CATHERINE BERRY: Honeyed Wine

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Her response to his betrayal didn’t come with the shouting or tears that he expected, but a sigh. She offered a toast to her freedom and his loss.

He laughed, drank the honeyed wine, and choked on the lingering hint of bitter almonds. Her smile was vindictive.

Till death, indeed.

Catherine Berry loves whimsy, potatoes, and singing with her dog. Her work has been published in several Trembling With Fear Anthologies & The Trench Coat Chronicles. More of her work can be found at www.caterinaberyl.blogspot.com.

REBECCA HAMLIN GREEN: Butterfly Child

Amusing, Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

Tongue in teeth, the girl carefully plucked a little yellow butterfly from the grass. It perched on her finger, then flew away awkwardly, leaving the tiniest of eggs at her nailbed. She thought about running home to rear it, her enwombed butterfly child, but baptized it in a puddle instead.

Rebecca Hamlin Green is a writer and visual artist living in Chicago, IL. Her art explores patterns in nature and how they reflect, define or disrupt our notions of what it means to be human. Her complete portfolio of visual works can be found on her website at rebeccahamlinart.com.

MARGARET MacINNIS: Declaration

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Barn swallows twitter-warble their declarations. From a darkened corner of the hayloft, I hear their bird-love songs, aching for my wife. I can almost feel her warm breath in that space between my neck and shoulder. My heart, kitten-tiny now, thumps rapidly.

I’d give anything to be a man again.

Margaret MacInnis lives, writes, and raises her daughter in Iowa City. Her work has been published widely, most recently in Brevity, Diagram, Ghost Parachute, The Rye Whiskey Review, and Thrush. She is working on a novel and a novella-in-flash, LIFE AS JAKE, MY WIFE’S THREE-LEGGED CAT.

TL BEEDING: Someday

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It’s been years since I’ve seen you. Felt your touch. Seen your light. Brighter than the sun, to whom the tulips bow. You were their king; I their queen.

And now you’re gone. Gone with Spring, as Summer takes its breath. But someday I shall find you, my king.

Someday.

T.L. Beeding is a single mother from Kansas City. She is co-editor of Crow’s Feet Journal and Paramour Ink, and is a featured author for Black Ink Fiction. When she is not writing, T.L. works at a busy orthopedic hospital, mending broken bones. She can be found on Twitter at @tlbeeding.

BOB THURBER: Road Map into the Heartland

Adventure, Amusing, Submissions, , , , ,

Maybe my wife wasn’t as sharp as she looked.

Despite a suitcase full of cash, she’d left a long paper trail, charging meals, motels, car rentals.

I gave the info to my number one.

He promised to bring home her head in a box.

I never saw him again. Touché!

Bob Thurber is the author of six books. Regarded as a master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in Esquire and other magazines, been anthologized 60 times, received a long list of awards, and been utilized in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

CHRIS TATTERSALL: Time Will Tell

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He had time to write and he had a plot. His favoured genre was crime, schemes to outwit the establishment. This book would be an autobiography.

He wasn’t yet sure of the ending but there was time for that, a lot of time. The judge had given him ten years.

Chris is a Health Service Research Manager from Wales, UK. He lives with his wife Hayley and Boarder Collie Toby in Pembrokeshire. He enjoys fishing, kayaking and cycling around the west coast of Wales and is a self-confessed flash fiction addict with some publication and competition success. See more at fusilliwriting.com.

CASEY LAINE: They Grow Like Weeds

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The child picked me flowers from the lawn every time she came. I put them in vases, fussing over their beauty. It didn’t matter that they were dime-a-dozen dandelions mixed with clover; it only mattered that she wanted to make me smile. My heart wept when she outgrew the impulse.

Casey Laine comes from a long line of talkative women. She works as Fantasy Editor at Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, and publishes an annual anthology of fiction and poetry for her writing group, Writers Assembled. In her spare time, she chases butterflies with her camera. Find her at Facebook, Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, and Amazon.

AVA BALES: Venus’ Planets

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Venus looks up at empty nothingness. Every night she lays on her back and blows bubbles.

This night, an old, somber man meanders by. He looks up at the iridescent orbs floating up towards the sky. “It reminds me of before,” the old man whispers, “when there were still stars to see.”

Ava Bales is a 13-year-old Creative Writing student. She reads and writes short stories in her spare time. She has won zero awards and her writing has yet to be published.

HARLEY VITALE: Things I know

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I know how to tie my shoes, I know how to eat without getting dirty, I know that the sun rises and sets every day, I know how to love deeply, I know that as a child I was abandoned and that I had to learn these things all alone.

Harley is a young girl who loves reading and writing. In fact, her biggest ambition is to become a writer and publish her own novels. She writes short stories and poems in her blog and she won two literary prizes last year. See more at soloraccontidifantasia.blogspot.com.