There was no sunlight that day, and flowers with banners naming the giver had no aroma. The Godfather theme music played in Maria's head while a cast of characters, like sepia photos in her mother's
...
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Short Fiction
Short Fiction
My Friend Matty
My friend Matty believed he could fly. "I have the cape and everything," he told me one afternoon. We were playing knights and dragons in his backyard when he pointed to the roof.
"You want to ... [+]
"You want to ... [+]
Short Fiction
Portrait
4 min
She Danced
She danced naked in the rain, her palms upward to accept the droplets of moisture. Captivated by her own imagination, lost in a world of her own creation, a world where outsiders weren't welcome
...
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Short Fiction
The Girl Who Liked Cats
Harold Gates slowed the snow-topped yellow taxi and edged it along the slushy curb to a stop where she stood, shivering in a tattered wool coat in a January blizzard on the steps of her unlit
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Short Fiction
East is Left, West is Right
Near midnight she pedals her rented bike past Checkpoint Charlie. Vacant, but suitably restored, the off-white, utilitarian guard box occupies the middle of the street, protected from a barrage of
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Short Fiction
Bayshore Piano Movers
This job is a grand. We're supposed to deliver the piano from a suburban chateau into a self-storage facility. Why doesn't matter. Pick-up address, how many floors down; delivery address, how many
...
[+]
Short Fiction
A Box of Things
"She's a difficult pleasure," I said of my ex-wife. I was standing at the front door of her house, talking to her new partner, Sammy, a woman. My ex-wife, Lily, was not there.
We both took in ... [+]
We both took in ... [+]
Short Fiction
Solomon's Lines
Fred tiptoed into his room and slid into his desk chair, casting a worried glance over his shoulder as he opened his laptop. Typing as quietly as he could, he logged onto Artium Obscurorum and
...
[+]
Short Fiction
Broken Nights, Shattered Glass
Straight out of high school Mick's uncle landed Mick and me second-shift jobs at a textile factory. I asked Mick what the company manufactured. Gigantic rolls of something, he said. From three until
...
[+]
Short Fiction
Seamless Transition
In front of him, for nearly every minute he was awake, there was a screen.
He tried to recall a time when it wasn't this way. He couldn't, so he watched old movies to try to remember.
"Yeah ... [+]
He tried to recall a time when it wasn't this way. He couldn't, so he watched old movies to try to remember.
"Yeah ... [+]
Short Fiction
She Squared
She sleeps like a dead weight now beside me, lowered into the night, the ropes of the day swaying around her. We know nothing about each other really. She does not know how often my ex-lover visits me
...
[+]
Short Fiction
There Is No One Backstage
Henry Miller is waiting for his cue to go on stage. He is about to become Aiden Bennington, a condescending trust-fund brat. But before that, there is a moment in which he is neither himself, nor an
...
[+]
Short Fiction
Stone Maidens
Billy got in touch. We must meet and soon. I have a secret to reveal that only you can understand – a true exquis. As if we hadn't lost touch years ago.
The charge of his excitement ran through ... [+]
The charge of his excitement ran through ... [+]
Short Fiction
How I Learned to Stay Alive
This story contains adult themes and is not appropriate for young or sensitive readers.
I met Sarkas at a club called Pose. Rolling on molly, eager to swallow the world, dancing with our hips ... [+]
I met Sarkas at a club called Pose. Rolling on molly, eager to swallow the world, dancing with our hips ... [+]
Short Fiction
Portrait
4 min
Laura's Reflection
Laura balanced on a stool beneath the skylight, the sun's warm pressure on her back. "Am I okay?" she asked her father.
"You'll do." He winked at her over the easel.
Downstairs, the front doo ... [+]
"You'll do." He winked at her over the easel.
Downstairs, the front doo ... [+]
Short Fiction
Butterflies
Seven-year-old Isabella Thompson pressed her hands into the cool, moist dirt of her grandfather's garden. She peeled away the surface like an old scab. Beneath, a reddish-brown earthworm squirmed –
...
[+]
Short Fiction
Super Troopers
On the days I visited the care center, I'd walk past this used bookshop on a quiet sidestreet. There were these four books in the shop window that always caught my eye. Other books would come and go
...
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