Fiction

Anthony was nine years old the first time he saw the vampire. She was clinging to one of the top branches of the tree outside his window—that was what got his attention in the first place, since seeing a girl in a long black dress suddenly appear in the tree was a lot more interesting than his comic book. She scrambled for a better grip every time the wind shook the branches, shooting terrified glances at the ground. Fascinated, Anthony moved to the window, pushed it open, and leaned out onto the windowsill. “Are you going to fall?” he asked, not bothering to hide his curiosity.

In Jul. 2016 (Issue 46)

Fiction

Whose Drowned Face Sleeps

by An Owomoyela and Rachel Swirsky

Author spotlight

When she comes into the loft, she glares at me with the bright-eyed, serpentine resentment of the dead. In the dry attic, water drips from her hair and pools at her feet. Her lips pull back. I’d forgotten that I used to grimace like that—teeth bared like an animal’s. I’m not her and she isn’t me. When I say “I,” I might mean either one of us, but that’s not precise. I have no past, so I took her memories. I have no name, so I took her name. I had no body, but I have hers now.

2016 Original Fiction

In Jul. 2016 (Issue 46)

Read
Listen
- Narrated by:
  
  Gabrielle de Cuir
- Duration:
  
  01:09:20
- Buy eBook
Subscribe

Fiction

Der Kommissar’s In Town

by Nick Mamatas

Author spotlight

Charlotte did not materialize in the middle of the encampment, though to Mickey it seemed like she had. Six feet tall, not counting the afro, long limbs, wide shoulders, the confident stride of someone who knows she’s untouchable, she just somehow passed through the border from Ptown to what the maps called Franklin Plaza, and the protestors called the Paris Commune. Charlotte had weaved through the all-hours drum circle; right past the power station of stationary bicycles, solar cells, and car batteries.

In Jul. 2016 (Issue 46)

Fiction

Red House

by Gavin Pate

Author spotlight

This is the story you remember. The girl lost in the woods. How they find her after eight days, the mud smeared on her arms and legs, clumped in her hair and under her nails. Through the rain she sees the policeman running, lifting her up in his thick brown jacket, driving her back down the jagged lumber road towards the highway in his truck. She won’t answer his questions, won’t untangle her thin ten-year-old limbs. She runs her tongue along her broken tooth and the cop hits the sirens to run the stoplights, the world flying by in a haze of streets and rain.

2016 Original Fiction

In Jul. 2016 (Issue 46)

Read
Listen
- Narrated by:
  
  Claire Benedek
- Duration:
  
  34:10
- Buy eBook
Subscribe

Fiction

Ruminations

by Rena Mason

Author spotlight

Running late to catch the bus, Luisa kicked a raised part of the sidewalk toes first. “Mierda!” She winced but managed to keep her balance. She stopped, raised her leg, and massaged her big toe through her canvas work shoes. Relieved to feel no broken bones, she lowered her foot, ignored the pain, and hurried to the bus stop. She shouldn’t have tripped, but that’s what happens when you’re not paying attention.

In Jun. 2016 (Issue 45)

Fiction

The Finest, Fullest Flowering

by Marc Laidlaw

Author spotlight

A sour note shrieked from the limousine’s speakers, making Milston’s fingers curl in his lap. He took a moment to compose himself before rapping precisely, and with a now steady hand, on the glass separating him from the driver. The tone had droned into a hum that tunelessly dreamt of someday becoming hypnotic. “What is this we are listening to, and is there any way to turn it off?” “Down, sir, but not off, I’m afraid.”

2016 Original Fiction

In Jun. 2016 (Issue 45)

Read
Listen
- Narrated by:
  
  Stefan Rudnicki
- Duration:
  
  21:33
- Buy eBook
Subscribe

Fiction

Things of Which We Do Not Speak

by Lucy Taylor

Author spotlight

“Hit me,” said Elaine. I thought I hadn’t heard her right. “Hit me,” she repeated. I stopped in mid-stroke. She might as well have said the sheets were on fire. My penis slithered out of her like a clubbed snake. Rolling off her, I stared at the cracked plaster and wondered why ceilings weren’t routinely decorated with some groin-enlivening mural—Delacroix’s Rape of the Sabines, maybe, or some nice nineteenth century Japanese porn.

In Jun. 2016 (Issue 45)

Fiction

Great Black Wave

by David Tallerman

Author spotlight

Staff Sergeant Walker steps away from the Ridgeback, wipes sweat from his eyes with a dust-grimed bandana, and tries to make sense of the scene before him. The heat has grown punishing. For a moment it twists the air, so that grey walls and desiccated bushes and sun-scorched faces above dark shalwar kameez all shiver unsettlingly. Walker wipes his eyes again and gradually the shimmering steadies. Yet still, the prospect doesn’t quite add up.

2016 Original Fiction

In Jun. 2016 (Issue 45)

Read
Listen
- Narrated by:
  
  Stefan Rudnicki
- Duration:
  
  31:20
- Buy eBook
Subscribe

Fiction

The Lost

by Sarah Langan

Author spotlight

A week ago, I was a salesgirl at Filene’s Basement. It was seven a.m. on the morning of our semi-annual suit sale, and I was driving my twelve-year-old Saturn down Stewart Avenue. I was late for work because I’d stayed up drinking Wild Turkey in front of Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. It was a depressing good time for lonely hearts at the casa de Koszalin, punctuated by a screaming alarm at 6:30 a.m. and cheese doodles dried to the side of my face.

In May 2016 (Issue 44)

Fiction

Sawing

by Lisa Goldstein

Author spotlight

Clarissa watched from the wings as the Great Bertoldi sawed a woman in half. Down went the saw through the coffin-like box, then up, then down again. A cigarette burned at the side of his mouth, on the edge of his smile. The saw broke through the box. He put it down and slid metal plates between the two halves, then rolled the sections apart. The woman’s head poked out from the end of one of the sections, feet from the other.

2016 Original Fiction

In May 2016 (Issue 44)