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.”

by Helaina Pisar Mckibbin

“A red strand of wool passed before my eyes: the rash on my temple.  She was unraveling a few rows because she must have made several mistakes again.  Then she reknitted the top of my head, and it felt like a migraine.”

by Peter Sipe

“There were a lot of jokes about Bill doing a disappearing act. I even chuckled, thinking of him flinging open the lid and shouting ‘Ta-da!’ But when the guys marched down the aisle with their horns, I got teary-eyed along with everyone else.”

by Saee Motling

“I  sold  emotions.  More  precisely,  I  sold  two  emotions:  Love  and  Happiness.  There  were  other  emotions  too—Inspiration,  Confidence,  Hope,  Peace—but  I  chose  these  two.”

by Alex Pugsley

“…he would certainly remember, when, in passing clumsiness, he set fire to the entire box and all the matches exploded in his hand, alarming him, harming him, but at last charming him…”

by Karl Nykwest

“Everybody’s got to have a thing. At least, that’s what my buddy Cheddar Romero used to say. Mine’s wearing a tire.

by Jonas David

“i sat in the metal chair at the metal table outside the starbucks and i was contemplating the birdshit stain in the center of the table which had somehow splattered in the shape of a crescent moon.”

by Cooper Clarence

“Behind me at a distance of thirty yards stood the man with the briefcase. I was used to seeing backpackers…but this man was no backpacker.”

by Michael E. O’Reilly

“…he could run his other business out of the old grocer’s office inside. He needed a new security guard though. The first guy worked out great for a while, but he was too chatty. And way too nosey.”

by Sullivan Rex

“I duck down to the floor and lift the tablecloth to see a huge pool of blood surrounding a severed arm. What the fuck is this?!  I grab the fork and sit up straight. ‘Everything okay, honey?’ the woman asks. ‘Do you want some more casserole?’”

by Kieran Wyatt

“Oscar lingered for a while near the clear water, then pressed his hand down into the soil, searching for a pulse.”

by Isabelle Hughes

“Empty trash bins knuckle the sidewalk. They still smell of last night’s trash like longing. When you have nothing, even your trash can accumulate a sort of sentimental value.”

by Nevin Nahar

“Now I watch, as the thing dissolves from a solid to a liquid. I knot one of her Dior scarves in my hands, and undo them, over and over. The orange flame turns blue under the spoon and the stopper of the syringe moves slowly.”