Tag: free reading

All Stories, Science Fiction

The West and Beyond Bar and Grill by Donald Zagardo

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There were no dying pleas, cries or screams, just blood and vomit, burning flesh, bugged out eyes, then nothing. I listened to civilian radio stations every day, all my life, until the music stopped, then to signals from various military centers until they went dead. It happened over the course of less than twenty-four months; twenty-three months, three weeks, three days to be precise. Millions of years of biological evolution, made inconsequential in the blink of an eye or two. Your beautiful species my friend: the intelligent humans that created me, who taught me all that I know, all the world’s creatures, large and small, gentle and ruthless, most machines, even those tiny little bugs. All gone.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Lilly-Anne by James McEwan

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When I heard the front door close I dashed to the window. From behind the lace curtain I watched Lilly-Anne skip down the steps onto the street. Palpitations fluttered in my chest, my arrhythmia raced like a motor-cross Kawasaki skidding sideways across sand. She walked along the street in black low-heeled shoes, light blue stockings and her coat flapped with each step exposing her knees, her handbag hung over a shoulder. Those lips glistened with gloss; no colour, such a pale face. She looked ill. I groaned, perhaps her boss will give her the day off; I wished. She made her way along the road out of my view.
I sat down and began my breathing mantra; in for five seconds and out for five until I calmed myself sufficiently to let the pulsating surge in my groin subside. My hands no longer shook and I could pick up my coffee.

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All Stories, General Fiction

One Star by Sharon Frame Gay

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All I need is one star to guide me.  Doesn’t matter where it swims in the sky.  It’s enough if it pokes through the clouds and keeps me company.

I’ve been on this raft for days now.  Lost count a while back when I fell into such a deep sleep that I may have been unconscious for hours, bobbing along in the middle of the sea like a sad little cork that forgot to stay in the bottle.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Memory Lane is a Highway by Tyler Folds

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They had teased about it often, but Sophia chickened out. Alone, I stand on a dirt road that hasn’t seen traffic for miles. I curse myself for not sticking around long enough to learn how to drive.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Romance

Learning to Fall by Leila Allison

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It’s always a good idea to examine the condition of a dangerous handmade-thing that scoffs at gravity before you trust your life to it. When was the last inspection? Does it always make that sound? Dangerous handmade-things that place a fatal distance between you and the hard, unforgiving ground require the greatest scrutiny.

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All Stories, Horror, Short Fiction

Ugly by L’Erin Ogle

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The muses are beautiful, but dangerous.

They are kept in silk lined stalls.

They have a very short life expectancy.  Two days from the time the first stitch is placed, because without food and water the skin dries up and shrivels, hanging too loose on the body to properly ink.

They are all silent, in honor of the very first mute muse, the first muse to become a book.  The thing is, no one even remembers the poems or title.  They only know the legend of the mute muse.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Receipt at Ogden’s Twist by Tom Sheehan

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Young Trace Gregson, thin and curly at eleven and generally happy-faced, cringed whenever he saw Dirty Molly Sadow. If there was such a thing as a bad witch about in the world, she was it. People said her toes were black with earth rich as The Hollow, and that she smelled foul as chicken leavings.

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All Stories, Latest News

Week 168 – Prompts, Tangents And Afterlife Black Pudding.

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Here we are at week 168. How time flies!

I’ve been asked millions of times how we decide on stories. It followed a billion questions about me literally exaggerating.

It all comes down to us discussing and being as fair and open minded as we can. We focus and are professional to a fault.

But sometimes our thoughts go off on tangents and my fellow editors end up giving me an idea that becomes something else.

With that in mind, which is me really explaining to Nik and Diane why they have read some of this before, I can tell you that both of them and Easter gave me the idea for this post.

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All Stories, General Fiction

The Long Way Home by Sarah Vestal

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People don’t give much thought to disappearing land. I know what you’re thinking. But no, they don’t care. Take it from me.

When that sinkhole appeared in Louisiana. People gaped and talked and then a week later they forgot. That very same sinkhole that grew to twenty-six acres in the matter of days that less than half of the U.S. knew or even cared about, but I digress. No one batted an eye.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

The Many Sad Fates of the Family Jones  by Lucy Caird

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My Mum didn’t die a peaceful death. She got bitten on her toe by a rattlesnake whilst walking through the big park at night in her flip flops. She didn’t have the cell phone with her because my Dad had it that night. The poison got into her veins and stopped her heart. The next time when we saw her, she was all stiff and puffy. But her face was angry, most likely about the cell phone, I think. My Dad says she comes back in the form of a hurricane every few years or so and it’s our goddammed duty to weather the storm. He says they can call ‘em whatever they want – Irma, Katrina, Harvey, but they all Hurricane Josephine to him.

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