Category: Fiction

It arrived quite by accident. Amid the usual fourth-class clutter in my mailbox (“Wax your sink—the latest in home care innovation!”) lay the thick, cream-colored envelope. I turned it over in my hand. The richly...

I could feel the scent of lake water. It was inside me and I felt submerged before I even stuck in one baby toe. The lake. I liked how it carefully extended its fingers, wanting to know what the sand on the shore felt like. With...

The smell of diesel seeps in through the window with the first light of dawn. The engine huffs, blowing fumes through the cracks around my window. The five-a.m. bus is shuttling the first workers to the factories. I turn away,...

Johnny slammed the screen door of the back porch behind him, “Need to call Doc Jacobs,” “What’s wrong?” Margaret wiped her hands on a dishtowel and stepped away from the sink; “Anything I can...

Marvin was jolted from his sleep after hearing unpleasant noises coming from outside, beyond the quiet confines of his snug bedroom. Any interruption to the tranquility of the quaint neighborhood was cause for concern—especially...

He panted through the mysterious maze. The rising fog from the mud below was suffocating. The gloomy sight pressed at him so hard that he felt only desperation and anxiety – he wanted to get out. He had no memories of...

“Your stuff’s not bad at all, but I don’t think you’re gonna knock Rick Reilly out of the running for book of the year,” the stranger in the café told Olivia Moore with something between a grin and a smirk. Rick Reilly. It...

I. The Cage I was born in the cage. When I started to remember things vaguely, the small cage was always there. I liked it because I had inexhaustible food every day in a plastic basket at the corner and ice-cold water in the...

Victor is a straight, white, lonely, 24-year-old, Capricorn male who can’t understand why women find him off-putting. He has never had much success with romantic relationships. Actually, he’s never had one. He really can’t...

“I should just shoot myself!” my father roared as he swerved the family car over to the side of a busy street. “Richard!” my mother shrieked. “You told me to take a right?!” my father demanded; “It was supposed to be a left; now...

Long ago, way back in ancient times, there was an idyllic land called Shelmalay, which some scholars believe was located somewhere in what is now present-day Ireland. Shelmalay was ruled by a great king named Gallamore and his...

I lifted my head to see where I was. I didn’t expect to see a window, yet there was a small one, high, close to the edge of the ceiling. I put my hands on the dirt floor to push myself up and felt the grains of dust stick on my...