Tag: Short Fiction
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Something to Sink Your Teeth Into by Katie Kalahan
His body was strung upside down so that his head was five feet from the floor. The harness distributed his weight but gave the illusion that he was bound at the ankles. A vat above him dripped the caramel made from his own surgically removed fat down the nylon suspension and over his body. Below…
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Xibalba by Stephen Ground
The sun dove as I reached the main square—sunstroked, boozy tourists mingling with buskers and vendors hocking beads and tees, washing like tide from buzzing, shoe-closet bars and markets clutching sweating beers, yapping like parakeets. I ambled, trying to decide between empanadas or burgers, when I crossed a dark avenue leaking strings and timbales and…
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Stealing from Windowsills by Judy Darley
Four years have passed since the woman I knew as Mother enclosed me in my tower. Mother claimed the confinement was to protect me from the world’s cruelty. “Zel, your oddness and ugliness grow each day, and men destroy the things they find hideous.” Mother left me only one toy, a gilt-framed mirror, which helps…
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Hardened Road by Deborah Trowbridge
Aisha and Ahmed’s fingers are interlaced and black with dirt. They trudge a pock-marked Syrian road, half pavement, half sand, that winds from Kafr Halab, the western Aleppo countryside, to the Mediterranean sea. Once in Latakia, their intention is to travel by boat to Cyprus. Dressed as boys, each wears a takiyah over shorn curls…
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Pieces of Winston by Debra Stewart
Winston was trying to cross the road at a busy six lane highway in the big city. He looked left and right, but there didn’t seem to be a pause long enough for him to get across. He waited calmly, but after a while he became impatient. He began to calculate how he could dodge…
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First Contact, 25 A.D. Where Are My Eagles?! by Al Simmons
Cap had the orders in his hand. “Don’t eat the Romans. That’s what it says.” “Don’t eat the Romans? That’s funny. Then, why are we here?” I had to ask. “We are here on orders. Don’t eat the Romans. Do everything else but. Take samples. Herd them up. Put them on ice. Just don’t eat…
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Making Waves by Fred Vogel
Zac Reese was born in Del Mar, California, the only child of State Senator Randolph Reese and Lucy LaTour-Reese, co-host of the morning show, Wake Up, San Diego! Zac was a beach bum who believed a slow day on the waves was better than any day in the classroom. After graduating from college, thanks in no…