All Stories, General Fiction

Step Right Up by David Lohrey

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My cousin Boxie returned from Afghanistan to say that people turn into pink mist when they are blown to smithereens. Boxie spends his days shelving toilet paper at Costco, making $37,000 a year. He bought a house for $109,000 and leases a Chevy SUV. He has a daughter but his wife can no longer bear children. They live near Pearl, Mississippi. They keep a Boxer chained to the tree in their back yard. Boxie won’t let his wife cook instant rice. She shaves her pussy. Their daughter, Esther, wants to be a fireman. She wears a helmet to bed. Boxie, Tricia, and Esther belong to the Church of Proximate Causes, a sect based on the worship of reality, an internet group of survivalists who live somewhere in North Dakota. People say, they keep tons of deodorant in their basement along with cans of ravioli and Mississippi tamales.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Why Junie Jumped by Townsend Walker

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I’ll tell you why she jumped. That bastard husband of hers couldn’t keep his pants zipped. She put up with it, for the kids. But then, he was the one who split. She and me were best friends in high school. I stayed here in Lynchburg, Central Virginia for college, now bookkeeper at the newspaper. Junie, she jumped at the chance to get out. That chance was a fast-talking UVA senior named John Miller, promised to take her to New York. He did, a dozen years and four kids later, she came back. Her family wasn’t a whole lot of help when she did. Junie told me, first words out of their mouths, Where are you going to live now? How are you going to support your children? I guess she shouldn’t have expected a cuddly reception, the way she ran off with John middle of senior year, her Ma still in the hospital. Irregardless, you’d think they’d care about their grand kids.

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller

Last Night at the Aquarium by Leila Martin

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Marin walks between the tanks, soft blue light pooling at her feet. Schools of fish flit back and forth to some unspoken rhythm. It’s early evening on a Wednesday, after the post-lunch rush. The aquarium is a welcome escape from the jostling and rudeness and ghastly chaos outside. Most families are probably having tea now or taking kids to clubs, or whatever it is families do.

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All Stories, Literally Reruns

Literally Reruns – Homes, Brothers and Fantasies by Tobias Haglund

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Leila has brought out a serious piece by one of the founding father’s of the site – who is now a father father as well – how things have moved on. Anyway this is a story from lovely Tobias and this is what she said.

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Short Fiction

Week 315 – Was Aggie’s Disappearance Her Best Mystery, Has Anyone Considered God As Their Wank thought (Except For The Pope) And The Only Multiple YESES E.L. James Should Receive.

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…And we trundle on to Week 315!

Honestly guys, fuck knows why this came to me!

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All Stories, General Fiction

Rio by Kailyn Kausen

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Rio sits in an orange and yellow faded tent in the middle of an overgrown field. The sun is low in the sky and slants through the branches of trees that died long ago, grey and brittle instead of green and supple. There are buildings not too far from him—houses—but Rio doesn’t go to the houses. His parents told him not to go there.

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All Stories, Fantasy

June’s Miniature Mart Off Highway 101 by Sage Tyrtle

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Her box on the shelf at June’s Miniature Mart is getting dusty. She watches through her plastic window on the world as her aisle is put on sale. “50% off! Get ’em before they’re gone!”

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All Stories, Fantasy

The Grim Morass by David Samuels

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They say you’re a paladin, but all I see is a fool.

Look at you: armored like a crawdad with the brains to match. One wrong move on that poleboat and you’ll sink to the base of the swamp.

Gimme your hand. Let’s get you back on solid ground—if you can call this pier solid. The stilts wobble in the sludge, so watch your step.

Not a talker, clearly. Don’t bother unrolling that scroll. I know all about your oath of silence. Word travels fast among us Marshmen. As the village shaman, I was among the first to learn about your little quest. You seek redemption, yes?

Then go home. Adopt a war orphan and get on with your life. Truth be told, you’d have better luck floating in that platemail than slaying the Bogroth.

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All Stories, General Fiction

The Grittiness of Mango Chiffon by Mitchell Toews

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Oh, those squinty little eyes. I’ll never forget the look of them. Like the night she found tobacco crumbs in my baseball jacket pocket. She spread the brown flakes out on a white napkin under our dining room table’s one-hundred-watt bulb.

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