Tag: Fiction

Haunted Passages Short Fiction: “Fate Cat” by Olufunmilayo Makinde

“Keep your hat on!” Ajoke’s mother yelled as she watched her daughter leave for school. “Yes ma!” Ajoke yelled back, pulling her cap tighter over her head by its brim as she ran out of the house and headed toward the bus outside. Ajoke was born with a cat on her head, just like her…
Fiction from the Future: “Stephen Rogata” by Hugh Behm-Steinberg

The TV is on halfheartedly, a documentary about human flies the kids and us are sort of watching, though as a ghost I’m drawn more to the spaces in between the pixels than the imprisoning overall grid itself. My brother Kevin, head full of beard and nodding, leans against my side of the couch but…
Fiction for Bad Survivalist by Russell Brakefield: “A Temple and a Church and an Ashram”

Julian had a way of falling into shadow even in the dark. As the fire kindled, he shifted in his camp chair, avoiding the flame’s oblong spotlights. “Are you cold?” I zipped my own coat higher and tucked my hair inside my hat, one of the green beanies I’d knit when I was pregnant with…
Fiction from the Future: “How to Use This Instruction Manual” by Ron Burch

Remove the Instruction Manual from the container. Usually this is a box, mostly cardboard, with the item to be constructed also within. This may also include parts and tools. Do not throw anything away. It has all been enclosed to help finish the project. Separate the parts and identify with the Instruction Manual that they…
New Fiction for Haunted Passages: “Three Magi (Or Three Lost Men)” by Garrett Crowe

I. A bottle opener in the shape of a mystic—I purchased it at an antiquary that specialized in items made between the 50s and 70s. On a nail, the mystic hung upside down, legs crossed, praying with hands at his heart. It was molded in brass. I had to have it. It reminded me of…
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…
“Something Can Die and Yet Persist Interminably”: A Conversation Around the Future of the Book with Ansgar Allen by S. D. Stewart

Ansgar Allen’s fictions roam like ruminants in search of fertile land from which to graze. Over the course of seven novels, Allen has traveled in nearly as many directions in terms of both style and substance. His latest, The Faces of Pluto, is perhaps his most inscrutable book to date. A dense whirlwind of interrogations…
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…