“Why do guys die first?” my friend Bob asked the new guy sitting on the bench. New Guy looked up and squinted as the light was silhouetting Bob’s and my standing figures from behind, probably offering a halo effect. “I… Continue Reading
They moved methodically, sorting, stacking and wrapping the coins into neat little towers guarded by paper. They were a testimony to how diverging paths converged, to how differing means all led to the same end. They were murderers, janitors, store… Continue Reading
Up at 5, take the hellhound walkies, then catch the Underground to Styxbridge for a bagel with sulfur spread. They say Hell is other people, but somehow I’m always alone. I trot along the hot lavawalk to the office, clutching… Continue Reading
The thin man sat at the end of the bench, his large hands twisting around one another nervously. The sharp brown eyes sunk over his bony cheeks shifted around the dark room. He scrutinized the figures dressed in gray and… Continue Reading
Her bare feet lightly touch down on the bed of coals, moving forward. They should stop in heated agony, but onwards they move despite burning soles as she counts steps toward blistering burns. How oddly beautiful it is, a lake… Continue Reading
I sit at my desk and stare at the directory in front of me, its physical weight like some joke from the past, an analog nightmare that seems almost ironic next to the smart phone that I’m using to scan… Continue Reading
“What about a rabbit?” “A rabbit?” “Yes. Great fun. Nibbling lettuces. Sitting in the warm sun in green pastures. Lots of sex.” “Is this a male rabbit or a female rabbit?” “Whichever you like.” Ernest Smith scratched his chin thoughtfully… Continue Reading
Constance Taylor knew she had a lived a good life. She had been to church every Sunday, prayed every night, raised two children and instructed them well. She had given money to charity, she had helped those less fortunate than… Continue Reading
A river ran beneath the trees among which they used to stroll, hand-in-hand. She leaped into it. A precipice stared over the valley that they used to tread, arm-in-arm. He hurled himself off of it. The most momentous, most catastrophic… Continue Reading
When the car emerged into Hell, the first thing Giuseppe Banca did was squint. Sunshine, strong and warm, shone from a pale yellow sky. Hell’s landscape was a rolling sea of grass and purple-tinged trees, stretching over slight rises and… Continue Reading