Category: Fiction

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…
“Puzzle-Piece Blues,” original short fiction by Selene dePackh

*Ed.’s Note: click image to view larger size. [harsh black and white comix-style cyberpunk image of feminine face repeating within itself from multiple angles] Puzzle-Piece Blues Case Study [delete]* Bear in mind that I’m a suspect witness. Everything I say is subject to erasure. I make for deaf ears, pressure-popping like plastique in an airline…
New Fiction for Haunted Passages: “The Rose Salesman” by Daniel Beauregard

A man makes a living any way he can, sometimes even by selling roses by the side of the road; who are we to judge what merit such work has or make statements for or against it? Is it not work, and work, no matter what one does, is a thing to be cherished by…
“Encampeth,” a novel excerpt for Haunted Passages by Pam Jones

Once, when ET was a kid, a stranger came into the house. It was not a break-in; how could it be, if the fellow had come up the walk and through the door as though by invitation? Her mother was at home, but in the backyard. ET had been the one to greet him, as…