Four Nights in the Apology Hotel

Joy GuoApril 19, 2021

Sorry, I’m not trying to be difficult, I say, boarding myself up in the apology. It’s tight, with pointy corners and a low-sloped ceiling, but I manage, wadding...

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Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine Prepares to Attack Local Man for Talking Smack

Jesse PradoApril 16, 2021

This foo said, "I have a strong immune system." That's laughable, but I’m taking that hella personally, to be quite honest. I just came on the scene too, and ...

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Tulips

Rhiannon JonesApril 15, 2021

Elise hadn’t known Dylan well enough to call him a friend, exactly, but in the strange summer between the end of exams and Results Day, she had sometimes seen D...

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Bomb Cyclone

Wilson KoewingApril 13, 2021

I woke up early to drive Rae to the airport. I’d gone back and forth about the Mardi Gras trip and finally decided to stay in Denver. We’d just moved into a new...

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December Now

Myles ZaveloApril 12, 2021

I’m crying because I can’t sleep. I can’t sleep because I’m crying. I wish I could cry myself to sleep. I haven’t been sleeping well since graduation. I usua...

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A Pool Table is Bad News

Dmitry SamarovMarch 4, 2021

An Excerpt from Old Style by Dmitry Samorav Matt and Laura come to the Blue Light every week. They order a pitcher of Old Style and play pool. The table is at ...

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Bitches On Depop

Maria Santa PoggiMarch 3, 2021

She goes to the Salvation Army every Sunday in hopes of finding the next haul for her Depop shop. As of last month, her shop has been selected as a Top Seller o...

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Acknowledgements

Zac SmithMarch 1, 2021

The stories in this collection would not be what they are today without input and support from Giacomo, Cavin, Mike, Graham, Alan, Bria, and some others I’m for...

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There’s a McDonalds at the Bottom of the Sea 

SR SchulzFebruary 25, 2021

I know because I’ve been there. I woke up around three AM, hungry for a Big Mac. You see, by the sea, there are no McDonalds. There are only cedar shake houses ...

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Summer Rental

Christina KappFebruary 24, 2021

Everyone comes to this house to die. My husband says I’m melodramatic, lots of people who come to this house stay alive just fine. Most hike the woods, enjoy th...

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Nostalgia

James J. HatfieldFebruary 23, 2021

If I have any kind of hookup for anything I immediately tell people. Not because I want to help or coordinate an introduction but because I want it to be known ...

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Run, Run, Run

Charlie WilliamsFebruary 22, 2021

Jimmy “the Baker” Reed, head detective of the NYPD, muscled through the maze of cops and yellow police tape surrounding him. Veterans and rookies alike avoided ...

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Jeopardy

Nathaniel DugganFebruary 18, 2021

Everybody in the short story class had a dead dad except Dan. At times he suspected this left him at a disadvantage, creatively-speaking. While his peers’ work ...

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Instructions for the Practice of Witchcraft

Elizabeth GaughanFebruary 11, 2021

Stage One: The Calling Not every young woman possesses the acute connection to the spiritual world necessary for the practice of witchcraft. Do not force this ...

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Crime Court

John PadulaFebruary 9, 2021

After the world crash of 2020, every country on planet Earth filed for bankruptcy. With no entity large enough to bail out the entire planet, government is forc...

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LOCKJAW

Mary Alice StewartFebruary 5, 2021

It had begun to resurface, her problem. Slowly at first, peekabooing, then swiftly in the night with vengeance. She woke in the morning and felt it. A furious p...

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Organ Donor

Keshe ChowFebruary 4, 2021

I wish I could say it was altruistic, that I’m selfless, that I’m a hero. But the truth is, I am a selfish creature. It’s selfishness that makes me want to save...

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AMERICAN PAPER

Michael McSweeneyJanuary 28, 2021

Graduation was a month away and the summer of 2006 just out of reach when my friends and I went to buy some counterfeit money.   Five bucks got you a...

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Ideal Mall

Nedjelko SpaichJanuary 27, 2021

It was June when the days blurred. Some I wished would end faster than they did and others I hoped would go on just a bit longer. But once July and the dead of ...

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Brain Debris vs. The Squid Aliens

Steve GergleyJanuary 25, 2021

Dawn had only been in Brain Debris for six months, but already her headbanging was legendary. Sure, all the bands in the New York death metal scene headbanged w...

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The Lowest Pitch

Michael HammerleJanuary 12, 2021

I’d heard my hands were too fat for a six string. That’s a crock, The Jazzman said, that Israel dude was a thousand pounds and played a ukulele. At the music sh...

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San Marzano

Jo VarnishJanuary 12, 2021

“I’m not understanding why they’d want to hire you exactly?”  My husband pokes a hunk of burrata with his fork. I sit across from him in the busy, rustic Italia...

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Everybody’s Favourite 90s Cult Sci-Fi TV Series Sidekick

Emma BrankinJanuary 5, 2021

I have spent the last 72 minutes willing Luke Ryan’s bladder to fill with piss. And although he currently seems very happy slowly sipping his drink, I am poised...

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5 Ways Women Cause Their Own Miscarriages, by an Unsolicited Advice Columnist

Vicki TranJanuary 4, 2021

At the end of the day, wasn’t it “Her body, her choice”?   Are you finding it difficult to focus when your co-worker is crying about her miscarriage?...

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This Christmas

Tim FrankDecember 22, 2020

Six months from Christmas, I started scoffing all my lunches and dinners at Reggie’s, the food joint I worked at, where everyone had head lice, despite the stri...

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Lessons

Stephen AndrewsDecember 11, 2020

My kid busted his lip real good this morning. Hit a crack and flew forward on his face. Do we have to worry about any of that? No, right? It was gnarly. I think...

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J. Allister’s Shop of Horrors

Christina RossoDecember 7, 2020

A forever friend she called it. Someone to play make-believe with and to hold close to her chest at night. Someone who would never leave her, like her parents h...

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All the Girls Get Snakes

Shaun Byron FitzpatrickDecember 3, 2020

I was twelve when my first snake appeared.   It was the morning after my first middle school dance. I woke up and there it was, a tiny thing, jutting...

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Punk Adults

Rebecca van LaerDecember 2, 2020

Sitting in traffic on 42, Madeline wanted a cigarette. Chloe sang haltingly to “Deceptacon,” her voice dropping in and out of the verses. “Wanna disco? Wanna se...

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Welcome to the Playhouse

Kelly GrayNovember 27, 2020

ACT ONE (Thick red curtains are closed across the stage. The room is dark. Ushers in red uniforms, pamphlets in hand, line the isles. There is an orchestra a...

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