I was getting a bagel and a coffee, and the girl behind the counter was looking at me weird. She was, like, really staring at me. I’m not a handsome guy, so it didn’t make sense. I got all self-conscious and touched my face thinking maybe there was something stuck…

I don’t know where my cat is. She’s gone missing. It’s not just that she’s not here. All her things are gone too. Her litter box. Her toys. The giant carpeted treehouse thing she always slept in. I looked in the cupboard where I kept all her food. That was…

The “gift” came in a small brown box and arrived at noon — I watch my father insert the needle into my mother’s belly. She’s sitting at the kitchen table, hungry for the next dose. The ugly jagged pink scar peers out from underneath her sweater when she lifts it. …

Surreal science fiction story — Two men stand in a room wallpapered with computer screens. They wear lab coats with Heston Science Corp stitched in red over the left breast. One asks, “Is he all set?” The other replies,“We just finished installing the QN/QET probes in the subject’s frontal lobes.” “Have the staff left the…

№ 41 of 💯 — The yarn was as blue as the veins in her small, but nimble hands — Grandma settled into the pew and pulled out her knitting. Pastor Sullivan cleared his throat, looked her way, and, unacknowledged, began. “We’re here today to celebrate the life of Louis Shafer …” Click, click, click. The blue yarn wrapped around her fingers matched the veins of her surprisingly nimble hands…

If terrestrial lovers disappoint maybe you should look further afield — It had been shaping up to be a craptastically disappointing Valentine's Day for Jessica when the spaceship landed in the field. Technically it wasn’t a spaceship, merely a shuttle, but you don’t expect either one to land on a Virginia horse farm in February. The horses didn’t like it at…

A variation on a familiar theme… 1. If I had only known it from the start, I could have taken the right steps to prevent things from getting out of control. But, as usual, I got left out of the loop until it was too late. My friends put too…

“Dear me. It’s like they’re just making it up as they go along.” — It was the anniversary of their marriage and Jeremy was at the local corner shop hoping to pick something up for his wife, as was tradition. In front of him were some rotting flowers with brown stems and sad, drooping heads. “Is this all you have?” he asked. “What’s wrong…

Flash Fiction — I have to be in the right mood to go clubbing, and I wasn’t, not that night, not most nights if I’m honest. But his ex was in town for the weekend and all the old crew was meeting up at Destiny and what was I going to say? Don’t…

Flash Fiction: Narrated by Kay Bolden — *Readers, the following story details murder and death graphically, abuse and neglect of children, and a family’s indescribable pain. We don’t talk about Daniela. We don’t reminisce — don’t share our memories — don’t even flip through the plastic pages of…

Or at least yours and mine — One time a rock decided to take himself for granted. His girlfriend was shocked. “You’re such a special rock!” she assured him. “No, I’m just a pebble in the river,” he moaned. At that moment, a 12 year old boy picked him up and threw him. He landed in a…