MIKE ROSENTHAL
Before grabbing the knocker, Munroe pulled on his gloves so he wouldn’t pick up accidental prints. The morning job was a mundane one, and the clients wouldn’t notice his dedication to the rules, but Munroe had principles. He recalled the comment his boss left…Continue Reading Lingering Touch Imprint Services Case 0822-1
Category: Prose
I Write American
PRISCILLA LEE
Never in my life have I been on a road trip. That’s some American shit, and I’m not American, only read tons of American fiction, and I mean Oregon-to-Massachusetts-lorry-truck tons. Never been to America, don’t know if they use “tonnes” or “tons,” or if they call them lorries. …Continue Reading I Write American
there was a door that i knew
SARAH WU
and i knew it intimately, the wooden door that sat in front of my room. it was a friendly presence, solid, and comforting. it held up the drooping ceiling of the white, caving plaster, and kept the little mice in the kitchen out of my bed. …Continue Reading there was a door that i knew
Arachnophobia
EDWYN CHOI
Most people are unable to feel spiders, their spindly legs and round bodies. The species does not matter — recluse, widow, trapdoor; they all run and climb the same…Continue Reading Arachnophobia
Life after the phone call ends
JACKELINE FERNANDES
After the phone call ends the wet cobblestone beneath my feet zooms into focus as the cracks between the rocks partition my field of vision and I look upwards as the world begins to recrystallize around me…Continue Reading Life after the phone call ends
Rot Girl Summer
TAPTI SEN
Decay exists as an extant form of life, or so they say. So even my rotting, motionless body must be continuing to live and breathe. Is it bearable? It could be, if I so wished it. Do I wish it?…Continue Reading Rot Girl Summer
Weathered to Sand
ALEX WOMACK
I came to visit today. / Claire told me not to, that it would only hurt me more. But even if my therapist is normally my first opinion, this time I just can’t agree. Why wouldn’t I want to see him?…Continue Reading Weathered to Sand
Prisoner’s Dilemma
ANNIKA BAJAJ
“I think I might be in love with you.” Y leans against the cell wall with hands behind his head, foot tapping against the cell wall. (The other cell wall; the cell was very small.)…Continue Reading Prisoner’s Dilemma
Shooba
AWA DIOP
Every Sunday at dusk, her moans dragged down our Sunday sun and beckoned it to set. The unnatural sound always rang too loud and plastered to every inch of space….Continue Reading Shooba
Ruby and Rose
BEA AGBI
It began around the time I got back together with Booker. They thought he was too simple, too easy to read. He wants what everyone else wants….Continue Reading Ruby and Rose
Under the Sun
BRYAN JIMENEZ FLORES
It was tradition that when I’d finish enough of my work I’d take the rest to the kitchen table and accompany my mom and the chores….Continue Reading Under the Sun
Saudade
CLARA CHIU
The envelopes began arriving over two months ago: blank white rectangles slipped through the mailslot at odd hours of the day. …Continue Reading Saudade
Haunted
CRAWFORD DAWSON
She bit her lip. What she was about to do was a felony, or at the very least, a crime. But she simply had to do it. …Continue Reading Haunted
Paralyzed Pole
ELIZA BECKER
Korris winced at the scissors’ first zip. Her ear had never been nicked while having her hair cut professionally, but she felt it to be probable, inevitable…Continue Reading Paralyzed Pole
Choice
GRACIE ROWLAND
Georgiana and I tangled ourselves in each other’s arms on the stairs to the loft. We were sitting in the only place we knew to sit whenever our Mama and Daddy fought….Continue Reading Choice
I Wanna Show You Someone
JORGE RODRIGUEZ JR
Their father threw a faded quilt in the middle seat where Ulysses would sit. Ulysses developed the habit of wetting himself when he felt the slightest urge to go. …Continue Reading I Wanna Show You Someone
Disappear
KAELA LIU
The five senses: touch, taste, sight, hearing, smelling. These five senses make up how we perceive the world. As we grow up, we accumulate experiences. …Continue Reading Disappear
The Great Peat Bog Body Bonanza of Who Knows When and Who Knows How
LAURA ALMEIDA
It was the beginning of yet another end. It didn’t like this; for one, being an it. There was a scream that resounded through the bubbling bog as it recalled, violently, its true life as a sprawl us and them and I…Continue Reading The Great Peat Bog Body Bonanza of Who Knows When and Who Knows How
Statement of Matthew Ingersoll, Regarding Earthworms
LELAND CULVER
I’ve always hated earthworms, you know. Repulsive slimy wriggly little monsters. I know they’re supposed to help turn over the old soil redistribute the nutrients from all the rotting things, but I can’t see them like that…Continue Reading Statement of Matthew Ingersoll, Regarding Earthworms
Do Zombies Dream of Electric Guitar
M LAWSON
Up here, on the podium, is our subject’s soul-liver during the first stage of zombification… infection of the brain is a Hollywood lie….Continue Reading Do Zombies Dream of Electric Guitar
the horror inside, beautiful faces
MACKENZIE DUNSON
My mother liked to style her hair based on the white magazines, Vogue, Cosmo, the nice ones that she had to get a special subscription for, 5.00 dollars every month and delivered straight to our front door….Continue Reading the horror inside, beautiful faces
Untitled
MARIAM BESHIDZE
She sat down at the table with her coffee mug, squeezing it with her little hands and absorbing the warmth that she desperately needed. Under the table her leg swung back and forth erratically. …Continue Reading Untitled
The Maw
MIKE ROSENTHAL
The sorrowful keening of the crowd pierced the clear, dry air on the plateau. They huddled together, staining the dusty ground with their crying and the clear air with their wailing….Continue Reading The Maw
Properiamphimetaphysics
PRISCILLA LEE
In the beginning, God took the greatest dump of all Time, squeezed time and space through the white hot speck of what would be the universe. …Continue Reading Properiamphimetaphysics
Voided
RANIA ADOUIM
As a kid, I used to lock myself in the bathroom and try to imagine what death was like…..Continue Reading Voided
Falling Awake
SARAH WU
Waking up is like falling down a rollercoaster. In the crowded amusement park, this is what I tell my brother and mother and father. …Continue Reading Falling Awake
Space for Decay
SOFIA AHMED
I had to be called home, then dragged when I didn’t comply, to eat something. I was too happy, too alive, how was I supposed to remember that I needed food when I was this content? …Continue Reading Space for Decay
Kingdom of Compost
SONIA CHAJET WIDES
Ella loved when you could hear the sound of corn husks at night. Some people wouldn’t be able to distinguish it from the rustling of leaves on shivering trees.
…Continue Reading Kingdom of Compost
A Tick
SYDNEY L. HARRIS
Eyes snap open, gazing up at a white ceiling. You breathe in and out deeply. INHALE EXHALE INHALE EXHALE INHALE EXHALE. It came again — the dream….Continue Reading A Tick
The Great War
SYDNEY WILLIAMS
Before the Great Self War of Identity, there was simply Sydney. As a young girl, I was an avid reader. I loved getting lost in the worlds of stories and following the adventures of young heroines. …Continue Reading The Great War