A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Here in this place of other, I am an observer.
On an eerily tall mountaintop, I stand. It’s dark shadows and peaks crawling high up into the ether, allowing for a birds eye view of the world ... [+]

The clock strikes 12. The hour of birth. The hour of candlelight. The dawning of time. The hour of unanswered screams on an empty road. A cold wind whistles through the forest. The unseasonable chill ... [+]

A.
Floating
Tethered by a single cord.
There is a steady beat. Like a drum that shakes every cell. There is darkness, but I feel surrounded and held. It is so warm, and safe? Maybe. The ... [+]

The white tea towel, printed with cacti and the jolly phrase, “Looking Sharp”, resting on the oven handle in my kitchen stains brown from my finger. This has become the preferred method to test ... [+]

“Look out!” Chance screamed, accompanied by a stuttering step in my direction, seeming to want to chase the volleyball he had sent careening in my direction, but hesitating at the last second ... [+]

His heart pounded as he stared at the makeshift cage which imprisoned his fearsome foe. He tried to convince himself that he was ready for this moment. But was he? He had spent hours studying his ... [+]

The planetarium is closed for good.
Merciless black letters splayed across the sign up front, the yellow banner blocking Saturn’s dancing rings in more ways than one.
They only dance ... [+]

We now rest like bugs hanging onto the blades of grasses underneath us, intertwined like we were on our little blanket on the hill. Water soaked through every pore under our backs, seeping into ou ... [+]

When I got home, mom was already cooking dinner. The aroma of oxtail stew traveled faster than her voice, sickening me a little in a humid summer evening. “How was the tutoring?” It was terrible ... [+]

The balcony overlooked the colorful and vivacious town. Sounds of laughter and music, smells of delicious food drew her attention to the festivities. Happiness trailed into the sky, meeting the stars ... [+]

Gemmie adjusted herself on the stool and glanced at the clock—5:17 pm. Kevin’s evenings always went the same: an early dinner of vegetables and protein at 5:30, carb loading at 7:30, then nothing ... [+]

There are no cars, you’re only imagining, her husband scolds. Just go a little slower, Reina wants to say, but she knows it is not a woman’s place to say such bold things. He knows what he’s ... [+]

Unfortunately, time has stopped.
This may surprise you, because time is seemingly omnipresent and has governed our lives for so long, but the thing about time is that it’s completely ... [+]

His mother told him a story, once. A story told to her by her mother, and to her mother by her father, stretching all the way back to the moment their family came to be.
He’s heard stories ... [+]

He can’t believe he’s made it this far. Every blink his eyelids perform proves to be a battle. One lapse of thought could drown him in the depths he won’t have the nails to claw out of. But fo ... [+]

The house on Eleventh Street boasted a stout reputation of being haunted. Mr. Scott Reynolds, a skeptic by nature and a cynic by nurture, did not believe in ghosts.
The first incident occurred ... [+]

The Girl was always alone.
She always sat on the same park bench, reading a book, day after day, month after month, year after year. She was always there, but no one was ever there with he ... [+]

When I woke up, we were surrounded by water as far as I could see. You smiled at me.
“Hi!”
I smiled and nodded my head as Hi!
I stretched a bit. You handed me a cup of tea and I ... [+]