Fiction
August Contributors
Aditya Bhatia,Cooper Clarence, and Kenton Sage Schmidt
three micros
by Louella Lester
“You wake up on a roof—no idea how you got here until you see the ladder, as spindly as a daddy long-legs’ legs, and there’s no one about, except the cat licking your face…”
i have this fantasy of rupi kaur as my therapist
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.”
home
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.”
a path through the dandelions
Fiction by Hank Kirton
“Lying in a puddle of purple vomit, Lottie von Scrodd interviews herself as if she is a guest on a highbrow PBS talk show.”
essential workers
Fiction by John Byutorie
“We walked past the empty beauty products …the only products still on shelves being the newly marketed NeauSkin that rolled out a few months ago alongside a robust marketing scheme complete with cardboard cutout of Reese Witherspoon in deadface…”
it was a hard light, but it’s alright now
by J. L. Tyrrell
“This morning the light came through the blinds the same as it did then. Hard, white, pitiless.”
i came on shift and saw something beautiful today
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.”
the source and eternity
by Thomas M. McDade
“I was so happy with the sad way I rigged their lives that I called my thoughts a short story.”
sunrise of a voice
by Ivy Nabangi
“The only thing she knew for sure was that her baby loved the sky. She knew he loved staring at the stars, pointing at them and drawing the various constellations. Her motherly spirit took this as a sign that he was probably more capable than he was given credit for.”
liquids
by Amir Szuster
“A year later, watching her bleed, I thought: How long does it take to empty a human body?
I still do not know.”
the girl who faded away
by Katherine Liljestrand
“When the curtain closes for the last time, instead of the eleven dancers there should be on stage, Camille can only count ten.”
lungs and bones
by Abigail Cooper
“Has the air always been so suffocating or have I finally stayed long enough to die?”
tangerine strands
by Alfredo Salvatore Arcilesi
“Lucretia stood in the outer schoolyard, looking through the fence that separated her from the scene of the crime she had created two months prior.”
the lingering
by Kit Zimmerman
“This…lingering—it’s harming others, too. Those you love. You can endure it. They cannot. Try to remember that.“
have you ever seen a cat in a cape?
by Joseph Quilindrino Niduaza
“As if in slow motion, Heath spotted the incoming feline, and feeling the need to preserve his integrity, and keep his suit clean from cat hair, he evaded the air assault, but with his ungraceful maneuver…”
joe clocks in
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.”
a love story
by Hil Schmidt
“You always look so peaceful when you sleep.”
how to mend a broken heart
by Luanne Castle
“Where she expected to find smooth keyboard geometry, she discovered a grotesque smile of cadaver ivory inset between the ebony keys…teeny bits of gold, silver, and porcelain sparkled…under the fluorescent light overhead.”
revised punishment
by Derek Wautlet
“He took one step out over the railing. Then a quick drop, and then nothing.”
holiday of a lifetime
by Ben Connell
“As soon as I touched down I was slapped by the heat. I saw a bloke on a scooter with a dishwasher strapped to his back, no word of a lie. Cages full of chickens, horns blasting and funky smells. Pure rabid carnage.”