by Daniel Lukes

“They dumped the corpses in the middle of the pool—a beautiful curvy pool with no flat bottom, but scooped out of the Earth like pistachio ice cream—and set them aflame like a bonfire.”

by Swapan Samanta

“He was inside something cold. Metallic. Confined. A refrigerator. When he moved his neck, it creaked. Not bone against sinew—but something brittle. Cracked chocolate.”

by Stuart Watson

“These babies ain’t been nowhere. And you know what? They ain’t never gonna. ‘Cuz their dad’s white trash. Sweepin’ and moppin’ sawdust all day.”

by Loren Niemi

“He may have taken me out of the carnival but the carnival was still in me. The devil you know. Church is another kind of razzle-dazzle, but from my earliest days, I chaffed in the pew, choked on the prayers. Even if I could be that revival miracle, why would I?”

by Vincent Barry

“. . .Yes, I suppose you could say I’m a habitué of the subway. Something about the rocking motion of the car keeps my nerves at bay, keeps ’em from twitching and straining . . . What can I tellya? The New York City subway—it flows.”

by Olivia Cantadori

“He collected me to him, limb after limb, dragged me together. I would have preferred to stay apart.”

by Keith Hinrichs

“As he approached the street entrance to the second-floor apartment, a yellow, tessellated glow appeared, superimposed on his head. The yellow glow reminded Connor of the inside of a spaghetti squash: stringy and overlapping.”

by Frederick Schardt

“Ash jumps ahead toward eternity, thinking he is ending his life, but instead he falls onto the edge of some balcony a few stories below. He is stuck with broken bones, most especially in his back.”

by Daniel Bailey

“So thank God I’m drunk and alone again. Whoever reads this, I beg you—laugh at it. Publish it. Or at least Venmo me enough for a burrito and a medium Baja Blast. Because at Tulane, that’s considered financial aid.”

by Cristiano Cardone

“…I could visualize the mathematical expressions from days ago. They swirled, converging from the edges toward a central point, vibrating concentrically….they looked twisted. Demonic. Like ancient seals from forbidden pacts—symbols that no longer belonged to me.”

by Rob Bailey

“He opens the drawer and removes his gun, a .38 Special. The barrel's as short as his fuse. He spins the cylinder…Then he closes the drawer—see, I did listen—and his roster of bobbleheads nods in agreement.”

by E.S.P.

“I spot my doppelganger at the office luncheon.”

by Chuck Strange

“On his way home Terry threw the snowman out the window and watched it burst on the concrete in the side mirror.”

by Alex Dako

“The sidewalks sparkled like diamonds in the sultry heat of summer.”

by Gilberte Farah

“Anxiety rose within Valentina like a sandstorm. Un-peopling a room exposed echoes. Echoes were wandering spirits, summoning souls to a land of limbo.. “

by Henrick Karoliszyn

“Far behind me and always close, I could feel the shape of the thing Danny wanted for us. It wasn’t a finish line or a list. It was a way to keep going.”

by Vic Brooks

“The only thing she imagined she was good at was being nubile in the eyes of men at least twice her age. She was passable, too, at heart-shaped glasses and bubble-gum pops.”

by Kevin B

‘The doctor was agitated listening to all this. He wasn’t a therapist. His job was to take people who had turned into something and turn them back.”

by Shrutidhora P Mohor

“Arun knows plants inside out. The stem. The skin. The crust of fruits. The pulp…Full lifecycle, he says proudly..”

by Esme Chen

“The memory of his childhood blurred when he left the continent at thirteen, including the years he spent with his father and mother. It was a peaceful remembrance, though.”