Fiction
X.C. Atkins, Peter Bullen, John Cohle, Macro Etheridge, Rowan MacDonald, Justin Nicholes, Rissa Pappas, John RC Potter, and Flo Ward
Take Out
by Peter Bullen
“It takes a lot of nerve to ask a woman if she will let you clamber up her backbone. There's the danger that she won't take you seriously.”
The Next Stop
by John Cohle
…how depressing to be stuck in a clean suit and a clean face and a brain that you can watch churn like the wheel on an old sawmill.”
Grief Party Mix
by Mileva Anastasiadou
“…the music plays on and on and on at the grief party, when we throw our hands in the air as instructed and wave them like we don’t care, and we sway till the end.”
The Cordon
by Rissa Pappas
“Crimes of opportunity are almost always disappointing. They feel like dumb luck, and they are.”
Three Micros
by Marco Etheridge
“The old lady stalks across the train station’s marble floor. She wears an ancient black wig, the same shape and color as the black cocker spaniel she drags behind her on a leash.”
All on Eight
by Rowan MacDonald
“Unsuccessful. Another rejection. I heard the Beatles were rejected once and reassured myself that sometimes people are clueless when it comes to spotting talent.”
My Name Is…
by John RC Potter
“‘Shaving my ass does not mean I am a bottom!’ Then, pausing for effect and continuing, ‘I would swear on a stack of bottoms! Er, Bibles, I mean.’”
Snow Gate
by Justin Nicholes
“Snowflakes sailed in tight suicide spirals against the Minneapolis-St. Paul terminal windows, then slipstreamed in retreat.”
Flowers
by X.C. Atkins
“I’d dump them into the lake just out of town, as usual. I sawed them into manageable pieces, listening to the Cocteau Twins.”
The End of the World
by Flo Ward
“‘Do you think we’ll go to work tomorrow?’ I ask, and this is somehow absurdly funny. ‘Why shouldn’t we? But also, how could we?’”