Fiction
Introduction to Issue 24 Fiction by Perry McDaid
I’m back. I hope you all enjoyed Shahid’s November selection of stories as much as I did. As I recall from my first time as guest editor, it is a harrowing experience trying not to let the magazine down. I think he did us proud. As for now ... February, springtime, the month of Saint [...]
Fiction
If you could see beyond the horizon of what is and into that amorphous realm of what will be, what would you do with the knowledge from your sight? What would you say? Would you tell the joyful mother cradling her son in her arms to love him with all her heart now because it [...]
Fiction
Which Cannot Be Unheard by Jared W. Cooper
Mark I (1976) Birth is the collision of prongs at the ends of fat, smoldering tubes—no warning, no care for consequence, and a thousand volts of electric fire. My life begins with them telling me: I am the euphoria of learning to fly, I am flight itself. I am Elevation Apparatus Mark I, and my [...]
Fiction
Carrying the Whale by Peri L. Fletcher
A shroud of fog concealed the fort and the surrounding forest. Only the onion dome of the chapel was visible, soaring out of the fog like a wood-shingled rocket ship. I stopped on the path to wait for Francisco, already having second thoughts about my impulsive invitation. “You’re not even out of breath,” Francisco said [...]
Fiction
Elephant, Light by William Conable
Jackson was given the international accounts because of his uncanny numbers over the past two years in the black hole of Arizona and Utah. At least that was what they told him. "You're a salesman, Jackson. I'll give you that. How you pulled those mid-quarter earnings out of brown-back cowboy Arizona and the holy underwear [...]
Fiction
Flesh of a King by Tyler Bourassa
Cold and wet. Those two thoughts tore through Calaran's mind as he shuddered awake. His chest was screaming for air and he obliged by reflex, inhaling what he thought would be life giving oxygen. Instead, he got a mouthful of coppery tasting water, that slid down his throat and mixed with the bile sitting in [...]
Fiction
"Natasha, Natasha." They had been the last words upon his lips as the executioner's bullet smashed through his skull. Now they became the first words he uttered as his flesh reconstituted itself. Behind him the flood of emerging bodies became an irresistible force. Amidst the mass of revenants shambling forth from Donskoy Cemetery's notorious Grave [...]
Poetry
she sits in the solitude of the sandy beach the waves kiss her toes and scamper out of reach the seagull’s screams are suffocated by the scratching of salt water and sand by the surging sounds of the sea as it consumes the land soon she falls silent, stops motionless she sits and sighs in [...]
Poetry
I am dreaming my name by Will Mayer
Narrated by Will Mayer I am dreaming my name I dream my name is Aihoiyah I dream Aihoiyah means God’s secretary — His filter I am dreaming my son I dream his life before this life I dream he is older than his body — And that he remembers I am dreaming I see the [...]
Poetry
The Moon Rises Crying by J.S. Watts
Narrated by J.S. Watts The Moon rises crying for her lost love; The beginning is always tears. Her empty places echo with his laughter and soft promises of redemption. Across night's black curtains she haunts her fleeing dreams Only to watch them fade gratefully into the effulgence of his awakening. Like some pale ghost outstaying [...]
Poetry
Daydream Starring the Woman I’m Falling in Love with as the One Who Will Save Us All by Joe Nicholas
Narrated by Joe Nicholas A rose petal falls from the top of the mountain, landing softly on the ocean's skin. The waves tremble as they stain red and green like a torrent of bleeding leaves. For days the gloom bubbles, sizzling and steaming, seething plumes of scarlet 'gainst the sky. At the top of the [...]
Flash
Glimmer Of Hope by Ashley Rose Nicolato
Moonrise was imminent. Throughout the station, lights were flickering, struggling to keep up with demand. The third cabin was losing atmosphere, and the airlock was activated. The doors opened, releasing the contents of the room: years of work and research lost to the cold expanse of space. Leida watched as they floated into the black. [...]
Flash
The Last Laugh by Bruce Costello
The grey shape receded into the wood veneer wall, where her eyes and mouth morphed perfectly into the knots, her long skinny arms and legs into faux red strands of resinous grain. A shaven headed man, sucking on a brown bottle at the kitchen table, glanced up and stared at the wall through an alcoholic [...]
Flash
The Shattered Sun by Diana Rohlman
Alaya dances beneath a shattered sun. The once blazing orb is now pieces scattered across the sky. Village men stride through the village, light cloths binding their eyes, fingers clenched about useless weapons. Sage elders seek the reclusive shade, lines of worry overlaying their wrinkled faces. Amidst them all, Alaya dances. She dances in the [...]
Flash
Collapsed, Dominique did not know how to answer the police. No, he did not really see what drove his wife to jump into the void. They had not argued; no conflict had opposed them, really, no. “A recent event had upset her? A mourning, for example?” “A miscarriage six months ago,” he answered automatically. He [...]