Fiction
August Contributors
Mario Aliberto III, Amber Budd, Margaret Cahill, Jayson Carcione, Zoë Davis, Kenna DeValor, Benjamin Drevlow, Madison Ellingswoth, Kim Farleigh, Travis Flatt, Adam J. Galanski-De León, GRSTALT Comms, Kate Horsley, Kenneth M. Kapp, Rebecca Karas, Rick Kennett, Alex McNicoll, Dimitri Partsi, Robert L. Penick, Alexi Raymond, James Rayvin, Wyatt Robinette, Beth Sherman, Marcus Silcok, Kevin Richard White, and Rick White
August Highlights
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somewhere beyond worry
by Alex McNicoll
“‘Everything’s on fire—it’s beautiful,’ Colin said. And then, finally, I could hear them too, whistling like hummingbirds picking flowers. Bombs. Bombs that weigh as much as buildings and burn biblically.”
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shiver a beauty
by GRSTALT Comms
“He never lets me fuck him – he always tells me ‘Next time’ – and that’s what keeps me coming back, the promise.”
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just breath
by Zoë Davis
“The ancient ceiling fan, whining on an exposed fist of wiring, didn’t so much as move the air but stir it.”
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come back, panda bear
by Margaret Cahill
“When I turned to continue my walk, there he was: a man in a panda bear suit at the end of the boardwalk. At least I assumed it was a man, given that the figure was at least six feet tall.”
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still deadly in death
by Kim Farleigh
“‘These winds,’ he warned, ‘are prophecies of your impending deaths. Don’t you little bunnies worry about that.’"
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big boss
by Kevin Richard White
“I want to be your shield and guide, and when I go to drive or move to try to find anchor, she just turns into unbreakable white snow ahead, and I’m afraid of skidding.”
viva la double stack
by Robert L. Penick
“This is the ass-end of the American dream, the part no one films for posterity. Gone with the Wind from Mammy’s point of view…”
big boss
by Kevin Richard White
“I want to be your shield and guide, and when I go to drive or move to try to find anchor, she just turns into unbreakable white snow ahead, and I’m afraid of skidding.”
come back panda bear
by Margaret Cahill
“When I turned to continue my walk, there he was: a man in a panda bear suit at the end of the boardwalk. At least I assumed it was a man, given that the figure was at least six feet tall.”
shiver a beauty
by GRSTALT Comms
“He never lets me fuck him – he always tells me ‘Next time’ – and that’s what keeps me coming back, the promise.”
pick a number
by Kenneth M. Kapp
“Hardly anyone asks about the quality of life. We know it is what it is.”
of lips and war
by Alexei Raymond
“Jonathan’s mind cycled between the tides of war he could remove only himself from, love’s inexplicable failure to surmount, and how he’d known, known the taste of his lips.”
fishing at olive garden
by Travis Flatt
“And you’re just staring. I didn’t realize, getting all worked up for the punchline, that my mask has begun to slip and some of my horns are showing..”
bitch
by Chrissy Stegman
“The city sped past, and I leaned back into the seat, letting the world slide by inexplicably, as if the light outside the cab window could swallow everything. I really am a bitch, I thought.”
how may i help you, you sniveling twit?
by Chad Gayle
“Hi! I’m Dirk Bogarde, your online AI assistant. How can I be of service? That is, what can I do for you that you could do for yourself but choose not to?”
gunfight at the ko laundry ranch
by Patrick Johnston
“Jack enters the room gun first… Schiller looks up… Schiller looks like he has been caught wanking… circumcised Nazi prick… and Jack has Adolf Schiller cornered in his lair.”
in the fullness of time
by Ian Johnson
“Sex was a confrontation, challenging to give more and take more—a shiftless slavery to stolen weekends, rattling exotic headboards.”
sand
by Scott Ortolano
“Glancing over, Amory watched as Brooke’s face drifted and dissolved, ebbing away into the headlights of a passing car; the oblivion holding terror and beauty against the dark skyline.”
a vase
by Michael Thériault
“Nothing tells me how I came into this vase. I may have been here from the instant the new glass cooled.”
ukulele stu
by Benjamin Drevlow
“Every morning I mount my throne in the handicapped stall of the rec fields pavilion men’s room bare-assed with my sweatpants between my knees trying to do my business with 3 trash dogs trapped in the stall with me…”
lake trout
by Anthony Neil Smith
“I dumped Harriet into Grindstone Lake in broad daylight. Pulled my truck off the road, heaved her body bag over my shoulder and away she went.”
unintelligible mutterings of a not yet dead corpse
by Odin Meadows
“The corpse lies on the couch eating Cheerios while I clean.”
the collector
by Karen Schauber
“He’d come to collect fees, long overdue fees, fees from a previous generation we didn’t know was owed.”
the necromancer
by James Callan
“I was thirteen years old when I discovered the most beautiful thing in the world…a limited edition 1990 Bob Mackie Gold Barbie Doll, encased in an orange Jell-O mold.”
(scape)goat
by Priyanuj Mazumdar
“The rope around the goat’s neck moves frantically, desperately, violently—one last exhibition of its sentience. The protest goes unheard.”
disorientation
by Michael Grant Smith
“It’s time to save the world. Consider applying a shellac topcoat to prevent smearing. Garnish with sliced hardboiled eggs. Here’s some useful advice for you neophytes . . . please stop being smooth, incontinent babies.”