ELLIE STEWART: It’ll Be Different the Next Time

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

I visit sometimes when the sun goes down.

I expect to find you in your room, curled under your blankets, a half-empty bottle of beer next to your head.

Instead, you’re away. Laughing. Drinking, yes, but with friends.

The truth hits like a train.

You’re happier now that I’m dead.

Ellie Stewart is 17 and lives in Utah, but neither of those things will last for much longer. She will move to the Pacific Northwest one day and continue writing short stories, poems, and eventually a novel, surrounded by fish tanks and house plants.

JEFF HARVEY: Motels Feel Safe

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Momma won at penny slots and sent me to the vending machines for dinner. Pepsis. Fritos. Twinkies. Tomorrow we’d be back in the Chevy with no heat and the smell of burning brakes that reminded me of Dad. But tonight Alf was on TV, and Momma was coloring her hair.

Jeff Harvey writes short fiction. His work is in/ soon to be in Bending Genres, Blink-Ink, MoonPark Review, and others. He’s on Twitter at @JeffHarveySD.

GREG NOONEY: Euthanasia

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Amidst ghastly moans, my human gently patted my head, and I snuggled up to him. Gazing into his pleading eyes, I understood his desperate need for release. Without knowing who would feed me afterward, I placed my paw on his chest and barked the magical incantation to stop his heart.

Greg Nooney has worked as a social worker/therapist for over 35 years and is currently writing a novel about a character with dissociative identity disorder. He can be reached through his website at gregnooney.com.

JILL ROBINSON: The Zoo

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Sitting on the bench, watching families wander past, surrounded by cages and glass. Me looking at you, you looking through me. Am I as free as I’m led to believe?

Our hands rest side by side, inches and miles away. If I left, would you watch? I won’t say goodbye.

Jill Robinson is an author, wife, and mother of two. She has published personal narratives in two Chicken Soup for the Soul books, the upcoming book, So God Made a Mother with Her View From Home, as well as two anthologies with Moms Who Write, The Order of Us, and The History of Us. Jill creates dark fiction online with Kindle Vella. She is currently editing her first full-length dystopian novel. She creates humorous writing memes for Moms Who Write. You can follow Jill on Instagram at @firstdraftdotblog.

REBECCA KLASSEN: Corroded

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , , , ,

He waxed and buffed for hours. Drifted fingertips across the frictionless bodywork before joining the other petrolheads at another show and shine. No one else ever brought their kid along.

“Aren’t you going to get out?” he asked his son when they parked.

“No.” His voice was coarse like rust.

Rebecca Klassen is an editor from the Cotswolds, UK. Her work has been published in journals such as Mslexia, Popshop, The Wild Word, Superlative, and The Phare. She has won the London Independent Story Prize for flash fiction. See more at bex350.wixsite.com/rebecca-klassen.

SWAPNA SANCHITA: The Dying of the Sun

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , , , ,

No one remembered the precise day, but everyone agreed it began during the hottest June of the northern hemisphere, with violet.

There had been articles discussing wavelengths, but few understood the science. By the time red disappeared, leaving behind a translucency, the only thing noticeable was the biting cold.

Swapna Sanchita is a poet, storyteller, and educator who studied engineering and management before finding her way back to her first love, literature. Swapna lives in India, with her husband and two sons and loves coffee, chocolates, and books, not necessarily in that order.

ERICA FRANSISCA: Findings in a Station

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

The first raindrop hits the box. The second infiltrates the threadbare blanket. The third dissolves the paper with his name. An hour earlier, the night-shift security might’ve noticed him. A few feet to the left, the roof would’ve sheltered him. Instead, tomorrow, the cleaner would find a cold, lifeless thing.

Erica is an Indonesian-based freelance writer whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in Anak Sastra, Paragraph Planet, 101 Words, and Five Minutes. Find her at ericafransisca.com.

K ROBERTS: Shivaree for the Bridegroom

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

After steeple bells chime wedding blessings, the ritual jesters descend, tying tin cans to your honeymoon car, clanging pots with spoons raucously under your bedroom window. Lords of misrule, anti-serenaders, we’re the jokers from Poker Night – zealously single but secretly jealous of your harmony, your full house, your winning hand.

K. Roberts is a professional non-fiction writer, a published artist, and a first reader for the Canadian magazine Nunum.

KEVIN OWEN: Fear of Flying

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

We’re flying back to England. It’s the first time we’ve ever flown together. I’ve bagged the window seat. He travels by train usually. He has this terrible fear you see, of speeding through the air. He’s flying flat out now, though, hidden somewhere in the hold, ticketless.

In a coffin.

Kev lives near an airport in Norfolk, UK, but closer to a railway station.