Fiction

THE GROOM by Paul Ruta

May 13, 2022

I just work here, okay, so it weren’t my job to speak up when I dug the ring out of Prince’s hoof with my pick, packed into the groove there with the mud and manure. I stuck it in my pocket and said nothing cause they’d only take it away from me and they got no right. Anyhow it’s just a plain wedding band, but solid gold I reckon, so it’s gonna be worth something.

WHEN I SEE IT by Adam Peterson

May 11, 2022

There’s a man with stringy hair talking about sin, but he doesn’t actually commit any. Instead he promises us redemption and tell us which ex-wife we’ll still be married to in heaven.

‘IF SOMEONE NEEDED TO DIE’ AND TWO OTHER FLASH PIECES by frankie bb

May 9, 2022

the night you kept getting higher and higher with someone else at the party, surrounded by all our friends, I jumped off a bridge—not to be melodramatic, just to show you I could have fun too.

THE BOOK OF INTRACTICUS, THE SECOND PERSON TO BE SWALLOWED BY A WHALE by David K. Gibson

May 6, 2022

And lo, not fifteen minutes after the ship had cast off its ropes, a giant Phoenician dropped his last denarius into a brass bucket and Intracticus retired to the bar, where he proceeded to become loaded, even as unto the dice.

A HISTORY OF MEN AT SEA by Jack Wildern

May 4, 2022

Chris said it would be easy. We just had to avoid crashing into the pier when we launched. He liked the sea and I liked getting lost. Taking the boat out to the fort suited us both.

BEACH BABE by Suzy Eynon

May 2, 2022

On the drive, you read an erotic story in a women’s magazine and try not to picture the dripping peach as your father navigates over sizzling asphalt.

THE SUNSET MACHINE by Tamar Nachmany

April 29, 2022

But getting pregnant was highly unlikely under these circumstances. Etgar slept across town. And sexting couldn’t get you pregnant.

NOTHING’S A SURPRISE by Cory Bennet

April 28, 2022

A key that unlocks many locks is dope but a lock that opens for any key is busted, is how it was explained to me once, but I’m no fucking locksmith. I just liked getting laid.

ISABEL by Min Mai

April 27, 2022

We were scraping the gum off the underside of a desk when she removed her dress, folded it into a square, and rested it on the teacher’s desk. She said simply that she didn’t need the job of cleaning the gum off her clothes too. I stared at her sandy skin exhaling its own heat. I was sad for her: she was loveless.

THE HUNDRED YEAR PERIOD by Leah Smolin

April 22, 2022

Today marks my one hundredth anniversary working at the waffle factory. They threw a little party for me in the breakroom—coffee in paper cups, a pink cake with ONE HUNDRED written on it in frosting. My friend Ellie mimed throwing up on the cake. I laughed and covered my mouth with my cup.