Fiction
December Contributors
Richard Alured, Alfredo Salvatore Arcilesi, Arthur Aronstein, Jennifer Benningfield, Andrew Rai Berzins, Ace Boggess, Courtney Burten, Kayla Cain, Luanne Castle, Ronita Chattopadhyay, Tulip Chowdhury, Megan Chunn, Ben Connell, Kyle Cox, Jake Creps, Roger D’Agostin, Harry Del Monaco, K. Uwe Dunn, Zary Fekete, Ryan Frye, Steve Gerson, Benjamin Goluboff, Katie Goto-Švić, Richard Grayson, Dee P. R. Kay, Joe Kilgore, Hank Kirton, James A. Knight, Nolan Knight, Alejandro Gabriel Leopardi, Lior Locher, River Lucero, Mark Luebbers, Lindsey Maple, Shrutidhora P Mohor, Guinevere Ngozi Morgen, Faith Murri, Joseph Quilindrino Niduazu, Mika Nadolsky, Susan Brink O’Flaherty, Steve Oehmen, Seth Parker, Randall Perry, Timothy Petkovic, Rachel Racette, Arjun Razdan, L.G. Reed, Nicolas Rivera, Hil Schmidt, Gahl Shattan, Sumitra Singam, Melvin Sterne, Elizabeth Sundstrom, Amir Szuster, Jack Uppling, Derek Waulet, Walter Weinschenk, CR Widen, Jacob Wrich, Brandon Yu, Dodge Zelko, Kit Zimmerman
December Highlights
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erotomania
Flash Fiction by Nicolas Rivera
“The trick is to do the opposite of convention. Lighting, video quality, the flattery of a flirtatious angle are important details, but the key to social media is delivery.”
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all the kooks
Fiction by Ace Boggess
“The fight started right in front of her in the pasta aisle. Mary Ellen wasn’t close enough to hear if words had been exchanged…Everything was political, even the act of picking out linguini.”
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the pain master
Fiction by Lior Locher
“Neutral face, clean-shaven. Eyebrows neat, hair lined up like a platoon. He doesn’t speak. He doesn’t have to. You both know the deal.”
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the day she swalloed glass
Fiction by Ronita Chattopadhyay
“She was done with being quiet and submissive. “I will become tough,” she said out loud. She gulped down the remaining water. And then she noticed it – a crack at the bottom of the glass.”
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dispatch
Micro-fiction by Nolan Knight
“The detective flashes his penlight over a slick of blood. Eyes the busted back door, scans the yard. Body was moved. That’s three this week. Or was it last week?”
long monday
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.”
living water
by Zary Fekete
“He calls the future water alive. She looks down at the rope-burned rim of her jar and thinks, Alive isn’t always the same as easy.”
carnations, thrice
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.”
elena
by Alejandro Gabriel Leopardi
“Elena’s gone, and she’s not coming back…She left a clear reminder that happy people aren’t happy. Not all the time.”
the day she swallowed glass
by Ronita Chattopadhyay
“She was done with being quiet and submissive. “I will become tough,” she said out loud. She gulped down the remaining water. And then she noticed it – a crack at the bottom of the glass.”
roll over
by Steve Gerson
“Something is truly amiss, Johann. I sense an apparition, a spectral augury, a dark wraith . . . eavesdropping.”
the pain master
by Lior Locher
“Neutral face, clean-shaven. Eyebrows neat, hair lined up like a platoon. He doesn’t speak. He doesn’t have to. You both know the deal.”
lola; or fate and flightless birds
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.”
after the election
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…”
sammy
by Jake Creps
“It’s been 25 years since I took Sammy’s life but only 6 days since I understood why. Maybe not why but how. The story I told everyone was a lie.”
caliwashigon
by L.G. Reed
“The coffee shop looked different as Rob Winkle approached it after a restful nap…Was this a dream? Maybe he was still on the couch, asleep.
across the street
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.”
effort
by Mika Nadolsky
“I love you!” Gem shouts, and she is running. “I want to be you, ingest you, consume your blood and piss! I want your mind and body, and I want to feel it on me like my own flesh!”
erotomania
by Nicolas Rivera
“The trick is to do the opposite of convention. Lighting, video quality, the flattery of a flirtatious angle are important details, but the key to social media is delivery.”
running out of time
by Elizabeth Sundstrom
“I cannot imagine Rick alone without Petal or envision her aged parents burying their only child. How will I endure Saturday mornings without Petal’s voice, soft and clear, reaching out across the Atlantic?”
spectrum
by Amir Szuster
“It all began mango-yellow. The way he peeled me, chewed me, satisfied himself with me. All night together, an intense and vibrant flavor. We could spend hours without growing tired, like a child climbing a mango tree before lunch.”
the tube
by Richard Alured
“It all started about a week before when I’d stumbled from bed and down to the kitchen and discovered a scene of great negligence: five empty beer cans on the floor, crushed at their centre, dregs refracting on the linoleum, wildness.”
the field
by Faith Murri
“I am grateful for my doppelgänger, who sits in my chair and stares out of my eyes, because she keeps the secret of me so well.”
an obituary for the factualist
by Seth Parker
“His fingerprints, already stained in ink when his body was found, identified him as one Matthias Krüger, while dental records list him as Juma Mwinyi. His neighbors knew him as Tahonetsakon Deerfoot.”
plastic breath
by Alfredo Salvatore Arcilesi
“The nightstand leaned slightly forward, and Izzy glimpsed her legacy as the dead meat filling of a floor-and-nightstand sandwich. But the nightstand had other plans…”