All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller

Killer Killer by Doug Hawley

I had been hoping to be invited into The Posse for some time.

If you are too young to remember, or have been asleep for many years, here’s how we came to this.  The world has always had serious divisions, not the least the USA, but disintegration here accelerated with the ravings of a former president whose name I don’t use.  He died of a heart attack screaming “I’m the president’ while being questioned during his 2022 trial for various and sundry financial crimes.  Soon thereafter, led by his sons and daughters, true believers were convinced he didn’t die and would soon return to save the country.  Cult 45, as it became known, began to plague politicians at all levels of government with arson, death threats and kidnapping.  Politicians aligning with Cult 45 were treated likewise by the enemies of Cult 45.  Those opposed Cult 45 were called Anti45 by their supporters, and spelled derisively Auntie45 by Cult 45.  The country was further divided by an Endemic, worsened by many variants.  Mask or not, vaccine or not, the country was violently divided.  As government was forced to protect itself, the business of governing the masses was left behind.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Psychic Promise by Yash Seyedbagheri

My father seeks help from the psychics, their names a litany, a liturgy. Padre, Maria, Esmerelda, Christin. They promise good fortune, alignments of the planets. They promise to vanquish his opponents. To vanquish bad luck. And he has so much, at least in his opinion. There’s the divorce from years ago, something that still simmers. I, his only son, didn’t become a lawyer. I up and left. I became a writer, a marker that to him conjured garrets and begging for food, and not victory, conquest. He tried to amass a coterie of girlfriends from abroad, each one coming in from distant lands, snatching a green card and the possibility of things. They called him prophet, valiant lord, but those were only obsequious platitudes.

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All Stories, General Fiction

The Mess for the Sages by Tom Sheehan

The wind came up the river joyous as a boy riding a new bicycle and Harry Guahagan hustled to get his paint ready, the pale blue in the gallon can looking exceptionally good to his trained eye as he stared at the expanse of blue overhead from one horizon point to the other, the Saugus River running beside his house being the axis of the whole circumference of his existence. He was giddy at the thought of carefully applying a new coat of paint on his house; for god’s sake the insects had made a mess of his most recent paint job, the pale blue besmirched in so many places, but unbelievably in his mind the damned birds jamming the river were probably more at fault than other creatures; rabbits and skunks and an odd dog or two, he knew, had no responsibility in creating this new mess. It was nearly choking him.

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All Stories, Literally Reruns

Literally Reruns – Time and Chance Happeneth to All Gods by Leila Allison

Long-time friend of the site and excellent writer David Henson has sent us a submission for the Sunday Feature – thank you David. The lovely Leila has been the mainstay of this feature for such a long time that it is brilliant to see her with her own Literally Rerun.

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All Stories, Romance

We’ll Both Forget The Breeze by Michael Tyler

Emma was lying in the park between my dorm and mid-afternoon lecture and if it hadn’t been for the fact she was feeding birds with the grin of the manic and magnificent I may have continued my stride.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Mriya by George Nevgodovskyy

Mriya

To the boy it looks like a ravaged animal. Its head ripped-off, body torn apart with stringy guts hanging out. Scattered chunks of flesh strewn around the barren hangar.

“Thank God your grandfather is not here to see this,” the boy’s mother says. “He wanted to watch it take off one last time.”

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All Stories, General Fiction

It was really a love story in the end  by Adam Kluger

It was really a love story in the end. 

The noise outside was consistent. Traffic, construction, and wandering conversations as New Yorkers enjoyed the relative peace of Memorial Day Weekend in the city. But for Steve, the owner of the New Amity Restaurant, it was the end. 

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All Stories, Fantasy

The Rabbit Man of Munyaka by Harrison Kim

Rabbit man is belted into the traction machine at the physiotherapist’s clinic.  His giant Easter Bunny costume head is hooked on the coat rack with the rest of the suit.  He’s been hired by Mall Supervisor Frats to greet the Great Wizard and her children here in Munyayka.

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