Stories

Halloween – refrigerator – pier – strengthen – voice surprise – contribute – bird – iron – requirement It’s 10:13 PM, October 31. This year for Halloween, I went as a refrigerator. Despite the detail and uniqueness of my costume —you could even open the door and see the candy resting on the shelves around my torso— my haul is depressingly low. Most...

identical – pot roast – decorate – sign – abuse library – amnesia – butcher – submit – sensation Even though her shift was over, Samantha stayed in the library. She gathered her coat and bag and went to the worn oak table on the second floor, in the western corner by the tall windows. She sat in the same wooden chair she always sat in; she retrieved...

Ferris wheel – revive – dinosaur – split – disk assumption – exceed – narrow – snickerdoodle – join “Really John, I appreciate what you’re trying to do with all this, but I don’t think you can revive the collective spirit of the town with a Ferris wheel and some disk toss. It’s nice, but it’s just not the right time.” “I had to do something, Frank,”...

pizza – booth – college – restore – collection rip – Buffalo wings – chiffon – butcher – display He threw up the pizza and Buffalo wings he had eaten only an hour ago. The meaty morsels were still largely intact, although their original appearance was butchered by the bile and alcohol in his stomach; the bowl showed a pale and soupy version of how...

housewife – moonwalk – dog – basement – conclude alien – ignore – lightning – embrace – time She called them ‘moonwalks’ whenever she took the dog out at night, regardless of the lunar cycle. Deborah found solace in the silence of her sleeping suburb. She walked in the middle of the street and let Sidekick off the leash. He was well trained...

eruption – salad – fire – career – assume roller skate – draw – promise – full moon – sweet “Lester, I’ll have a tumbler of wine. Bring a water for Mr. Willow,” said Mr. Salad as he sat down across from the criminal. Besides Lester the barkeep, Mr. Salad and Mr. Willow were the only occupants of the saloon; it was the middle of the night and their...

brothers – potato – common – hands – boyfriend alphabet – scribble – hydrangea – sandwich – tug-of-war “I think they’re brothers.” Danika said. She leaned her back against the wooden picnic table where I ate my lunch, so even though she sat on the opposite side, we both faced the street at the north end of the park. I saw the pair she was talking...

demon – bystander – escaped – parakeet – destiny hammer – singing – ash – cathedral – heels “Raulisk!” I bellow at the destroyer. Hearing his name, the twenty foot-tall demon suspends his rampage and turns to me. I falter in fear, a breath stuck in my throat, before grasping the parakeet pendant that hangs down to my chest on a necklace. I square my...

microbiologist – telephone – hidden – bystander – trench inside – international – shoe – heights – persuade And so he sat and he thought, his emotion and his insecurity hidden behind a far-off gaze. He thought of what could have been instead; to have not been a microbiologist nor an academic at all. What if he had gone to flight school? He’d be in...