by John Kirkwood

“The mermaid enigmatically smiles at him like Mona Lisa. She knows what to do. She’s done it a million times, opening her mouth.”

by Ryan Larson

“Nobody at the lone gas station appeared to pay it any mind: there were just two cars in the parking lot. One probably belonged to the employee behind the air-conditioned counter, and the other—the other was bright red. Unmistakably red.”

by Jenna Resheske

“Was this dying? …No, when you died there was a light…Where was the light? …This was not dying. This was deletion: the unmaking.”

by Mike Fox

“Andy’s face is close to mine, huge, like a moon in a child’s drawing. As my eyes begin to focus, I read his concern and realise that the primal sobbing I can hear is coming from me.”

by Jeremy Kaufman

“…my mother was never one to fawn over the broken or suffer their neediness. She could mend a torn shirtsleeve, but her bedside manner during my teenage agonies was soup during sickness and hints that life had much worse in store.”

by Zary Fekete

“the fleeting memory of her mother’s voice, hearing it again with the teenage ears she used to have, ‘It will stay inside you, as long as you let it.’”

by Eric Kong Angal

“His dream was of broken skin. Purpled forearms resting against him as if he could alleviate what had gone wrong with her. A dragon looks back at him. “You hate it,” she said. “

by Chrissy Stegman

“The city sped past, and I leaned back into the seat, letting the world slide by inexplicably, as if the light outside the cab window could swallow everything. I really am a bitch, I thought.”

by Mohammad Abedi

"By the end of the night, you must kill someone of your choosing. Otherwise, all the things you don't want anyone to know will be revealed."

by Ingrid Marie Jensen

“I had horrifying visions of my future employers finding CCTV footage of me being tongued by a gurning seventeen-year-old as Angela looked on in peroxide glory and smiled approval…”

by Alexei Raymond

“Alpha, in her death, would have to transform from a nexus to a catalyst, and the love that is easily expressed toward her—which emanates from her—will have to find a way away from her warmth and soft fur.”

by Angela Townsend

“I don’t ask where all the linens come from, and I don’t tell her the stories she stirs. I could spew novellas, speculating on the secrets of Patti and Lloyd.”

by Swetha Amit

“The room was silent except for her hoarse breathing, snores, and the incessant beeping of the monitor. I muttered a quiet thank-you prayer to the universe.”

by Allison Whittenberg

“She felt justified in jerking away as this would be another difference of opinion.”

by J. J. Steinfeld

“The audience of Kafkas applauded a thunderous cacophony and I realized it was her greatest trick, the facial reconstruction, the conjuring of amazing conformity, but I was the failure for her magical perfection...”

by Emma Snyder

“…I waited, half-expecting for the Queen of Hearts to start singing. When she didn’t, I got up and started walking toward the road.”

by Rebecca Gransden

“A badger stands, legs apart in a tense stance, anchoring its gaze at mine. It is creamy all over apart from yellowish stripes, like a yolk broken in egg white…”

by John RC Potter

“The man stood in the doorway on unsure feet, his bloodshot eyes angry and wild. “I wanna see Beulah and Ginny,” the man shouted. “So my wife can look at ‘em and tell why they don’t look like me.”

by J W Goossen

“Jack looks out back through the kitchen window. The blue canoe he bought her last summer hangs in its shelter…Lily has to come.”