Category: Fantasy

All Stories, Fantasy, Short Fiction

The Fifth billygit of the Apocalypse by Leila Allison

ireneallison12

****

I was just sitting there, taking up space, contributing nothing to the Universe other than not plotting its destruction. I was studying the concept of wrath as dispensed by cyber-mobs, and I arrived at the conclusion that those who frame witches do so to forestall winding up bound and tossed into the river themselves. Hardly a revelation, but the truth seldom wows. When you get down to it the words of the prophets are found on the subway walls, tenement halls and in stupid tweets, old chum.

My Imaginary Friend and second in command, Renfield, popped into my office and told me that the billygits wanted to see me.

Continue reading “The Fifth billygit of the Apocalypse by Leila Allison” →
All Stories, Fantasy, General Fiction

A Little Time by Dylan Martin

literallystories2014

 The world was so much simpler when Forever 21 was just a shitty clothing store. Nowadays, it’s nothing more than a bar off 42nd street, with a comically-large hourglass by the door filled with sand that never falls. I used to consider it nothing more than a cheap gimmick; another one of the city’s countless tourist traps. The truth is the bar was never what attracted people. All those stupid, far-from-subtle decorations aren’t what people come to stare at; we are.

Continue reading “A Little Time by Dylan Martin” →
All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller, Editor Picks, Fantasy, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Week 387: Blame It On The Tintintinabulator; Five New Memories, Plus a Season Finale

ireneallison12

I blame it on the Tintintinabulator, that musical Spirit who goes from ear to ear and secretly whispers catchy songs into semi-catatonic minds. That is my theory for why tunes get stuck in our heads. Currently, Kate Bush is singing Wuthering Heights in my mind. “Cathy” has been at the window for about a week. She’s done it before and will again. It usually takes ten days for her to go away, satisfied that she has once again qualified me for a berth in Crazytown.

Continue reading “Week 387: Blame It On The Tintintinabulator; Five New Memories, Plus a Season Finale” →
All Stories, Fantasy, General Fiction

Sawbones by Edward N McConnell

literallystories2014

Tom Kenner sat looking out the window of a waiting room at the Columbus Orthopedic Hospital. He had been through the magazines but, dog-eared and dated, they couldn’t hold his attention. “Maybe staring out the window will make the time go more quickly,” he thought. It didn’t.

Continue reading “Sawbones by Edward N McConnell” →
All Stories, Fantasy, Horror

Lives End Where Two Roads Meet by Enyi Nnabuihe

literallystories2014

There were naked children rolling tyres in the rain on this particular Thursday the masquerades came. About seventeen of them; their wet, charcoaled skins, and little, rubbery limbs, emitting joy, radiating hope. There were mothers breastfeeding children in front of their shops; talking and selling, chatting, laughing and howling with the winds that accompanied the rains. There were dogs, goats and cats, roaming, resplendently, around the muddy streets, feeling at home.

Continue reading “Lives End Where Two Roads Meet by Enyi Nnabuihe” →
All Stories, Fantasy

Whispers in the Grass by Tom Sheehan

literallystories2014

At first, long before he became aware of whispers, the stones in the cemetery trembled at his touch; not all of the stones, but only those on graves belonging to people he had known in life: comrades, teammates, family members, girlfriends, lovers – or the stones memorializing those who hurt him in life or those he had hurt. Once in a while he never knew what the difference was.

Continue reading “Whispers in the Grass by Tom Sheehan” →
All Stories, Fantasy, Horror

The Photographer’s House by Sarah Jackson

literallystories2014

“What can you tell me about Eustace Randolph? What sort of man was he?” I asked as I took out my notebook. Gillian Reynolds, Secretary of the Friends of Eagle House, let her excited smile slip slightly at the corners.

Continue reading “The Photographer’s House by Sarah Jackson” →
All Stories, Fantasy

Fang-Liu House by S.Y. Chen

literallystories2014

View Post

Fang-Liu House is an old hotel near the entertainment district. Sitting in the middle of the row, its dilapidated plaster crumbling out of hairline cracks caused by creeping vines.

On the front of the house hangs a plastic banner, secured to the balcony, the red faded to salmon, and the yellow lettering almost white, “CRIMINAL CUSTOMERS NOT WELCOME. SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY WILL BE REPORTED TO THE AUTHORITIES.”

Continue reading “Fang-Liu House by S.Y. Chen” →
All Stories, Fantasy

Jack in the Green  by Lee Stoddart

literallystories2014

My simple wooden church was all-but empty when I stepped up to the pulpit to give mass to the congregation. I had half expected it.

When Beltane fell on a Sunday, it seemed to draw out the heretical tendencies of my flock. Every year, they would abscond to some secret glade in the woods, to celebrate the coming of the summer, to pray to a heathen god for verdant growth and an abundant harvest. This year was no different.

Continue reading “Jack in the Green  by Lee Stoddart” →