Hurley didn’t drink, really, but the liquor store was his favorite place to buy lottery tickets. He’d never heard of anyone celebrating a multi-million-dollar windfall at the gas station where some teenager with a face pierced full of tin randomly generated winning numbers between yawns.… more
Category Archives: FICTION
Wayne’s Booth
FICTION by Charles StephensThey assembled into a funeral procession led by Gator, first in line, who belted out “Died like a man,” then slapped the top of the door, spilling a bit of his drink on his otherwise pristine black apron, and they entered the shop for the last time.… more
At the Lake
FICTION by Gary MoshimerBev is singing Karen Carpenter songs. She’s getting that thin. Her voice steals across the sand to me. From the cottage. She’s making love with Mike. I’m on the lake beach watching their two kids sink ankle deep, knee deep, hip deep until I snatch them out. I roll them and sand sticks to them like I intend to fry them up. Maybe I will.… more
Three Stories
FICTION by Sreemanti SenguptaA mad woman doesn’t know what she is doing or thinking, I know, so don’t bracket me, I hissed. I don’t open my mouth because it has the garbage of the world that the oceans have left behind, the kind that can choke blue whales and leave them on the shores like impossible spectacles.… more
Sunspots on a Calendar Week
FICTION by Anthony MartinWhen you see two people fucking, with a capital F—really sharing the spoils the way it should be—who cares if the Company has gathered at three o’clock on a Monday to hear the top dog give his all-hands spiel? You look, godammit, and you probably laugh. That’s the human thing to do.… more
UFO Welcome Center
FICTION by Kim WeldinShe felt like she’d been folded up and stuck inside herself like a piece of origami. Like she was an empty shell, inhabiting someone else’s body the Earth, and attempting to exist like a normal human. Maybe she’d lost her autonomy. Maybe an alien had taken over her body and she didn’t realize it until now but it was too late to regain control.… more
Child Zombie
FICTION by Maliha MannanHow does one become a zombie? Hmm. All of us have unique stories, but one way or another, we end up losing our homes and possessions, so we take to the streets. Street life is hard. Some zombies get better, their situations reverse, but most of us keep getting worse. Our memories fade, speech gets slurred. It’s a common story, really. There are more of us around than you think.… more
The Feminist
FICTION by Läilä ÖrkenHe called out sexism and misogyny everywhere; occasionally even in his own family. Once, he stunned his mother by explaining how she had been the victim of domestic abuse. “You don’t understand,” he told her. “Father manipulated you into thinking you wanted to stay home. That was his way of keeping you under control. He was a textbook emotional abuser.”… more
On the Architecture of the Divine
FICTION by Steve PasseyThere is, in an anthill, a logic, an architecture, beyond what humans can conceive of. The ants, without thought, build from the order in their souls placed into them by the divine.… more
Jeffrey Aldeen
FICTION by Lloyd Alimboyao SyThe tabloids liked to point out his “shining good looks.” What good looks he had indeed. His smile was not quite natural—by design. Jeffrey knew that a true smile would not play well on screen. People wanted to see themselves in your teeth; you had to let those bad boys out.… more
