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Latest Stories

March 19, 2024
Fantasy Stories Wondering Monk

Just My Imagination

The alarm clock went off and started playing an awful tune. Tom opened his eyes and closed them back, squinting. He reopened one eye and stood up to stop the torture. The phone was on the desk, in the furthest spot from the bed. Although he changed his way of…
March 19, 2024
Science Fiction Stories Ocelotlzin

Earth Is Dead

Recording… It doesn't matter who I was; I probably lived a long time ago, and I am now just a voice someone added to the audio-visual records. What is essential is the recollection of events that lead to the current state. So, a little history needs to be…
March 08, 2024
Flash Fiction Benoit

Some Enchanted Evening

It was a rugby tackle with tears: Chrissy burst in, sobbing and babbling, hugging James. Her face was all wet, eyes wild. What…? My parents split up, Dad has moved in with his boyfriend and I cannot join them. I am shut out. I have lost my dad. Torrent of…
March 08, 2024
Horror Stories Marvel Chukwudi Pephel

In The Hands Of My Legs

The car pulled up in front of the large salon. The neon sign, that sexy broad thing, on the salon'sroof read "Mr. Gil's All-night Salon". The exhaust pipe of the car was pumping solid smoke, theswirls moving from the car and towards the salon.…
March 07, 2024
Mystery Stories Vanessa Leigh Giles

Casualty of Love in the Time of Coronavirus

Chapter 1 Until Death do us Part ‘Ring, ring!’. I answered the telephone and asked, “Hello, good evening. Who’s this? “Hello.” This is Dr. Smith from Red Cross hospital. “Is this Mr. Locke, John?”, he asked, hesitantly scratching his bald head. “Yes, doctor.…
March 07, 2024
Crime Stories Robert Pook

Bar Room Trigger

Another return journey on footpaths so familiar. He strides across each crack in each paving stone. Regular loose drain covers sidestepped. Mapping long ago mapped in Richard’s desolate mind. His pace hastened by the sight of the oncoming storm. Quickening…
March 04, 2024
Horror Stories Ano Chinemerem

Sanctity

Where should I begin? I could begin by telling you about this comely boy, whom every notable person around the streets agrees his smile could charm the bills off one. Between one smile, there was his goodness, his dreams and humanity—a little far ahead?— but…
March 04, 2024
Flash Fiction Emanuel Diaz

Et Mortui Partium

As Rafael stepped out into the rain, it wasn't the ordinary drops that fell from the sky. Instead, it was a storm of souls, each one taking the form of shimmering jewelry as it cascaded toward the ground. Rubies, diamonds, and sapphires twinkled amidst the…
February 29, 2024
Poetry Jing Li Ava

London

‘Am I in London?’ "I am." Where is Elizabeth? Happy living story All of your chapter Bounlance joy Please my heart Power hand Wise mind Our baby Vow vow Love all love Miss I miss Endless wonder Bring us together Love all love Miss I miss For everything My…
February 29, 2024
Flash Fiction Rob Pook

Life Sentence of The Smith

Born nine months after his country won the World Cup.A child prodigy.Cast off at age twenty-four.Husband, father, emigree, away on the other side of the world.The blue-collar life.The dreams of success.The search for fulfillment.The long years of empty…
February 29, 2024
Mystery Stories Joshua Lowther

The Operator

Jason looked over to his right, his eyes barely able to focus themselves on the subject of his attention. His neck ached terribly from the strenuous movement. He was tired. The captain’s gaze came to rest on the rookie sonar operator sitting tense at his…
February 29, 2024
Flash Fiction Salvatore Difalco

The Chute

At dusk, we left our unit with a soft pink bundle. I carried it through the wet streets and into the black woods. I said I’d take it all the way, the bundle, but that we had to drop it in together. My wife’s green eyes flashed. “Don’t make me do that.” I…

Lexie finally wasn’t scared about being followed home by the Night Butcher, even during the solitary walk from the Woodlands Centre on campus after her evening class.  She had all but forgotten about waking up at 3a.m. to check the deadbolt, until she reached the door of her apartment and found that it was open.

The black line between the frame and the green door threatened of an intruder just beyond the threshold.  News blurbs flooded back into her imagination: Random victims, predatory behavior, multiple stab wounds, dismemberment, cannibalism.  Lexie whipped her little pack from behind her back, unzipped and fumbled for her cell phone.  She was about to dial Mom but hesitated.

Stupid, stupid baby, ran the thought.  You always cry to Mommy at every bump in the night.  The fantasy of her big city life vanishing the second she made the call, Mother would empty the bank account and leave only enough for a bus ticket back to tiny Coquille, where Alexandra belonged and wouldn’t worry about any criminal mischief!

Lexie made that expression of defiance developed since childhood.  She scrunched up her lips and nose so her freckles blobbed together.  “You rushed out and left the door open,” she admonished.  “And it wasn’t the first time, neither.”  Braced with enough courage to put the phone away, she swallowed to drown the hummingbird thrumming in her chest, pushed the door and stepped into the darkness of her living room.  “I’m home!” she barked then went dead silent.  The street lamp outside created menacing, bulky shapes out of the furniture.  The stillness revealed nothing.

Lexie slid her pale, slender hand along the wallpaper until she found the light switch and flicked on the overhead lamp.  Lexie’s gaze took in every lurking shadow; shadows cast by the 24” television and squat bookshelf.  There was the familiar green recliner and the ugly beige couch with a coffee stain and that guilty cigarette burn.

The kitchen tucked itself anxiously into the left corner.  The floor tiles glowed amber.  The countertops were spotless but crowded with the toaster oven, electric burner and knickknack bowl cluttered with receipts and junk mail.  Lexie slinked against the wall.  Her fingers twisted the chords of her red hoodie as she peeked around the blind corner.  She balked, stepping backwards.  Her elbow jostled the round wooden bowl nearly sending it crashing to the floor.  There was a gleam of metal, the sharp reflection from the swan neck faucet.

Lexie turned, took off her pack and tossed it on the sofa.  The closet leered from the left corner, taunting with what it might conceal.  She pulled her hoodie up and over her head and crept forward.  Her breath rose to a near panic as she gripped and twisted the doorknob, flinging the door open.  Her hands jerked and she lost hold of her hoodie.  The thick arms of an eiderdown coat reached out as the garment sprung from its hanger and fell limply to the floor.  An umbrella with a pointed tip clattered across it.

There was one place left in this small apartment unclaimed.  Lexie turned her attention to the hallway, a black diagonal slash lined where the strength of the living room lamp failed and the darkness ruled.  It reminded her of the gaping mouth of a crocodile, as if it might snap down and swallow her up.  The bedroom door was partly open and the gloom within was sinister.  She began to shiver.  She reached out her small hand into the shadows to feel along the wall for the switch.  She groped, fearing the sudden strike of a knife blade.

Something grazed her hand, it was cool and smooth.  Lexie swore in a gasp.  She gripped the object and pulled.  A pair of tinkling bells broke the silence.  The porcelain carnival mask clattered to the ground, chipping at the rounded corner.  It took a few breaths before she could muster enough strength to slip her tender fingers into the darkness.

Lexie met the light and flicked it on.  In that instant the room was bare of secrets.  There was her bed with the floral pattern, her vanity mirror with the ballerina music box and Grandma’s antique wardrobe.  She blushed in embarrassment.  “My, what a big imagination you have!” she chortled, flopping down in front of her vanity mirror to take the braids out of her red hair.

The music box jingled a tune from Swan Lake.  Lexie hummed as her fine-toothed brush loosened tangles.  She didn’t notice the wardrobe open ever so slightly and two big eyes peering at her from behind a rubber wolf mask.  She didn’t even flinch as a large hand slipped from the gap, until the butcher knife flashed in the light.

 

Joshua is an artist and writer teaching English in Jakarta. He has had an article published in Jakarta Java Kini and artwork in Jalan Jalanmagazine. Originally from the United States, he has been living in Indonesia for eight years.

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