by Britni Newton

“Once the sun rose, I would call my therapist and psychiatrist. Although Rupi Kaur was a nice thought, she probably wouldn’t get it.”

by Emyr Payne

“I also wondered why an ex-Marine would want to re-train to be a nurse. It just didn’t make sense. Like snow landing in the sea. It always melts.”

by Abigail Cooper

“Has the air always been so suffocating or have I finally stayed long enough to die?”

by Gahl Shottan

“Bonus, made friends with current fever induced hallucinations and invited them over to the house to keep me company while Lila picks up a double shift.”

by Swetha Amit

“I closed my eyes and found myself swaying to the music. My phone kept buzzing. The digital applause of likes and comments kept trickling in.”

by Lindsey Maple

“…in 2014 everyone obsessed over the girls on Tumblr who smoked Marlboro Reds, and listened to Lana Del Rey…”

by Megan Chunn

“I made the mistake of looking her up, I mean looking up at her. I saw her, some thoughts, and a glimpse of her life. I continuously hurt myself, which is my current insight.”

by Dee P. R. Kay

“He’d drink the bathwater Serena left, if he could, stubble and all, then scrub away her essence with Ajax. Boil notice or not.”

by K. Uwe Dunn

“He has a dream (pause.) his wife gives birth to a child whose bones show through its skin. (pause.) ..Soon he loses sight of the child through the chaos and comes to realize his wife has given it away. (pause.) He’s relieved.”

by Joe Kilgore

“There are twelve rifles. Eleven contain a live round. A blank cartridge is in one. You have no way of knowing which resides in your weapon, initially or afterward.”

by Benjamin Goluboff and Mark Luebbers

“But on this overcast day in the last autumn of the century, among riots and the rumors of riots, the future of the Union lurked invisibly, a fish below the surface.”

by Steve Oehmen

“The hollowness begins in the middle of my rib cage. A pulsating vacuum where once my heart resided is now draining any resolve left in my body. I sorely accept my fate and await the end.”

by Kayla Cain

“When no more color remained outside the train window, you watched each tree pass and the mountains approach in shades of gray. You wished for a twinkling river, and realized Kelli almost never bathed anymore.”

by Jack Uppling

“I’ve started writing down my dreams. People always say to do it, they say it’s good for your brain. My brain has been failing me lately and it’s frightening, so I decided to listen to them.”

by Timothy Petkovic

“He read David Foster Wallace and debated cutting his arms with a razor blade and procrasturbated obsessively, cumming eight, nine, ten times a night until his dick was flayed raw or shrivelled into a Greek-statue acorn…”

by Susan Brink O’Flaherty

“Vaginia leaks as she vomits into the street. A gust of hot wind blows whatever is exiting her mouth onto her brand-new, limited-edition Valentino-collab Birkenstocks.”

by Shrutidhora P Mohor

“Their fragrance is stifled as I enter. Injection fluids, antiseptic water bowls, used cotton balls, just washed pillow covers, half-consumed boiled rice with boiled potatoes, a dash of ghee. All of these get the better of the carnations.”

by Guinevere Ngozi Morgen

“There was something wrong with Lola. She thought that it might be her feathers, but her feathers gleamed…Only she could not fly.”

by Randall Perry

“That feeling when you step in a piece of dog shit on your way to work & you move off the sidewalk to the grass to wipe it off but it’s gotten into the treads on the bottom of your shoe & you know you’re going to have to scrape it out with a stick…”

by Tulip Chowdhury

“I wondered what she was ordering; I could see a plate of wanton and a glass of water with ice resting in front of her. Apparently, she was not eating anything.”