The Summer of Our Bewitchment

Mark BenedictDecember 23, 2022

May I felt a queasy foreboding when the blackout hit. Cell and internet service were down too. My wife Mary, a librarian, a devout optimist, took it in strid...

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Your Police Subscription Has Expired

Thomas Kent WestDecember 20, 2022

I paid the cops once they were done with the hobo on the trampoline. I said, while I was paying them, can you believe this? In this neighborhood? A hobo? And th...

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THE NAME OF THE ALBUM

R. Tim MorrisDecember 19, 2022

Fred had routines. They were always there—routines and habits, all in a particular order, and a part of everything Fred knew. His routines could be listed easil...

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The Most Magical Place on Earth

Nick GregorioDecember 8, 2022

She wakes up at three. She wakes her daughter up shortly thereafter. She showers. She makes her daughter a light breakfast. She drives them both to ...

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Check Your Risk Level

Tara Stillions WhiteheadDecember 6, 2022

Shoshona got her period the day after the Fallbrook Fire erupted east of Highway 15 and incinerated hundreds of acres of pot and palm tree farms. Her boyfriend ...

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L.A. is the end of time (three meditations on temporality)

NIck HilbournDecember 2, 2022

I. Midnight Premonition I wake up in a dark room to the sound of a blade cutting the wash of traffic outside.  My body completely wet.  It feels like I’m going...

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Astronauts

Mersiha BruncevicDecember 1, 2022

A young man, Hippolytus, and a young woman, Pip, sit on a ring around Saturn. Stars shoot all around, no sounds but for Hippolytus and Pip talking.   H...

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Begotten

Jack MoodyNovember 30, 2022

Growing out of adolescence was like emerging from a dense fog. You breathe better, the things around you become easier to identify. You retain the shape of t...

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Diary of an Extra

Alex SimandNovember 29, 2022

In my movie, I am a girl walking alone on a subway platform. The dark corners imply gruff hands, sandpaper fingers threatening to wring me out and dump me on th...

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Doggone

James CallanNovember 22, 2022

A handsome, heartthrob archaeologist flashes a million-dollar smile, flashes a lightning-quick whip, flashes well-tanned pectorals in the gap of his buttoned-do...

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It’s Not You It’s Me

Jeana MahanNovember 21, 2022

I don’t know her personally. Only from the two-and-a-half hours of Facebook stalking, I had done the night before. And— of course— I forgot to put deodorant on ...

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RUBBER TEETH

Caleb BetheaOctober 26, 2022

 I had this mask, smelled terrible–put it on and it was like you were pulling yourself through a wormhole to some sort of hot, rotting planet. Great look though...

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Just a bloke who sells microwaves

Kik LodgeOctober 26, 2022

So the damn dog’s sinking, cramp in its hind legs, head going under, and there’s me in my yellow jumpsuit with shoulder pads, a medallist swimmer, and yes I cou...

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SELFIE STICK

William M. McIntoshOctober 26, 2022

I have a can of ashes. It is all that is left of my parents. They want taken to some faraway place, some hippy-dippy part of the world, some beach in Fiji. S...

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A Prog-Rock Throat Clear

Will MusgroveOctober 26, 2022

I try not to clear my throat in public, but accidents happen. It was winter. I had a cold. I stifled the bodily noise with my palm, but a guy a table away still...

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FACEDOWN IN A PUMPKIN PATCH

Nicholas GriderOctober 12, 2022

Plot twists aren't the only measure of a life well lived but they might be the best one, Tyler concludes after many idle hours pondering the wild but moderately...

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The Bridge

N.D. BrownOctober 5, 2022

The scene looks like a Caravaggio portrait, shaded in chiaroscuro from the streetlamp above. The Preacher stands on a flipped-over milk crate at the corner of P...

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Scared Smart

Mallory SmartOctober 3, 2022

“Darkness Falls, Jaws, The Ring, Scream, The Grudge, Halloween, Halloween II, Halloween III: the Season of the Witch,  Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers,...

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RINGS

Josh DaleOctober 3, 2022

The Friday when rent was due, Katelyn moved out. It took one trip with her Geo. She took pride in her entire life residing in a duffel bag, safe, and gray tote ...

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The Utopian Mask

Jack MoodyOctober 3, 2022

They don’t scream like we do. Pleasure-howls that twist around walls and bleed through the cracks underneath locked doors. Yips that crash into the echoes th...

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How to Conquer Your Fear

Shana GrahamOctober 3, 2022

Stare straight into the Marionette’s bulging, white foam-ball eyes starting immediately after Mom tucks you in, clicks your bedroom door shut. That terribl...

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OOOOH! I THINK I HIT MY LEFT VENTRICLE !

Chase GriffinOctober 3, 2022

So, my scared stupid moment is super on-brand and I apologize. I can't help it, okay? This state really is goddamn weird. I wake up and there's a marching band ...

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He even freaked out on Bruce Willis

Caleb BetheaOctober 3, 2022

I used to run out of the room when the opening theme came on, with the very 90s night-filtered montages of empty row boats and swing sets, the match lit up unde...

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The Witch Lucille

M.M. KaufmanOctober 3, 2022

Dear Great Witch Madge,  It was great seeing you at the last Witch & a Steak barbecue. Those kababs you made were insane. Sadly, I am not writing today t...

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Jacob and Connie Know Nothing About Ghosts

Christina RossoOctober 3, 2022

Jacob and Connie pack up their Subaru and back out of the driveway to their house, better known as the Most Haunted House in Drexel Hill. So consumed are they w...

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Total Protonic Reversal

Tex GreshamOctober 3, 2022

If you are ever to get rid of Him, you have to read this and follow what I say religiously. I didn’t and now… It’s safe to say I didn’t give this to you, that y...

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Venereal Disease in Ancient Rome

David M. RubinSeptember 23, 2022

Wherein Madigan Fiske failed to transcend circumstance and forgive crimes against his soul, but was begrudgingly forced to accept the love of the many.   ...

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What the Lady in the Mobile Game Ad Doesn’t Know

Alexandra M. MatthewsSeptember 23, 2022

It’s dawn and my contacts feel like freeze-dried apple rounds on my eyeballs. To win the game, all I have to do is tap the marshmallows at the exact moment of t...

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Why My Backpack Smells Like That

Ev YoungSeptember 23, 2022

There was an especially ebullient morning on the farm in late August. My skin at the time was raw from interminable afternoons in late July, but that day a west...

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About Lee (About You)

Abigail OswaldSeptember 23, 2022

All of your stories begin with Lee. You can’t help yourself. Whatever year it is, whatever bar you’re in, inevitably his name rolls off your tongue and you say ...

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