Fiction

Maps

Have you ever tried Queen of Sheba soul cake? It’s a rich chocolate cake with rich chocolate sauce, and its named after the Queen of Sheba (obviously) who was a...

Reptiles

Delancey and Price decided to visit the WNC Nature Center on a muggy Sunday afternoon in mid-August. Fluffy clouds hung low over the Blue Ridge Mountains and re...

99% Emptiness

The forks and knives in the restaurant clatter like the beats of my shrinking, metallic heart. Across the table from me, Eric smiles. The familiar crinkle of hi...

Candyman

Jake hated every single one of his mother’s boyfriends. She had dated many dickwads in the past, but Hank Kearney had positively taken the cake as the worst one...

Celeb Kid

i There are two types of Celeb Kids, just so you know:   the obvious kind, the ones who embrace it, who are steeped in it, who want nothing more f...

3:33 a.m.

When the portal opens in my bedroom ceiling, I take it as proof that my brain is finally broken. It’s the only reasonable explanation. I mean, I’m familiar w...

The FGM

The fairy godmother was pissed because she’d been assigned the role of kindly old maid who had to walk around in a pink tutu holding a wand and saving girls fro...

Eidetiker

I can remember everything. When I say everything, I don’t mean to say almost everything. I mean to say everything. I mean to say that when I see a thing, it ...

Kudzu

Ivy awakens, sudden and ungentle, to stretch, yawn, and slap at her phone, a haphazard attempt to quell the 6 a.m. alarm she had forgotten to disable the night ...

The Degenerate

When Stan’s neck craned toward Madison’s screen, I could glimpse the inside of his collar, the color, a few shades darker than Stan’s skin, of mottled seagulls....

Oh, Marvin

Marvin was certain he was good at something; unfortunately, others were equally certain he was not. Specifically, the thing he was certain he was good at but...

Kitty Savior

Erin rolls her cat, tucked inside his stroller, onto the back patio. They sit together in the shade while she reads a book about how to conquer fear of flying. ...