Fiction

THE NIGHT MAINTENANCE MANby John Tavares Occasionally, when she felt lonely and depressed on graveyard shifts at the hospital, June had late night trysts with the night maintenance man in her locked broom closet and...

I LIVE IN THE CEMETERYby Faye Reddecliff Cemeteries are not scary at night.  At least the dead are not what’s scary.  They’re peaceful -- the vandals and drunks, now that’s something else.I know because I...

The magical scent diffused amid old wooden panels; the pungent mix of coffee and cinnamon smells dominated the room. The dim lights of industrial lamps were barely enough to illuminate The Old Bean. The...

            It was quiet under the water.             The tepid bathwater made Mina feel weightless. Her hands bobbed next to her, not touching her skin, not feeling the shape of her stomach or her hips...

Security When her son, Tavo, first came into her room – light on, 3 a.m., cat swiveling its head away from the noises in the yard below to the son at the door – he...

THE BROKEN CONCERTby Mark Massaro  Felix digs through his cramped, dank storage unit, pushing aside shoeboxes of photographs and rolled up concert posters, trying to find his cooler and camping chairs. Florida humidity soaks the...

DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDEby Jeannine A. Cook She was used to the flinching. The fiddling. The mess. The begging. The crying. The blood. These women with their thick thighs and thin thighs and saggy thighs...

CHARLIE FOXTROT: GOD BLESSby Mitch Johnson Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not homeless, but these fine people don’t know a damn thing about it. I just like the lifestyle because it’s refreshing to me....

HIM By Rebekah Coxwell She had been sure it was him. That bald head. The confident way he planted his feet about a foot apart. He knew there was no one that could throw him off...

THE VISITSBy David Massey They drove deeper into the country, up and down hills, through pine and scrub forests on both sides of the highway, until they came to the dirt road that left the...