All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller

The Bee by Rebecca Moretti

It was early but the sun was already strong and high. In the distance, the road was shiny and sweaty as it curved between the red ground. It was going to be a hot day. In the East, the sun cast a hazy film over the hills. Lachman sat in the sultry shade of an olive tree as a single bee buzzed loudly and persistently around his head. He’d always found that bees were particularly drawn to him. Perhaps they knew how to spot a criminal.

Continue reading “The Bee by Rebecca Moretti”

All Stories, General Fiction

The Dream-Dresser by S. A. Leavesley

What the hell was she going to do? Claudia interrogated herself as she turned from the current strangeness of her reflection in the mirror to inspect her feelings. They were…she didn’t know how to describe them. Unsettled and unsettling? For the first time in twenty-five years, she scowled. Not only did she scowl, but her lips didn’t then pull automatically into a copycat expression of the person she’d last been with. The scowl didn’t feel right though, any more than her usual shape-shifting smile did. Or the unusual summer slacks and T-shirt she was wearing.

Continue reading “The Dream-Dresser by S. A. Leavesley”

All Stories, Horror

Rattletrap by Jennie Boyes

Welcome. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’d ask how you came to be here, but I know you can’t tell me. Do you know where we are? No? Well I suppose that is to be expected, so don’t be troubled. You were somewhere else, and now you’re here. That’s all.

Continue reading “Rattletrap by Jennie Boyes”

All Stories, General Fiction

The Metal Box by Tom Sheehan

It was so damn petty that not one person in the entire family really knew how or where or when the rift began. It was there just as suddenly as the January thaw, being felt, being known, but still in all somewhat unbelievable. And every one of us, to the last thinking one of us, looked to Grandfather John Templemore to perform the cure, re-forge family ties, focus attention to proper matters. Hadn’t that man accomplished, so many times, the near impossible? The wizened little man with the piercing blue eyes that could accost you or lay balm on your wounds. The white-bearded sage who reveled in poetry and masters of the language. The articulate stone mason, his trowel now put away, who knew Yeats better than the classicists. Saturday evenings, on his wide porch fronting on the town, or deep in the pocket of his kitchen, the fire at amble, he it was who took us spellbound into the magic of joy, crowding us with the language.

Continue reading “The Metal Box by Tom Sheehan”

All Stories, General Fiction, Writing

Week 239 – Cat’s Insistence, Hero Worshipping And Inventive Funding.

The weeks are fair flying by, it won’t be long until we’re all fossils with only a few printed pages of our stories to remind the world that we had been here.

As you can read, I’m in a happier mood than normal as I write Week 239!

Continue reading “Week 239 – Cat’s Insistence, Hero Worshipping And Inventive Funding.”

All Stories, General Fiction

When Normal Becomes Real by Harrison Kim

Everyone’s queued up in the cafe, a string line of heads, some with hats, waiting. It’s a fairly conventional straggle and Drew stands with it.  Good to have some order.  The line’s almost out the door.  Lights fall bright around him, with invisible music. Something by the Soul Twisters.  He feels a huge space above him, compared to his regular quarters. His official security man Cody stands assertive and blocks the view ahead.

Continue reading “When Normal Becomes Real by Harrison Kim”

All Stories, General Fiction

Everything’s Opposite by Jake K

Everything is opposite.  That’s what I tell my therapist.  Like a snakebite, the first-aid is not to wash the wound.  You suck the venom out because whatever you swallow, your stomach kills.  Or a concussion.  People say never sleep after a concussion.   But sleep is how your brain recovers.

Continue reading “Everything’s Opposite by Jake K”