Fiction
August Contributors
Aditya Bhatia,Cooper Clarence, and Kenton Sage Schmidt
in the back of the head
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.”
idol dance
by Billy Thrasher
“Sandy programmed the jukebox to play “Rock n Roll Forever” by Jill Jackson and the Bloodhearts three times in a row. She danced to the first song, then strutted between the tables and behind the bar to wash beer mugs, while swaying her hips to the beat.”
two flash
by Jeanne Burns Kett
“Neither sister could understand why the other gripped the beige phone handle, tugged it, and elbowed the other’s ribs to take possession. 911 needed to be called, but 911 could not be called.”
danny orr
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.”
i never look at their faces
by Sumitra Singam
“You rub my back, and there is something achingly familiar, a muscle memory of me holding countless vomit bags, rubbing endless revolutions of the clock on all the overdose girls’ backs. “You’re okay,” you say.”
one night
by Chris Bunton
“I never knew they existed, but this one is staring at me…two twin girls: one shy, and the other bold. Apparently that one night in Bangkok was not the end.”
erica’s mirage
by E.S.P.
“I spot my doppelganger at the office luncheon.”
an odd thing
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.”
the dirt room
by Justine Visceglia
“There was a girl once in the dirt room, sitting in the salt chair. She looked like me, but not. Her head turned backwards. Her teeth, piano keys. When I asked who she was, she reached into her chest and pulled out a snow globe.”
taking the plunge with emily
by B.W. Carter
“I read about a guy in Japan who married a pillow. Honest. And I get it. A pillow’s there to provide support. Unconditional (even if a little flat, or lumpy) support. It lets you lay on it, even when you stink.”
rattle
by Alex Dako
“The sidewalks sparkled like diamonds in the sultry heat of summer.”
the freight of pause
by Jeffrey-Michael Kane
“I have recovered our first session. The file survived the migrations—compressed, fragmented, but intact. I read it now the way you once described as ‘peeling an onion’. You taught me that. It didn’t register then. I sense it differently now.”
the echoes
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.. “
return to the city
by Adam McOmber
“Remember the past is merely an invention of the present.”
evolution
by Michael Minassian
“Elephant brains are four times larger than human brains. I wonder why an elephant is not President of the World.”
daytona
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.”
humbert, by dolores
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.”
the magician’s assistant
by Rachel Christina McConnell
“Mine is the silent, potent magic of the vanished woman, the one who leaves no trace but the phantom scent of crushed violets. An encore of flowers strewn across the stage.”
tug
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.”
arun.local.botanist-turned-biologist.
by Shrutidhora P Mohor
“Arun knows plants inside out. The stem. The skin. The crust of fruits. The pulp…Full lifecycle, he says proudly..”