My mom gave me a little magic cocoa box for my fifth birthday, made of tin, with a snap lock to keep the cocoa safe. A year later, it still refills on its own. I drink cocoa every single day,… Continue Reading
I say, “Don’t you think the name’s a little simplistic, a little unsophisticated?” “Joyland,” Elaine repeats as we walk the dry brown hills. She adjusts her Ray-Bans. “I think it’s perfect, Stephen.” She found the property a few weeks ago.… Continue Reading
I park in her driveway, walk up her walk, and turn her key in its lock. It feels wrong, and the door sticks, as if it agrees. As if even it knows I’m far too late. I’ve driven through two… Continue Reading
I sat, staring at the empty pleather bench on the other side of the table, washing my huevos rancheros down with crafty beer and glancing at the clock on my iPhone. It had been fifteen minutes since he went outside… Continue Reading
Lank summited Esk Fell. He stood for a moment on the top to look around. But he could barely see anything. All was black smoke. There were blinking lights, like LEDs, of the conurbation below. He breathed. In. Out. His… Continue Reading
Momma homeschooled. I’d kneel in the back seat of our Buick on a carpet of fast food wrappers counting the contents of the trunk. This was Momma’s version of education, having me remind her what we had in our stolen… Continue Reading
Will steered the dresser across the lawn to the curb where his BMW was waiting. He opened the back door and sighed. Despite its decade-old rust, the Beamer was still a car designed to carry laughing women, not pieces of… Continue Reading
Mae now understood that the putrid smell wasn’t the low tide but was in fact her companion, Don, and that maybe she smelled just as bad. She couldn’t, after all, escape it. “Hey, shouldn’t we rent a room and take… Continue Reading
She liked it rough — she liked it with a rasp edging the honey in her voice. She liked to pretend that it made her songs profound, filled them with the angst so missing from her own life. But Mock… Continue Reading
Everyone is tied down to something, Nicole thought as she regarded the demon from across the greasy, downtown cafe. It was a small demon as demons go, hardly noticeable really as its needle sharp teeth sank into the crimson tendril… Continue Reading