Category: Fiction

New Side A Short Story: “In Cahoots” by Terese Svoboda

In Cahoots My son looked at his plate and looked at the dog and said he needed to go. I was still serving myself, my wrist flicking out sauce from a pot with a spoon. I sighed, placed my half-filled plate on the table, and took his hand in mine. After finding the key that…
Short Fiction for Side A: “An Evening Jog by the Lake” by Stacey Lounsberry

An Evening Jog by the Lake A human man with the top of a taxidermized bison head, its breast of fur still fluffed like a winter scarf, pushes a baby stroller just ahead of me. Its wheels bump fist-sized rocks, jarring the carriage; the man’s knuckles flash white like a warning. He stops to watch…
Fiction for Side A: “Tell me how it tastes” by Arielle M. DeVito

Tell me how it tastes Mia’s dead ex-wife turns up in the middle of the night, dripping. She’s soggy with the smell of the lakebed and gets stinking mud all over the mat. Mia doesn’t know what to do with her, but she runs a bath that’s probably too hot and sits with her back…
Haunted Passages Flash Fiction: “Dust in the Cupboard” by Leo Alder

I lingered too long by the crematorium and got possessed by a spirit. His family had long since left. He told me they put his urn in the car while they ate at KFC. KFC, he wailed. He spat each letter cold down my spine. They ate at KFC. Can you believe it? He clattered…
Fiction from the Future: “Civic Duty” by Meaghan McDavitt

Please press the button to indicate your choice. Tahara looked down at the blue and yellow lights. The electric voice reverberated through her mind, a robotic repetition of itself, relentless, forcing her to make the the decision. Please press the button to indicate your choice. Tahara looked at the surrounding cubicles. The maze of decisions.…
Short Story for Bad Survivalist: “Clashing Perspectives” by Kim Farleigh

Waiting on the top of a hill to catch a bus to Agra, we saw vehicles below fleeing from traffic lights. Then: deceleration, swerving, horns bleating, collisions narrowly avoided, vehicles creeping around something on the road fifty meters from the lights. Seconds later, another metal spine started accumulating behind the lights. Unsuspecting vertebrae, stretching on…
Side A Fiction: “Stoneware” by Katie Coleman

Stoneware We were packing boxes in the kitchen after a nice day: chimichangas, supermarket beer, loving talk. I thought I might as well pack the lobster bowls with the bedding, because we’d be inviting teachers for dinner in Thailand. My boyfriend’s certain to make a good teaching assistant. That picture of him in his camp…
Haunted Passages Flash Fiction: “The Murder Portrait” by David Luntz

After I killed my best friend, I dreamt I’d “walked into” the painting he’d left for me in his will. It was in the style of some Dutch Master: a portrait of a young man reading a letter above a bowl of fruit. I snuck up behind him and read the letter. The letter told…
Haunted Passages Short Story: “A Gentle Creature” by Madeline Vosch

I lie awake at night. Around me, in all directions, a few feet away, there are other bodies. The walls between us are thin. Other bodies lying down, wrapped in blankets, asleep. Other bodies next to other bodies, sharing the same bed. I can almost hear them, the way they turn, how their breath shifts…