The wind off Nauset Bay is strong and insistent, demanding my presence. It draws me from the long comfort of my home, and yet, it does not have to pull too hard. This is the debtor’s wind and I know why it is here.
Continue reading “The Returning by Rob O’Keefe”
We consider ourselves extremely fortunate at LS Towers to interact with so many interesting writers. One such who has been with us since 2018 when we published the first of her unusual and fascinating stories. If you haven’t had a look at her back catalogue do yourself a favour and visit L’Erin Ogle forthwith – but read the interview first!
Continue reading “Sunday Whoever.”
Charles D called me neurodivergent, which he thought was a good insult but I told him it just meant I wasn’t average, which I’m not. He was flummoxed. A good word, flummoxed. It’s in my Favorite Words book.
Then I remembered to smile knowingly at Charles D, which is something Aunt told me to do with bullies or attempted bullies. Aunt, as she always tells me, knows her shit. Charles D eventually wandered away.
Aunt took me in when Dad died (Mom’s location unknown). Cause of death was organ failure but isn’t it always? A liver fails when you drink too much. A brain fails when a bullet is shot into it. Lungs fail when you drown.
Made a note. Find out a more specific cause of death for Dad.
Continue reading “Nicholas by James W. Morris”
I knew the neighbours’d complain if we let it rot out front again.
It was growin’ dark when the doorbell rang—four thirty dusk in December dark and only a little before curfew. It made me jump, though I’m sure I knew it was comin’, the same way I’d known it each time before (all except the first).
I hovered between the kitchen and the hall and rolled my left foot to grind my big toe in the hardwood. I didn’t want to answer it, but I had to. Nobody else wanted to either, I suppose.
When I shouldered open the screen there was nobody there, like usual. Or nobody livin’.
Continue reading “Government Assistance by Alyce Wood”
His face was blank, no eyes, no mouth, nothing, on his back was a towering backpack, twice the size of his body and on his belt hung the masks he sells, three of them : Happy, Sad, and Angry.
“What are you looking for today?” asked the mask man.
“My in-law is coming, I need to be happy,” replied a woman with furrowed brows.
“I see,” the vendor put his backpack down, and with just a quick pull, he got exactly what he wanted: a mask with a half circle smile “You know what happens next–”
Continue reading “Smiling Mask Vendor by Rinanda Hidayat “
How do I prove humanity isn’t a computer virus? Xander Neurix wonders. He’s getting desperate. Is desperate.
As his wife rubs his shoulders, he bounces his son on his knee. “You’re so tense,” Astra says.
Xander quiets his leg to concentrate on his wife’s massage. “Things at the Chamber are … complicated.” Xander hates to keep something so important from Astra, but is unsure how to tell her about the alarming situation unfolding.
Zaden kicks his heels against his father’s thighs. “More turbulence.” Xander begins bouncing his leg again.
“I need a break.” Astra shakes her hands. “You’re practically living at the Chamber. I thought Helix was requiring less and less from you and your team? We hardly see you.”
Continue reading “Helix by David Henson”
A demon places a sharp sabre in his hand, An angel gently whispers words of reassurance. The pain he feels is equal to having a dagger pierce his heart, the angel wants to take it out while the demon wishes to push it in further. Since he lost her nothing has been the same, he oscillates from melancholy to a furious rage that swallows him whole. This leaves his soul barren like a desert, an almost perfect ground for the deities to do battle. “Slay him and be done with it,” the demon says in a haughty tone.
Continue reading “A Quarrel Of Divinity and Impiety by Mirza Copi”
Before the second home in Montebello, I was placed in my first foster home, where my hunger for thinness was conceived and grew larger in size than I had ever been.
Continue reading “Foster by Athena Vasquez”
It’s a scorcher of a summer night in Gaza City and Fadi lies naked in bed, sweating buckets in the dark. His mother shouts something from the kitchen, her voice bouncing off the walls, mixing with the clanging of pots and pans. From the bedroom, his father’s reply is a muffled murmur, drowned out by the blaring TV. A stray dog barks outside, and soon a few others join in from a distance, their barks blending together like a chorus of sirens.
Continue reading “Chasing Sleep on a Hot Summer Night in Gaza by L.F. Khouri”
The lady in the pink dress wants to save me. Her soft eyes wet, she reaches for me, hungry to share her joy. She steps closer, hand on my shoulder now, and pulls me to her. But I don’t like people touching me without asking. Jesus is knocking at the door of my heart. Let Him in. Everyone at the Holy Redeemer Revival wants me to say yes. I step back. What if He doesn’t like what He sees inside?
Continue reading “What I’ll Lose by Phebe Jewell”
literally stories 