SHOOTS AND LADDERS • by Dart Humeston
The light snow did not faze the sniper, who easily picked off the man who had just left the coffee shop a few hundred yards down the street. He saw the head snap back and the body fall over an… Continue Reading
Mystery / Suspense
LATE NIGHT HEROICS • by Wayne Scheer
My wife sleeps peacefully beside me. I lie awake, while a recurring nightmare involving a schoolyard bully dissolves like a movie fadeout. I’m far too old to suffer anxiety over being bullied as a boy, but long suppressed memories find… Continue Reading
THE COTTAGE IN THE WOODS • by Sarah Hilary
At the police station, the first thing we did was call in a cluster of experts. That’s by-the-book. The psychologist said, “Test case. Extraordinary. Unheard of.” “Appalling,” was the dentist’s verdict. “The most horrendous neglect.” The doctor sided with the… Continue Reading
COLLATERAL DAMAGE • by J. Chris Lawrence
The red lights flashing through the windows reflect in my drink. The stories those shattered billboards tell are misleading relics of a dead time. It’s a shallow message, lost to the war that took my daughter, Sarah, and left of… Continue Reading
MAUD • by Stephen Duffin
Maud turned up her hearing aid to eavesdrop on the blazing row. Raised voices blasted through the second-hand bookshop. Insults poisoned the morning air. Maud cherished each stinging word, her eyes sparkling with mischief. I sense an opportunity, she thought,… Continue Reading
NIGHT • by Charles W. Kiley III
The enemy was at the bottom of the grassy bowl. The snipers lay prone on either side of me. Wait, my hand said. No kill. The slackening of tension was almost palpable; fingers relaxed on triggers. I lay between them… Continue Reading
THREE WAYS NOT TO GET SHOT • by Ronnie Pruitt
Dad said there are three simple rules for friendship. One, don’t smoke a man’s last cigarette. Two, don’t drink his last beer, and three, don’t mess with his woman. Easy enough, right? It was early October and mother was on… Continue Reading
PLAYING IT OUT • by Dale Ivan Smith
“You are afraid,” the fortune teller told Anthony Torelli. She dressed like a gypsy, and her heavy-lidded eyes seemed to gleam with dark secrets. “I know that.” Sweat dripped inside his shirt. “I want to know why.” The air in… Continue Reading
MATAMOROS SHUFFLE • by Michael Ehart
Bullets spanged off the tarmac around our feet as we ran. Luis turned his head to shout something at me, but instead of words, a spout of blood burst from his lips, and he dove face first into the blacktop.… Continue Reading
HASSAN’S NEWS • by Dale Ivan Smith
A gun blasted and the living room window shattered, glass showering Hassan. He ran to the couch. Auntie Fatima grabbed him and held him close with the other two children. Someone screamed in the parking lot outside. Tires screeched and… Continue Reading