Henry won’t stay in the vault, no matter what Arthur does. He tries to bribe Henry with poems of praise, flowers, a candlelight vigil on his marble mantle. But Henry wants more.
“I’ll keep you warm,” Henry vows, and so Arthur nestles alongside him in the vault.
Sleep comes easy.
Jillian Bost has had several short speculative stories published online and in anthologies. She is an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.
His ashes sit in a box atop the shelf. They are nestled between my favorite books and a bud vase holding a wooden tulip. Sometimes I take the box down. I wish, yet again, that I had instructions. But I don’t, and so the box goes back on the shelf.
Carolyn is based in Seattle, WA. She writes stories both on and off the clock.
After the sermon, the preacher slipped into a back pew and filled his Bible’s margins with notes from another man’s message.
Down the hall, a student raised his hand.
The teacher never looked up.
One left church with fuller pages.
The other left with empty margins.
My mother died while still carrying me in her womb–
I was born all of twenty-six.
if mythology is any indication, only monsters grow up overnight.
And so I was for a while–
an oft-shapeshifting, teary-eyed, fire-breathing dragon.
While all births are painful,
not all of them bring forth joy.
Vishaal writes short stories and poems, mostly about memories. Some of his work has appeared or is forthcoming in ARTS by the People, Five on the Fifth, Ghudsavar, Kitaab, Hakara, Panorama, The Perch Journal, The Kelp Journal, Vermilion, The Rush, Open Minds Quarterly, The Rainbow Poems, Antonym Mag, Good Printed Things and Metonym Journal. One of his poems was recently nominated for the Best of the Net 2026 Anthology.
With surprising elegance, it slid down the ladder, escaping the suffocating dryness of the command deck. Eight arms deftly unlatched the airlock. Bubbles rose. HSSSS. The grate cracked open. A body slunk into the blue ink depths of the ocean, leaving the spaceship’s control room empty. Just for an hour.
Zoë Davis is a writer from Sheffield, England. She’s a stubborn FND sufferer and fights what her body says she can’t do by playing wheelchair rugby league. She writes poetry and prose, and especially enjoys exploring the interaction between the fantastical and the mundane, with a deeply personal edge to her work. You can find her words in publications such as: Ink Sweat & Tears, Strix, Roi Fainéant and Red Ogre Review. You can also follow her on X @MeanerHarker where she’s always happy to have a virtual coffee and a chat.
In the ninth year of our marriage, my wife said, “How can I miss you if you don’t go away?” Really. Several times she offered this encouragement, calmly and in all sincerity.
Then I did go for a weekend. She missed me, but I found I did not miss her.
Lynn Kozlowski has appeared in The Citron Review, The Zodiac Review, Molecule, 50-Word Stories, Bright Flash Literary Review, Every Day Fiction, The Dribble Drabble Review, Friday Flash Fiction, and The Malahat Review. He has a volume of short pieces, Historical Markers.
The story of the week for June 22 to 26 is…
In Case My Mother Flies by Angela Carlton
“Jemma chooses!” Ms. Barnes announces when the kids can’t decide. They’re all squabbling over which summer seed to plant.
“Tomatoes,” Jemma says, quietly.
In September, when school comes back, her classmates will harvest armfuls of this fruit. Meanwhile, Jemma will be long gone, putting down roots in yet another school.
Emily Hall’s prose can be found in places such as Passages North, 100 Word Story, Gooseberry Pie Lit, and FlashFlood Journal. She’s a prose editor for Pictura Journal and lives in NC with her husband.
I’ve spent most of my childhood amongst the clouds, dreaming of the world below. My only connection to the ground is the one I can see from my bedroom window, a thousand metres up. Dad says it’s too dangerous down there. We mustn’t think of the infected as people anymore.
Billie J. Daniel’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in HAD, BULL, The Bulb Region, Shadow and Sax, Blood + Honey Lit, and others. Discover more online at billiejdaniel.com and on Instagram at @billiejdaniel.
He sticks out his tongue, blue from the candy. Blue like poison dart frogs and busted glass bottles and other things you’re not supposed to put in your mouth.
I stick out my tongue right back; artificial red.
We’re two animals flashing warning signals we intend, boldly, ruinously, to disregard.
Mikaila Nalbantova is a speculative fiction writer with a focus on the epic, the folkloric, and the Classical. She received her MFA at Sarah Lawrence College and her work has appeared or is forthcoming on Apex Book Company, in Club Plum, Tension Literary, and Statement Magazine. You can find more of her work through linktr.ee/mikaila.nalbantova.