Category: General Fiction

All Stories, General Fiction

Colour Clash by Sandra Arnold

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My brother parks the car opposite the house with the red door that used to be grey. The treeless street looks even grimmer than I recall. I glance at the rows of identical houses with the grey pebble-dash walls, trying to remember the neighbours who once occupied them. Women in pinnies and headscarves scrubbing their front steps. Sweeping their concrete paths. Men rolling drunk up those paths. Sound of yelling and slapping. Immaculately dressed children with polished shoes.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Shadow by T H White

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Tom Mitchell had lived alone for longer than he could remember. His wife, Lily, had passed away a decade ago, and their children had long since moved away, caught in lives of their own. The house, once filled with laughter and warmth, now echoed with a quiet, unrelenting stillness. Even the walls seemed to breathe differently, like they were holding their breath, waiting for something – or someone.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Tiny Dancers by P A Farrell

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In her nursing home bed, petite Margaret, just four feet tall, stared at the ceiling under the dim glow of fluorescent lights, her face devoid of the vibrancy it once held. Legs that had leapt across a sound stage lay thin and mottled with brown age spots. Feet that had slid into dainty slippers now stood as small, rigid reminders of long ago. 

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Please, Varanasi by Arjun Shah

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Looking out over the bridge, you can see widows in their sarees and gold bangles and solemn, painted faces. Above them, the sun emits a last, romantic orange which blends with the blue of the previous sky, creating stripes of pink which bring the two colors together. The air smells of death.

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All Stories, Editor Picks, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Week 538: The Mind of the STM

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Despite an amount of booster shots I can no longer recall (five, I think), I again came down with covid (thrice so far that I know of), a week ago Wednesday. This is by far the strongest one I have endured, and even though it has ruled the last week and a half, it certainly is not a killer. It spared me the last three days of my work career and has gotten retirement off to a somewhat foggy start.

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All Stories, General Fiction

A Night, Out by Jessica Nilsson 

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It wasn’t until he was on the bus that his hangover started to kick in. Until then he hadn’t had time to feel anything – he hadn’t set his alarm (couldn’t even remember getting into bed in fact), and when his eyes had snapped open suddenly and he’d seen the time, adrenaline had taken over.  He was up, dressed and running for the departing bus before the panic subsided and the nausea thundered in.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Steroids and Cottage Cheese by Rachel Sievers

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Mr. Morton needed a new pair of shoes. That was quite obvious to Mrs. Morton but since he had started this health kick she couldn’t convince him of anything. She shot a glance at the runners out of the corner of her eye, afraid they would jump out and get her if she gave them her full attention. 

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Bald White Man in His Sixties by J C Rammelkamp

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It started on Facebook, a notice from a neighborhood dog fanciers’ page about somebody dousing a piece of steak with anti-freeze and tossing it over a fence to an unsuspecting dog, which ate the meat and died.  (Apparently these attacks have been happening for quite a while now, and they believe it is the same man.)  Then it was taken up by the neighborhood listserv, the modern-day call-tree, and further warnings about this criminal – described as a bald white man in his sixties – prompted an outpouring of fear and outrage.  (He appears to be targeting pitbull breeds in the Lakeview area of Potawatomi Rapids.)  A vigilante call went out; posters went up on phone polls; you heard nervous chatter in the grocery.  You could practically hear the bugle summoning us to action.  (Let’s work together and catch this guy so no more of our neighborhood pets have to suffer from his horrible acts.  PLEASE SHARE & SPREAD THE WORD!!!)

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All Stories, General Fiction

The Persistence of Ruins by Barbara Krasner

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White clapboards and wooden slats nailed across double windows peek through a veil of house-high ferns, maples, and elms. Leaves caress the places where shutters may once have been. Along the front in red and white reads a sign: Private Property No Trespassing. A vacant driveway sits to the south, marked off by a heavy chain, its endpoints hidden by foliage.  

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Breakdown by Matthew Roy Davey

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“No one’s going to be looking,” he snapped.

He heard her sigh but didn’t turn to look. After a moment, the sound of her struggling up the embankment and the crashing of undergrowth came to him as she made her way into the bushes that covered the upper slopes.

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