Tag: Fiction

New Fiction for Bad Survivalist: “The Woodcutter” by Mike Itaya

In the medieval woods of 1307, a gentle woodcutter and a spinsterly-type lived in a pristine cottage and shared a lonely life together, so lonely that in a moment of fraught miscalculation, the couple agreed to board Trina, a terrible person from Pascagoula, Mississippi. Trina had a chainsaw tattooed above her bottom, and used “blow…
“The Ghosts at the Carwash Are Always Looking for Company”: Flash Fiction by Cathy Ulrich

There is a universe where all the carwashes are haunted. Where there are creaks and groans and disembodied hands dripping with carwash water. Where our mothers sat us down since we were young, said never go to the carwash, said or you could end up a haunt there too, said when the first carwash was…
“Unclear Motives”: Short Fiction for Haunted Passages by Chase Dearinger

The very last thing: the roof rose up seamlessly from the house, sat perfectly still a hundred feet above the lights and chaos in the street. The ground quaked and calmed, and a murder of countless crows poured out from the house, their oily, rainbow flap like a deck of cards splashed across a room.…
“Unhaunted,” a short story for Haunted Passages by Madeleine Sardina

The ghosts had always been loud. Like rats or squirrels, they scampered in and out of our homes, tampering with the wiring and knocking on bedposts. We had our ways of softening their effects so we could keep our homes and schools and workplaces functional, but it was an art to keep them at bay…
New Fiction for Bad Survivalist: “Karen” by Eleanor Levine

She speaks thirty seconds, a mere thirty seconds, after I ignore her for five years, and then I’m back. I’m always back. * I am like the trappers in Werner Herzog’s movie Happy People—the trackers of the Siberian Taiga—happy in their solitary hunting, but I’m not solitary. * Karen was my girlfriend for six months,…
Bad Survivalist: “Up next,” a visual story hybrid by N.D. Brown

*Ed.’s Note: click image to view larger size. _____________________________________ 1. The following are real YouTube videos generated from the search, “Protect My Family.” 2. Times Watched: 3 3. Times Watched: 6 4. Times Watched: 2 5. Times Watched: 4 6. Times Watched: 8 7. Times Watched: 1 8. Times Watched: 1/2 9. Times Watched: 3/4…
The Future: “Anything Can Be a Weapon,” a collaborative short story by Dana Diehl & Melissa Goodrich (from The Classroom)

When the zombies overtook the Lakeshore School District, the Dads were the first to go. They were crossword Dads. Whiskery and near-sighted. They were dads with novelty bowties. Some say the zombies took the Dads first because they were the strongest, because the zombies were building an army and needed strong soldiers. But we know…
“He Came into the House,” a short story for Haunted Passages by Fraylie Nord

When the trap door swung down, the girl received it with her entire body. I saw it happen before I disappeared. It wasn’t intentional, and I knew I was in trouble. The door wasn’t engineered to hurt people. It was meant to hinge downward, hold the weight of a terrifying girl, and then swing back…
“Heroes,” lyric fiction by Miranda Mellis

1. I am winding around a river in scarves. I become a fish. I am an eel with a man’s head, swimming in an ancient tributary, over gemstones. I finally grow feet, legs, arms, hands and I climb to shore. I walk, naked, and as I walk I sing. As I sing, I grow clothing,…