SAZHAAKby J. Herrera Kamin At night the rats scurry under the floorboards, above the rafters and behind the peeling plaster. Little claws click-click-clicking against our skulls. I can see them. Knots of darkness clothed in mangy fur. Black marble eyes.…
MACK’S MORALITY by Barry Yedvobnick “Mack, I’m a dead man. They’ve got my DNA. I’m gonna get ID’d for sure.” Mackenzie awoke instantaneously in the bar and recalled it was where she met Ethan, whenever he needed to talk. Nobody…
A HOMESPUN EMBRACE by Robert Luke Wilkins The red-gold of sunset flickered through the old windows of Westford Elementary, turning its corridors into a quarter of hell. There were strange corners that didn’t belong, as though the architect had lost…
TO THE BRIM by Logan McConnell For the last delivery on Dot’s mail route, she was surprised to find, at the bottom of her mailbag, a letter addressed to the abandoned house at the end of Forrest Lane. Her day…
BLUE SERPENT by Jenny Perry Carr Jimmy Aldeen wedged the crowbar into the door frame, despite his better judgment. He swore he wouldn’t do this again, but here he was. Leaning into the pry bar with all the weight he…
PECKING ORDERby Megan Kiekel Anderson They are bullying the poor gold-laced Polish again. The hen has few feathers left on her once resplendent head; the fan of plumage that haloed her beak reduced to scabs crusted dark brown against her…
THE MIND PLAYS TRICKS by Samantha Bryant Luisa sat looking out the window waiting for the day nurse to arrive. Her son had already left for work, and Jaleisha was running late. Luisa rubbed her hands in her lap, the…
PAPILLON by Antonia Rachel Ward You step through the gates of the fairground, your cheeks aglow with warmth from the torches that line your way. Lowther’s Circus and Amusements, proclaims the sign that arches above your head, in elaborate, foot-tall…
WE ALL KNOW ANNE IS A WITCHby Harrison Shimens We all knew there was something strange and evil about Anne Lamarque and we all wish we had done something sooner. But how could we have known? That the witch would…
FAMILY CURSEby Anne Marie Lutz “I only missed one call, Dad.” I’d been swamped yesterday with the new implementation. It had been 10 pm before I realized I’d missed the daily call, and by then Dad must have been asleep.…
KILLDEERby Ted Ludzik The tires on the rental car crackled over the shoulder’s gravel. Ellen killed the engine. The silence laid as wide as the surrounding Saskatchewan plains. The skyline was a blazing blue, broken by long bone-white clouds. The…
I’M SCARED OF THE HALLWAY by Tamika Thompson My two-year-old runs barefoot through the hall, his soles like thunder as they pound the oak planks. “Mommy, I’m scared of the hallway.” He exits the dim space, closes his eyes and…
