [...]
10Feb2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedSt. Pat’s Asylum
by Charles Anderson I can look into the eyes of the truly insane and can tell you the briefest bits of their life’s stories. There was an old draft dodger, Jessie Steward, who lived in Canada and who had been returned to the states after he murdered a woman at an art museum in Montreal. [...]
1Feb2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedLe Loup Garou
by Cathy Douglas Were he doing this for anything but humanitarian reasons, Fr. Jean-Michel would have been terrified. He experienced a moment of panic each time he broached the question to one of the women, but it was worth it to put an end to their tears of desperation. And desperate times these were, with [...]
28Jan2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedSoul-keeper
by Christina Bejjani Flames erupted all around Phirae. Though she instinctively knew that they were not a part of her dream, it didn’t stop that unreal second from being frightening. She jerked awake with her sheets tangled around her legs and her heart pounding a mile a minute. Phirae groaned, pressing her pillow in front [...]
26Jan2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedTendencies
By D. Andell Walter Thompson stood, poised and calm, on the roof of the building at the corner of Washington and Grand, watching the little toy cars blur their way through traffic. From his perch, he watched the great accumulation of life hustle about the world below him. He laughed quietly to himself, as everyone [...]
19Jan2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedPicking Up Chicks In Graveyards
By D. Andell The rain was coming down in sheets as Marcus Pratt circled his way back off the interstate and into town. It had been a fairly slow week for him, and the current storm wasn’t helping. Usually, by now, he would have come across half a dozen foul smelling hitchhikers waiting at the [...]
19Jan2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Late Bus
By D. Andell Joel did not like taking the late bus. Due to the nature of his job as a film projectionist, he was used to working nights, but was usually out no later then 10 o’clock which tended to keep a few more passengers on the bus which, in turn, left Joel feeling slightly [...]
19Jan2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Dead Man In House #10
By D. Andell Jimmy leaned over the water fountain, keeping his eyes on the closed auditorium door. The hall was clear, for now, and he was only a dozen steps away. He checked up and down the corridor for any wandering ushers. It was completely empty. He took a deep breath, and stepped away from [...]
18Jan2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedBoogey Man
By D. Andell Every night, at three past midnight exactly, Douglas Burns is awoken by the light scratching of tiny, clawed hands raking across the inside of his closet door. While his mind begins to clear from the post-sleep fog, he finds himself immobile, as he always is, body stuck to the bed as if [...]
17Jan2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedThis Side of the Barrier
By Marc Colten There was not a sound in the room, other than the voices of the speakers. No humming from the cold lighting or the sound of the air being recycled. The cameras and microphones recording the session were behind the walls, undetectable from inside. The interview room was illuminated to a uniform glow; [...]
17Jan2011 | admin | 0 comments | ContinuedMac Morris’s Sick Day
By Charles Anderson The universe ended on September 5th. Its finale happened when Alexander Mackenzie ‘Mac’ Morris no longer wanted to go to work. So it wasn’t surprising that the end came, but what was surprising was that the universe had lasted so long in the first place. Mac never knew he held the power [...]
10Jan2011 | admin | 0 comments | Continued