Category: Short Fiction

All Stories, Fantasy, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Grendel’s Pouch by David W. Landrum

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The baby had gone to sleep and the boys and Eva, her daughter, had gone to watch Manton drill with the other men in the exercise/muster the village held each month. She cherished the silence. It reminded her of the quiet of the convent—not a pleasant memory, but she did experience some beautiful moments in the years she lived there. She hurried to the kitchen table, wiped it clean, dried it, and spread out the fine linen cloth she had spent too much money on, opened a bottle of ink, got out a stylus, and began to write.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

The Tall Man by Mark Joseph Kevlock

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It was in the eighth year of her life that Becky truly became obsessed with The Tall Man. His coming, his arrival, was all she had to fear in the world. He could be upon her at any moment. Becky turned her mind away and sat Indian-style on the floor, playing with her dolls. She wondered if she would ever feel safe.

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All Stories, Literally Reruns, Short Fiction

Week 197 – Critiquing, Commenting And Not Getting Wood

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Hello there folks.

I just wanted to pass on that our Sunday Re-Run spot is doing very well. Leila has embraced this with her perception and wit, Dave Henson is there being thoughtful and selective and L’Erin has also thrown her pen or typing finger into the fold and we would keep asking that more of you get involved.

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All Stories, Science Fiction, Short Fiction

This God is Going to Happen by Leila Allison

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Once per year, Vicar meets her child at Altar. The event is a scheduled appointment, and means as much to both participants as an annual dental cleaning had meant to a First Form human being. For whatever reason, Awesome insists on yearly Vicar-class “mother-daughter” contact, which will terminate the year the color of the child’s skin changes from topaz to jet, thus signifying spiritual maturity.  At that point onward, they will neither see nor think about each other again. Vicars are happily solitary beings, in keeping with Awesome’s self-image.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Winter by Wm. Brett Hill

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When I was seven the world blew up.

I was in the depths of a nightmare when my mother, tears streaming down her face and her voice raspy like torn cardboard, shook me awake and dragged me from bed.  I was in the air before I knew what was happening, my favorite friend Fitzy hanging from my frightened grip as we bounded down the stairs and headed out the back door.

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All Stories, Short Fiction

A Killer Mistake by Amber Aspinall

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I was walking past his car when he decided to kill me.

I was supposed to be setting up the shop front display, he was supposed to be picking his son up from school. My friend covered for me, so I could have a cigarette – it had been seven hours, for god’s sake. As the impact hit my left side, I almost felt the need to scrabble to pick the fag back up.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Dark Return by Tom Sheehan

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Wonder had him in its grip and worked him over, tossing him into past years as clean as a pistol shot. More than half a century flipped through his movie mind, stopping whenever he wanted, at whatever spot and breaking loose the sounds, the smells, the fingers touching, the skin knowing again, rocking him with total recall. He saw again the older woman who paraded nude behind a window, who finally beckoned when he was on the way to school one day, calling him on to manhood, and to silence and war, and to the eternal draw.

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All Stories, Fantasy, Horror, Short Fiction

Apartmeet by Kilmeny MacMichael

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The bride brought only a small bundle from home. Wrapped in a deep blue silk, she carried medicines and a small bone whistle. The bride was from a family of witches fallen from grace in a time of altered belief. Her home was an island dripping warm green forest into a wide magic river.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

The Trip Home by Steve Sibra

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This Story is Dedicated to the Memory of Buster Dunlap

***

It was the summer of 1974, after I got out of high school. We were getting the machinery ready for harvest, and my dad was always in a hurry when it came to the process.  Get the grain cut as soon as it was ripe, get it in the bin or hauled to town, out of the field, out of harm’s way before the wind or hail, wiped out an entire year’s work.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

The Absolution by Leila Allison

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“Is it fair?”

 Those were the last words Eddie said to the man he had thought I was before he drifted back into the only honest sleep of his final days. A smiling sleep caused by my youngest daughter, who did one of the finest  things I have ever seen a human being do.

Eddie died yesterday, and his parents have asked me to speak at his “Celebration of Life” this Sunday. I have plenty of harmless Eddie anecdotes to warm hearts and kill ten minutes with. It may be cynical of me to say it, but even though the most timid human being tends to live an R-rated life, few celebrations of such are anything less than family friendly.

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