by Mick Theebs

“‘Yeah, well if you think my ego was big before, just wait. It’s not every day someone achieves enlightenment you know.’”

by Brian Washines

“I took the radio out onto the balcony and tossed it. When it hit the parking lot it went into what appeared to be three separate pieces. Someone in one of the other apartments across the street laughed.”

by Daniel Sheen

“‘I’m scared,’ I whisper, my voice trembling as the first celestial streak appears from over the horizon…can still see their polished brightness reflected in his black-water eyes. Painfully beautiful. The boiling sky veined with the fiery tails of a dozen artificial comets.”

by Michael Fontana

“Back in 1978, Petey-Petey shook his tambourine at me. …The tambourine made him seem like a musician when he was just another beggar.”

by Catherine Dean

“Let’s just say that if Plato’s Republic contained a perfect form for a bad mother, you might be it…A classic filiophage, like in Medea, like in The Brood. At least Medea knew how to create a beautiful table.”

by Ken McRae

“I met Charon in the breakroom. He was standing in front of all three vending machines. He stooped slightly so his head didn’t hit the ceiling...His left arm displayed a fierce snake tattoo, with scarlet eyes and long, sharp fangs. His skiff pole leaned against the wall.”

by Kendra Augustin

“I tell her I miss the way she tastes. She slaps me. I tell her I want a baby. She bites me. I tell her I love her. She breaks my nose. I tell her to kill me if I ever am this stupid again. She wipes my bloody nose and nods.”

by Bree Atkins

“When two soulmates touch skin-to-skin for the first time, their body temperatures regulate to 98.6 degrees. This is called the Equilibrium.”

by James W. Morris

“Yes I followed Fish. It seemed to want me to. I lunged at Fish & tried to catch it but Fish slipped away. I suddenly ran hard at Fish & tried to catch it but Fish slipped away. When I tripped over a treeroot Fish waited for me.”

by Shuyan Zhou

“He agreed to a cherry for a dream from Atlantic, after day two’s sunset. She’s excited to pick a cherry. Maybe, she’ll eat it by the shore, and her sun will join her.”

by Michael Hagen

“The years of fast were behind him. Everything now came measured, and it suited him. The land was leased out. Leaving the place was never considered.”

by Cooper Clarence

“‘Attention passengers: Looks like we’ve finally broken through that rough patch and we’ve got smooth air ahead, so as you can see I’ve gone ahead and turned off the fasten seatbelt sign. Rodeo’s over—feel free to hang up your Stetsons and move about the cabin.”

by Aaron F. Schnore

“I like to watch the stars and blinking lights as I wait for something. I don’t know what exactly. A sign from Jesse, perhaps, hidden beyond the opaque curtain of California sky.”

by Kendra Kvale

“Mariah was eating leftovers standing over the sink when a light came through the window and something stood in it that was not a man and not a bird and not a column of fire but somehow suggested all three without committing to any of them.”

by Zachery Brasier

“Syl Caillet hit New York City’s morning streets at half-past eight. She was instantly bombarded by a street full of kaleidoscope colors, multi-dimensional advertisements flowing and shattering, unreadable messages rewiring her neural pathways in ways she couldn't sense.”

by Julia Gilmour

“My mother wakes us at dawn, just as the sun streams through cloudy windows. She hands me an old, ratted rag and a bottle of Windex, and I stand at the back window in my pajamas, trying to clean without leaving streaks.”

by Laura Brann

“The shadow of a saguaro drapes over my quarry like an armored blanket. But that armor can only offer protection from a sun that scorches the earth without remorse. There is no protection from me.”

by Jonas David

“…only before me in that pool of light with the witches and the goat, only there could I see a kind of peace, and I heard the crackling of the flame…and the witches laughed and murmured among themselves as I entered their circle of light.”

by Blake Christian

“His mouth yawned open and moved further into hers, then he placed his hand on her waist. She felt his tongue then, too, and all at once the fermented blend of copper and beer was unavoidable.”

by Peter Naughton

“Her brother seemed like the same goofy, smiley kid he’d always been. Except for the part about him thinking that their father was haunting them.”