Stories

Looming Specters

5/31/2021

by RUYI WEN

Labyrinthine by quapan | Flickr

Some call us hackers.

We drop through an opening in the ceiling we have made, three pairs of feet landing silently upon the floor. No one can match our ability to infiltrate even the most secure of server rooms, no matter if they are underground, underwater, under the radar.

Our true strength, however, lies in knowing what to do once we’re inside.

Many people think hacking is an activity of brute force, a desperate charge with a battalion of bots and a battering ram. Nothing could be further from the truth. Ahead of each mission, we fine-tune strategy and finesse our plays. Many hours of planning go into a few moments of action so we can complete our task with the lightest touch. Most times, all that’s required is a gentle tug on a loose end that unravels everything.

Some call us witches.

How does that saying go? Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic?

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Beginner's Dismemberment Guide

4/25/2021

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by CHARLIE ROGERS

The Syringe by Zior_ | Flickr

When I respond to the help-wanted ad for “Serial Killer’s Assistant,” I’m surprised to get a near-instantaneous invitation for an interview. My mental image of the person who placed the ad had vacillated between two vivid possibilities: tall and gaunt like a human scarecrow, or a sweaty, slovenly blob.

Instead, I discover he’s neither. He’s so nondescript that I forget his face the moment he turns. He invites me into his house where the decor is reminiscent of an old lady’s: hand-painted porcelain frog figurines crowd every surface; a stale scent of rose perfume floats above us.

I’ve told my mother where I’ll be and assured her I’ll call the moment I’m done. It’s our standard procedure for my interviews, so she shouldn’t worry. If I can’t secure a well-paying job soon I’ll go crazy squatting in her garage. My stint as a Mortuary Disc Jockey didn’t pan out and I’ve been hustling for new employment ever since.

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Bereft

4/18/2021

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by Antonia Costa

Sock Puppet by K W Reinsch | Flickr

I wasn’t convinced it was going to happen when Mrs. Milton warned me over the phone last week: “I just want to let you know, there is a possibility that Samson could die while we’re gone,” she’d said. “The vet says it’s bound to happen within the next couple of months. We don’t anticipate it happening while we’re gone, but just in case, we don’t want you to be surprised.”

Dr. and Mrs. Milton are in Paris for two weeks, and they asked if I could stay with their dog while they’re away. I’ve stayed with Samson plenty of times before. He’s a rather large dog, although I’ve never been certain what kind. I’ve asked before to be nice, but not being at all familiar with dog breeds, the names just sound like diseases to me, let alone give any indication of what that particular one would look like. Just slap the word terrier after a nationality and I wouldn’t know the difference between that and a sock puppet with whiskers sewn on.

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Inheritance

3/28/2021

by CHRISSIE ROHRMAN

Let It Go by Ben Lelis | Flickr

It looks roomy enough inside the freezer chest, but even after putting my weight against the lid, it still won’t close completely. I squint down through the vapor at my mother’s wrinkled face.

Even dead, she looks disappointed in me.

With a sigh, I haul her limp body back out of the freezer. For such a small woman, she was heavier than I expected. It seems poetic, considering the weight of disapproval I’ve felt my entire life.

“You’re out, James,” she’d sneered at me from across the polished marble countertop. “I’m seeing my lawyer tomorrow. The house, the cars and jewelry—it’s going to your brother. All of it.”

Bald Beyond Suspicion

3/7/2021

by JOHN BLAIR

The Usual Suspects by ap. | Flickr

Four scruffy men shuffled into the room behind the glass through which they could see neither me nor the police officer sitting next to moi.

“Now, Mr. Dillinger,” the detective asked me. “What do you think?”

“Well, the tall one in the middle is kind of hot.”

The officer turned his face to the ceiling and rolled his eyes; I followed suit, but I couldn’t spot a spider or a fly up there—nothing.

“Good to know,” he said quietly, “but irrelevant.” (Stupid cop didn’t clue in that there is no middle man in a line of four.) “Do any of these men resemble the man whom you saw rob the bank?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t know.”

Snigglesnaffed

2/21/2021

by EMMIE CHRISTIE

Kittens in a box! by David Lifson | Flickr

Evelyn was on the way to her big meeting with the department heads, but the box of kittens on the side of the road read ‘take what you can’ and what was a middle-aged woman to do? Leave them?

Of course the freaking not.

She stopped her car and sighed. There were five: an all-black, one with a black sock, one with a white-tipped ear and one with a grey heart on its nose. The last had a bent tail, as if it had been caught in a door. They looked up at her and mewed, showing all their little pink throats, and Evelyn melted into hopeless snigglesnaffing. Snigglesnaffing is, of course, the technical term to describe when, within five feet of something adorable, an average human’s speech breaks into irrepressible endearments such as ‘miggle muffin’ and ‘snuffer puff.’

The Fingernail Fairy

2/13/2021

by JUSTIN DILL

Nom Nom Nom Fingers by Shea Huening | Flickr

I didn’t expect her to show up tonight. If I’m being completely honest, I didn’t expect her to show up at all. I mean, come on. It was only a creepypasta, and if you ask me, a little overcooked at that. Written by some nobody in exchange for internet points—value non-transferrable. Who in their right mind would have thought the Fingernail Fairy was real?

But I knew it was her, the second she flashed me that formidable grin, more keratin than calcium, if you catch my drift. That was when the general din of the pub, at least in my mind, fell away to allow for a moment of rapid-fire recollection.

What were the rules? There are always rules. Rules that you have to follow to a T, Baskerville Old Face, Twelve-Point Font. If you don’t, well, then you’re the protagonist. And that’s the last person you want to be in a creepypasta. You’re wondering about me? What’s my deal? Screw you, that’s my deal. I’m no protagonist. I don’t die at the end of this one.

Take a Look in the Box

12/13/2020

by DAVID CLARKSON

Cat #361 by K-nekoTR| Flickr

Where to begin? Openings are never easy; whether it is opening a story or opening a box. More so when opening a story about opening a box. Sometimes it’s best to go right ahead and do it.

So that’s what we’ll do. We’ll open the box as we open the story. Then all that is left to do is take a look inside.

“Well?” asked the owner. “What do you see?”

The vet stared into the box. There was no need to check for a pulse. They had enough experience of death to be able to spot it anywhere.

“Your cat is dead,” they told the owner.

“Are you sure?”

The vet looked again. The prognosis was beyond doubt. A taxidermist could not have fixed the animal’s expression more solidly. Although they probably would have tidied up its expression a bit. The tongue protruding from the side of the deceased’s mouth was most distasteful.

Sense of Self

11/15/2020

by R.R. Angell

Power Tool Drag Races by Scott Beale | Flickr

The sun beat down on our driveway. I was cleaning out the garage a year or two after moving in, trying to organize my workshop. The neighborhood had gotten used to having an Out Gay Male Couple living among them by then. The careful, curious watching time was over for most of them on the street.

We'd made friends with several households in that borrow-a-cup-of-sugar kind of way. Warren, the guy who lived with his girlfriend of twenty years, saw me in the garage and stopped by with a cold one to share.

All of a sudden he blurts out, "So, which one are you?"

I drained my beer and thought for a moment. "I guess I'm the lesbian because I have all the power tools.”

Read R.R.'s Sixer | More Stories | Archive

R. R. Angell's (he/him) short fiction has appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Interzone, Compelling Science Fiction, Gargoyle Magazine, The Baltimore Review, and Fresh.Ink among others and many anthologies including Stress City: A Big Book of Fiction by 51 DC Guys, Best Date Ever: True Stories That Celebrate Gay Relationships, and Compelling Science Fiction: The First Collection. His LGBTQ YA VR AI science fiction romantic thriller, Best Game Ever: A Virtuella Novel, published in May 2019. For more info or links to online stories check out rrangell.com

Enlightenment

11/1/2020

by TORI FREDRICK

The Dalai Lama's Birthday by Francis Mariani | Flickr

She was the kind of woman who could make the Dalai Lama loot a liquor store. When considering the different varieties of females – shrews, harridans, harpies, cougars, MILFs, inflatable – Rita found herself contented to fall into the category of “temptress.” If the Dalai Lama taught her anything, it was to be grateful for life’s small blessings.

The morning after the robbery, they lay wrapped together in his orange monk’s robe, sharing skin and a Manhattan. Bald men loved her – she sometimes had to fight them away from her bulbous, exquisite breasts. The Dalai Lama added a touch of the exotic to her conquest journal, in which she rated his lovemaking a four out of ten. She didn’t give anybody special treatment.

Rita extricated herself from the tangle of sheets and clothes on the bed. She hadn’t really expected him to come knocking at her hotel room last night, a fistful of dollars and two bottles of top-shelf bourbon in tow. She was under no illusion that his whereabouts would remain a secret for long, and he was becoming quite silly after downing his second drink of the day, balancing on a pile of pillows for his morning meditation.

Safe at Home

10/24/2020

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by LEAH MUELLER

Room 8 by Squid Ink | Flickr

Dusk had already fallen when my husband and I pulled into the center of town. Its dusty street sat empty, shop doors padlocked, windows covered with plywood boards.

“I bet the motel is open,” I said.

Russ shook his head wearily. “No one answered when you called.”

“The room will be empty,” I insisted. “Everyone is afraid to travel. Except us.”

Russ and I had sold most of our possessions, fled Tacoma, and headed south. Washington’s economy had expanded like fast-rising bread dough. Even the pandemic couldn’t slow it down.

For decades, people moved to Tacoma when they had no other options. Now, 1500 square-foot bungalows sold for a million dollars. The two of us didn’t have that kind of money. We’d bought a dirt-cheap house in southern Arizona. Same town where my mother spent the last nine years of her life. Thanks, Polly.

Russ shrugged. “Worth a try, I guess.”

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The Rock in Your Shoe

10/4/2020

by DAVID HAMMOND

rock on by Eric Chu | Flickr

Hello, up there!

I'm the rock in your shoe.

But I’m not just any rock. I’m a piece of primordial chondrite, formed from stardust in the earliest days of the solar system. Days? Scratch that. There were no days back then, because there wasn’t an Earth yet. I’m that old. Think about that for a second while you chew on your Clif bar and look out over the Shenandoah Valley.

Do I have your attention? I’m digging into the arch of your foot, but you lift your leg and do a little dance to shake me into the toe of the boot. Your two-year-old son in the baby backpack awakens from his snooze and laughs. “Papa,” he says, “Papa, more dance.” Don’t worry, little one, I’m not done with Papa yet. I work my way around to the big toe and apply my sharper end to the tender spot just below the nail. The little boy laughs as his grumbling steed does another jig.

Message for Item #095742

9/19/2020

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by EMILY WEBER

Cheetos by Mr. Brian | Flickr

Look. I know you’ve been waiting. Pretty patiently, I guess. The trendy thing to do nowadays is to be grateful instead of apologetic. Like if you’re twenty minutes late to work and your work husband Jeremy has to cover for you, again, you’re supposed to go, “Thank you for telling Melinda that I was in the locker room so I didn’t get stuck on the customer service desk again as punishment” instead of being all, “Sorry I made you lie for my tardy ass again.” Personally, I don’t say either. Jeremy doesn’t care. Melinda doesn’t care. The only people who care are just keeping score to make sure they’re still better than you. But you’re supposed to be grateful. Which I have been, of course. Gratitude is the only rational response to a 2,000 percent markup on a Cheeto. Overall, you’ve been kind about this whole thing, considering we both know the Cheetos you’ve been ordering from me are fake. Not fake…sculpted? Altered? That’s fair: let’s say they were altered.

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Professional Boundaries

9/6/2020

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by JOHN ADAMS

tin roof frozen custard by stu_spivak | Flickr

“Six, eight.” Kaelyn’s glossy fingernail ran from one lit elevator button to the other.

“What?” Lis asked, more from habit than interest.

“Today’s date. June 8th.”

Lis scooped her hair into a scrunchie. “Huh.”

“June 8th,” Kaelyn repeated, drawing out the date. “Like I was saying: International Best Friends Days.”

Lis’ face flashed a second of ‘This shit again?’ before offering another “Huh.”

The man caught between them shot Kaelyn a quick, embarrassed look before shuffling to the front of the elevator.

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Life in Lockdown with Cupcakes

8/23/2020

by J. L. HARLAND

Miss G Thumb by Justin Carmody | Flickr

‘Where the hell have you been?’

Steven shrugged when he saw Dad’s frowning face. ‘Just went to the shop.’ He looked at the floor and leaned against the wall. Best to look casual, unfazed. Hope the storm passed.

‘Don’t lean against that wall. It’s just been decorated. I hope you didn’t get close to anyone. Grandma’s vulnerable and she –‘

Grandma appeared like the genie in the lamp. She winked at Steven.

‘Shut up, Paul. I asked the lad to go. Get some ciggies for me. I ran out.’

Spoiled

8/8/2020

by P. L. WATTS

horse drawn carriage by beexxohh | Flickr

They’re meant to have left for the hunt nearly an hour hence, but the child has still not emerged from her room. Typical. She must know she’s holding up the entire household—and how important this is to her father. Marguerite steals another glance at the Monsieur. His face is stormy; his immaculate black shoes tap the floor with increasing impatience. Marguerite would go find the child herself if it wouldn’t mean crossing his line of vision . . .

She shivers.

After what feels like a fortnight, Mellian finally arrives. The room freezes.

She is the vainest child Marguerite has ever known, but today her hair hangs limp and stringy. Dark circles ring her eyes. And she is wearing an absurd brown dress that makes her look sallow and ill. Where did she even get such a thing? A tension headache mounts Marguerite’s shoulders. She looks at Marais, again. His jaw clenches.

Traffic

7/26/2020

by NEVA BRYAN

Walther PPS by Brandon Jasper | Flickr

The exotic dancer is more exotic than most. She has a vestigial tail that rests just above her butt crack.

It hangs over a wisp of translucent fabric that could optimistically be called a thong. The tail is a little nub about the length of my pinky finger. When the dancer wiggles it, her glitter- dusted tail shimmers pink and silver beneath the stage lights. The music is loud. Throbbing. Perfect for the way she dances.

Her stage name is Cosmic Flickers. From the looks of the crowd, she’s the club’s most popular dancer.

This whole scene makes me want to puke. I have to remind myself that I’m here to find my sister.

A Fitting Tribute

7/12/2020

by TIM FRANK

shadow boxing by abby chicken | Flickr

Jimmy Ward shadowboxed in his bedroom as the morning light seeped through the blinds creating a dense silhouette. His joints were weak but he still had the moves.

“You'll damage the lining,” said his wife, Ruby, appearing at the door. “It's the best suit we could afford and you're bulging at the seams as it is. Hey, what's wrong champ?”

“I don't want to go the market, I hate that place,” he said lowering his arms and crossing them defensively.

“No, Jimmy, have you forgotten already?” Ruby said, fiddling with his blood red tie. “We're going to see the Queen at Buckingham Palace. You're going to be honoured.”

“Oh, oh, yes, I remember now, the Queen.”

Playing the Dying Game

7/4/2020

by Harri B. Cradoc

Coronavirus by Tim Dennell | Flickr

“Let’s just say I don’t like taking showers alone,” said the man on the waiting room sofa.

The tousle-haired woman in the corner chair near the potted plant had picked out a wrinkled leaf of the variegated Schefflera and was attempting to straighten its lifeline. She rubbed the plant’s golden spots between one thumb and finger, and then, with a momentary tug at her facemask, uncovered a smile that stretched her twilight red lips. They pursed like a last kiss of the sun.

“Those yellow marks don’t come off,” he said.

“No? This is what I do to make everything be right again. Rubbing is the key.”

As Sleeping Dogs Lie

6/20/2020

by PHOENIX DESIMONE

Slumber Party by Todd Dwyer | Flickr

I awoke to the dog tickling my feet with his tongue. The sun was peaking in through the blinds. The girl in my bed was beautiful – from the sparkles between her blonde locks, to her blue eyes and matching socks. The only problem was I didn’t remember her name, let alone what game I could have played to get her home last night.

It was a cause for celebration no less; I wasn’t the best with the ladies. I was okay, better than most – I would start a conversation but after that I had no idea which direction to go. I’d think of clever things to say to get them to come home with me, but typically, nothing would happen. Smiles would be exchanged, sometimes even numbers, but more than likely the two of us would never see each other again.

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