Note the content warning
A couple of these are pretty grim stories, so if you’re not in the mood for real heaviness, skip to the last two stories
Nonfiction by Melissa Witcher and fiction by Dawn Tasaka Steffler and Beth Sherman, Anaïs Godard and D.L. Stille
Want to submit a story? Please do!
Nonfiction
When Imagination Runs Wild by Melissa Witcher
This is about suicide, so if that’s not for you, skip this one. Witcher writes about her father in two different modes. The second half of this story is as direct and fearless as anything I’ve read.
As always, you are on your own. A bird lands on the railing of your 8th-story balcony. That’s it; you should fly. Your legs wobble as you perch next to the bird and you close your eyes before you leap to safety, just barely dodging the bullet of a lifetime of enemies.
Fiction
David as Toaster by Dawn Tasaka Steffler
This is another devastating piece of Dawn Steffler’s upcoming novel in flash. Skip this one if you’re feeling fragile.
The toaster worked just fine. Until her son, David, hung himself in the garage. After which, everything Linda drops into the double slots comes out black and inedible.
Natural by Beth Sherman
Sherman’s strange, tender, and unsettling tale of grief, abandonment, and control only needs six words to draw you in.
The taxidermist began stuffing her mother on a blindingly sunny morning in South Florida when the temperature was pushing triple digits. She knew it was all about looking natural.
The Main Attraction by D.L. Stille
Stille’s story is creepy and atmospheric, simultaneously sentimental and sinister. Old amusement parks are always creepy, and Cassie the old archway is a strange character indeed.
After the boy went missing, no one noticed the soft patch of grass abutting Cassie’s east wing. They didn’t ask questions of the twitchy groundskeeper, didn’t spot the strange stains on his shovel. By the summer of 1993, investigators had given up.
The Clay of It by Anaïs Godard
I won’t even try to describe this story. Suffice to say it goes in very unexpected directions:
When he walked into her studio, Elodie was sculpting her seventh ceramic penis of the week. This one had antlers.
She didn’t look up. “Custom or classic?”
