All Stories, Science Fiction

Origin Story by Daniel Tobin.

typewriterThe following has been taken from a series of verbal testimonials in the regards to the disappearance of David Thomas, 25, reported missing on April 30th, 2016, as well as in regards to a number of other supposedly connected events.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Liquid Memory by Christopher Dehon

 

typewriterI pulled up to the 7/11 and realized I couldn’t remember the last time I’d ordered an Icee. I mixed Coke and Strawberry into the biggest cup they had. I remembered when Cheyenne and I were in middle school how we used to mix this with the vodka her mom never bothered to lock up. The girl behind the counter looked like she’d recently graduated from high school, although she held herself with a toughness beyond her years. She’d either shrunk her uniform shirt on purpose or lied about her size, because I could see her belly button ring on her washboard stomach. I looked at the half-eaten nachos behind her and figured she only had a few more years to look like this. She didn’t ask where I was going or where I’d come from. When she handed me my change, I noticed the frenzy of old cuts on her left arm. These weren’t those superficial, privileged, symmetrical cuts girls in my high school had. These were frantic and left her arm looking like an old cutting board. These were the cuts that you get when your uncle’s bent you over a couch for a year and no one believes you. I thought about giving her a hundred dollar bill to impress her. I could tell her where I was headed. She’d be touched and give me her number, and then…what? I threw a pack of Cheyenne’s brand of smokes on the counter, paid with a twenty, and left.

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Aphrodite and Thanatos by Frederick K Foote

typewriterAphrodite and Thanatos sprouted from the concrete concourse of the high rise, low life, urban, projects. Public housing, private prisons, the new slave quarters, home to random, but, persistent and pervasive violence – every day.

Born without preamble or portfolio, trust fund or roadmap to success.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Grooming by Andrew. T Sayre

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Buzzzzzzzzzzzzz…..

My alarm clock rings.  It wakes me up.  I sit up in bed, and run my fingers through my hair.  I have such pretty hair.  Everyone thinks so.  They’re all so jealous of it, they never tell me how much they like my hair, but I can tell.  I can see it in their eyes.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Comet with a Nasty Tale by Tom Sheehan

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The morning, at the outset, had no promise of being ecstatic, though Professor Clifton Agnuus put the rock into his briefcase. Every time out it was about eight pounds of drama for him, at least at the start of term, and now off on a new year. A storyteller he should have been, he argued, a yarn spinner, the kind of a writer that Professor Albie Short, over in A&S, his one good buddy, drooled over, and had been doing so for almost forty years. Albie was apt to open a conversation by saying something like, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.” There was a time Albie would likely answer a telephone call the same way, or with Bartlesby the Scrivener’s opening remark, “I AM a rather elderly man,” but all that had sloughed off when he was burned by some wise-ass responses. For reasons best known by them, he and Albie liked each other. If anything, Agnuus might say Albie was the coin’s other side.

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Week 81 – Holidays, Relevance And Bad Poetry

typewriterI need to thank Tom Sheehan for my inspiration this week. I don’t know if anyone noticed but we published a relevant story on the holiday of its relevance, if you see what I mean. We don’t normally do this. We published an old friend of ours near Christmas on our first year (Hope you are well Sandy) but that was more by sheer coincidence as we were trying to get established and we were very short of stories. We wanted to keep it until June but the numbers wouldn’t allow.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Moira, Actually by Adam Kluger

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Sol Schmeckendorf dabbed at his work shirt with a wet napkin. The grease from the chicken and broccoli was going to leave a stain. The only solution was to ask for seltzer and even though it was his absolute favorite shirt—he just didn’t feel like it.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Between First and Final Breaths by Kathryn H. Ross

typewriterThe first thing Miguel became aware of was the blistering sun on his cracked lips. He could feel the great white eye of the earth staring at him, taunting him to fully wake and confirm that his recurrent nightmare had once again followed him into morning. He opened his eyes and blinked slowly, taking in the brilliantly white-washed blue of the sky. It was day five. He felt death in his bones.

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