Category: Fiction

New Fiction for Bad Survivalist: “Jeanie Loves Chaos” by Christopher S. Bell

We’d run out of things to blame. Our country, its leader, the economy, cults and crusaders, past lives corrupting an otherwise squeaky-clean soul, or it could’ve just been the Texas sun melting us into the interior of that tan sedan. We’d passed redneck stand-offs, skeletons in cowboy hats waiting for the sand to cover parts…
Haunted Passages Fiction: “Blood Fugue” by Shannon Barber

The music is quieted and leaves him in an inelegant sprawl. He is my minuet, so stately and the dance while it lasted was nice if, clumsy. When I stand over him, his still face is pretty again. He relaxed at the last and released himself to whatever is after. I wish I’d thought to…
James R. Gapinski: “The Fourth Attic,” new fiction for Haunted Passages

We buy an old house in some up-and-coming Portland neighborhood (see: gentrification; also see: we are the problem, not the solution; also see: housing injustice). Somebody has left old boxes in the attic (see: 50% of all horror movies). The boxes are empty, but oddly enough they feel full. They weigh upwards of thirty or…
Fiction: “Help Find Frankie Doolan” by Jack Kaulfus

1. Frankie switched her phone to silent and threw it on top of the travel duffel her father had given her for graduation five years ago. While she zipped her coat, she paused for a quick look in the mirror hanging over her childhood bed. That’s not my face, she thought. It was Thanksgiving…
Susan Nordmark: “Last Ghosts,” two flash fictions for Haunted Passages

Last It’s not even a rag. It would be a good idea to visit. What the doctor cooked up is not at all sustainable, I’m wanting to say. The hip replacement seemed to go well. I relied on it for a long time. We had a dull finish and dents from inappropriate handling, and some significant splitting. Eventually I…
“How Hazel Tried to Kill the One Good Thing,” an excerpt from the novel Hazel by David Huddle

“What do you think the movie of your life would be?” asks Ms. Hazel Hicks, a proud, articulate woman without vanity. Her nephew, John Roberts, captivated by the mystery of such a uniquely serious person, sets about making the metaphorical movie of her life. What emerges, through found documents, photographs, interviews, and a sequence of…
“The Manufacture of Biomechanical Slime-Horrors Sets a Bad Example for the High School Science Club,” a Haunted Passages story excerpt from the conspiracy horror anthology Freaky Tales from the Force: Season One

Elected as county sheriff on a paranormal defense and anti-goblinry platform, Sheriff Cecil Kotto has defended the citizens of his Rust Belt community from secret societies, malignant aliens, blood-stealing nonprofit organizations, and more. To document his war against the paranormal, Kotto stars in Freaky Tales from the Force, a local documentary-style public access television show…
Mike Corrao: “MANCER,” a new short story for Haunted Passages

The subject denotes themself as a collection of individual objects. Each organ and limb and vein its own sentient mass. And as such, the body becomes insufficient. Its whole not whole enough. More matter must be accumulated. The subject enters new yet under-materialized spaces. They observe the geomantic qualities of this environment and then, when…
Original Fiction for Bad Survivalist: “A Hunger Boy” by Blake Planty

Simon weasels his way out of every trap I set. I dirtied my paws a long time ago, getting my face right into the putrid filth of his scheming little plans. I wanted to snatch his body. A conniving genius—Simon kissed me flat on the lips—and I said absolutely nothing in his wake. I was…