Tag: relationships

General Fiction, Short Fiction

The Designated Shepherd by Leila Allison

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“Hi,” I said when Anna-Lou finally answered the door. She looked like hell but that greatly improved when I showed her a thirty milligram bottle of Methadone. I had guessed her situation correctly and for the first time in ages I had the power to ease suffering.

“Sarah–what?” She said, confused, as she had a right to be. I imagine she experienced a moment similar to wishing for something utterly impossible and seeing it come true. In the forty years I had known her, not once had I directly addressed “her condition.”

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All Stories, General Fiction

Borderland by David Calcutt

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In her dream she was speaking a language she did not know and had never heard before and when she woke to the half-light and strangeness of her room some words of it were still on her tongue. There was a dry and bitter taste in her mouth and her fists were clenched. Her body ached as if she were a traveller returned from some far off border of the world.

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All Stories, General Fiction

The Ballad of Clyde Harris Porter Jr. by Joshua Michael Stewart

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Conceived in a biker bar bathroom. His mother named him after his father, who everyone knew as Spider. Born with a hole in his heart. All his older girl cousins loved to lift his toddler shirt. Trace the vertical scar splitting his chest in two. His mother quit school in the tenth grade. Quit working at the Dollar Store after becoming pregnant. Before Baby Spider’s third birthday, his father got himself stabbed to death with a broken pool cue in the same swill hole where Spider and Clyde Jr.’s mother first slung slurred flirtations at each other.

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All Stories, Fantasy, General Fiction

The Empathy Solution by David Henson

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A brawl erupts at the supermarket checkout when somebody cuts in line. You’d think people would be used to it. Such behavior is practically a sport these days — along with running red lights, talking on the phone in restaurants and theaters, coughing and sneezing with uncovered mouths.  Besides, there are worse things. Smash and grabs. Carjackings. Fraud. Embezzlement. Insider training.

Most people aren’t crooks, but jerks are common as cruel memes. The so-called experts say people no longer believe social norms apply because they have no empathy.

It tempts me to become a recluse like my brother.


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All Stories, General Fiction

Nicky by Graham Mort

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She’s there, behind the bar as I walk in. Immaculate white blouse, tucked into a pair of faded jeans. 501’s. Belt buckle tight at the waist. Blonde highlights in a short bob, cut into the neck. Silver ear studs. Big white teeth as she greets me.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Scarf in the Dark by Crockett Doob

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My doorknob is low. The door is regular-sized, just upside down. But I know that can’t be true because the windows are up top. So my new theory has been that the door was sawed off, like a shotgun. The point is my doorknob is lower than most and is demonstrative of what’s inside: a very small apartment. Or, as I like to call it, “My hallway by the sea.” Because I live in a beach town.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Lanternalia by Will Pinhey

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(Adult content refer to tags on the bottom of the page)

“You’re allergic,” Paulie tells me, running his finger around the braised red skin up my neck. “This happened before, and it’s worse this time.”

I turn back to the mirror, pulling my collar down further, straining to follow the inflamed trail that encircles my throat.

“Allergic to what?” I ask. “The ink?”

“Probably. It happens. More common with red than black, but still.”

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All Stories, General Fiction

Scholars of the Rocks by Yoon Chung

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Seo-woo lay flat on the floor of the shrine. He didn’t know what the g(x) was for equations f(x)=7-4x and f(g(x))=-1. He didn’t really want to because it was only fifteen minutes away from twelve. The four of them were supposed to arrive by noon. Pillowing his head on the book, he went to check their group chat for the fifth time in five minutes. It was quiet, which was good—no one was flaking. He was about to ask where they were staying again when he stopped himself. He’d already asked twice. They had chosen a cheap motel in the fishing village a few kilometers away from his place. They could have stayed at his temple, and he’d said as much, but they were determined not to bother his mom or the visitors.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Christmas Spirits by Anna Sahli

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You can believe in hauntings and not in ghosts. You shrink a bit when you enter your parents’ house for Christmas dinner and feel your powerless teenage self slip her tired arms around you and whisper a reminder that you’re not enough and somehow also too much. The rage that boils in your chest while you watch your father criticize your mom only finds a way to possess you at this table, in this room. The icy indifference that serves as your answers to all your mom’s questions is a ghost of the child you killed so you could survive long enough to become an adult.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Your Grief Doesn’t Interest Me by Simon Nadel

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“You got old early.”

Hannah didn’t need to finish the thought. She’d already said it so many times, and then, when she got tired of saying it, she left. But even when she came back to pick up this or that, she sometimes would say it again, maybe for old time’s sake. “You got old early when you lost your job and started spending your days getting way too wrapped up in the neighbors’ business.” I never had a good response, even though clearly I had plenty of time to come up with one.

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