Friday, August 30, 2013

Hide-and-Seek by Danielle Bordelon

A five year old girl is mentally traumatised by her brother's death in Danielle Bordelon's flash.

It was my fifth birthday. I don't really remember tears or screams or any kind of noise. Just the silence.

I played with my cake, smashing it until it was unrecognizable.

My parents stared at the walls as if they would move at any moment. There was a world between them.

His funeral bl…
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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

The Neck by Anne Goodwin

Tamsin wakes up on her wedding day to find her neck has grown a few feet overnight in this fantastic story by Anne Goodwin.

With a nod to tradition, Tamsin and Craig elected to spend the night before their wedding apart. He moved out to take his chances on his best man's sofa; she stayed home to luxuriate in a double bed to herself, while her bridesmaid snored in the spare room.

She awoke…
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Sunday, August 25, 2013

South by Tony Dews

Ellen, bored of her life on an outback farm, sees an unsettling portent of change; by Tony Dews.

Ellen walked out of the front door, a tall woman with an elegance that other women would kill to possess. She kept open with her hip, balancing toast and coffee in her hands past the cases sitting on the floor. They were new, bought for her fiftieth birthday. Now they were going on their first trip. S…
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Friday, August 23, 2013

Out of Work by Jack Coey

An out-of-work pronoun is worried that his girlfriend is dissatisfied with their relationship in Jack Coey's grammatical romance.

What he thought he knew, and would come to know, was he would never be enough. She was dissatisfied with him, and he was out of work. He was careful, tentative, around her. He worried about being good enough. He hoped when he got a job it would be better. It was la…
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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Shedding the Tears by Bruce Harris

A story told from two points of view about a teenage boy and an old lady who meet in an allotment at night; by Bruce Harris.

I did feel a bit stupid, up at the allotments in the half-dark digging up weeds. If I'd had any sense, as Mum and my sister Kate would say, I'd have remembered a torch. But near your sixteenth birthday isn't the most sensible time in most people's lives, a…
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Sunday, August 18, 2013

Mr. Tibbs by Ray J Robbio

Blanch's son Gary insists that she must get rid of her cats in preparation for going into a rest home, but she has a special connection to one called Mr Tibbs, in Ray J Robbio's creepy story.

Chapter 1
"Forty seven years. I've lived here forty seven years," Blanch repeated. "Your father is turning over in his grave right now watching you do this to me!" She shifte…
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Friday, August 16, 2013

The Bridge by Jim Bartlett

Jim Bartlett's character is having a very bad day in this innovatively told tale.

May 12, 2010
7:37 pm Wednesday

"Nine one one, what is the nature of your emergency?"

"There's someone about to jump at the Carlton Canyon Bridge."

"Oh... my. Which side of the bridge is this person on, sir?"

"The city side. I think that's south?"

"Okay, good…
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Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Love on the Savanna by James Royce McGuire

Lequetta's relationship with her white boyfriend is threatened by racism, but not necessarily his; by James Royce McGuire.

Cheese and crackers for lunch.

That's what Lequetta thought. And boy did she realize she was dating a cracker. An A-number-one A-hole. At first, she thought his digs were cute. That he didn't have black fever. He didn't even like soul food after all. She'…
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Sunday, August 11, 2013

Mad Mick by Nick Wilding

Homeless man Mick is offered a job guarding a scrap metal warehouse, but is suspicious of his benefactor's motivations; by Nick Wilding.

Mick drew his knees up to his chest and pulled the sleeping bag tighter. By his side Cu nestled against him, shielded from the worst of the cold by a flattened cardboard box. In his grimy hands Mick clutched a penny whistle, scratched and scuffed from much a…
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Friday, August 9, 2013

A Great Fall by Phil Temples

DCI Waters arrives at the scene of a suspected crime to find a gruesome and chillingly unusual corpse; by Phil Temples.

"DCI Waters? I'm PC Susan Higgins."

The tall, black police constable extended her hand to me in greeting. She then realized that she was extending a hand covered by a disposable glove.

"Oops. Sorry."

"Not to worry, Higgins," I replied. &qu…
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Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Teeth by Amy Yeager

Amy Yeager recalls her creepy teacher's obsession with loose teeth.

Dentistry has always been an unappealing profession to me - I have never liked dentists, teeth, saliva, tongues, or anything normally associated with the oral cavity. I could not stand forcing my way into the mouths of others, scraping grime off their teeth in time with the rhythmic bubbles of their saliva being sucked into a…
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Sunday, August 4, 2013

Impulse by Fred Miller

A boy reminisces about his childhood best friend and their hunting trips in the cypress swamps, in Fred Miller's sad story.

Sometimes when I hear the shrill call of the kingfisher echo through the cypress swamps, I'm sure it's his scream I hear. And the mists that rise and curl in contorted shapes are a reminder of the look on his face when the shot hit his belly. Often I come here to…
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Friday, August 2, 2013

New Beat by Samuel K Wilkes

Samuel K Wilkes' character Johnny reaches a turning point in his low-down life.

I've done a lot of crazy things while lit. Hard to stay within the lines when your soul is trying to launch itself out of your frame. I've done a lot of things, but never like this. And I don't even remember doing it.

Was it me?

Not sure.

Regardless, this is the voicemail I awoke to one cloudy Tu…
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