DOUG AND A CAT by Anissa Elmerraji
He lunges into the dirty can and takes the cat by the scruff. It hisses and scratches his hands until blood drops fall from his hands.
TRANSATLANTIC & TWO OTHER FLASH PIECES by Peter Krumbach
The 84-year-old woman across the table from me describes a couple who has chosen to be buried in coffins stacked on top of each other in one grave.
PONT-SAINT-ESPRIT 1951 by Phoebe Billups
The man clutches at his stomach as the attendants wrestle him into a straitjacket. By the time they manage to sedate him, the waiting room brims with new patients.
THE PENNY IN THE WELL by Henry Elizabeth Christopher
We had sex, he took my blood. Positive ions, positive feedback loops. The cycle perpetuates itself.
MY STICKY-FINGERED GIRLS by Lynn Mundell
I look at the baby doll abandoned on the floor next to its ripped box, its unblinking blue eyes staring back at me. One of its fat cloth legs has been ripped off in the fight.
A NIGHT WITHOUT ARMOR by Robert Long Foreman
Tamberlyn fell on the pavement, hard. Her body slapped against it. It sounded like someone dropped a lot of meat.
HERE AND NOWHERE ELSE by Claudia Schatz
The window over the bathroom sink, up high and pointing out, the only window in the whole house where all you see is sky.
THE TWO OF THEM by Teddy Burnette
Catastrophe, he thinks. Couldn’t have gone worse.
MAGICIANS by Scott Mashlan
On my way out of the closet I noticed a trunk at the edge of the bed... An antique padlock hooked through the clasp, but it was unlatched, so I slid it out and opened the trunk.
THE NINE O’GLOCK SHUFFLE by Lindsey Pharr
Your eyes follow their tiny finger and, sure enough, there’s a nine-millimeter handgun lying in the middle of your neighborhood street at eight in the morning on Fat Tuesday.