At ten in the morning, the day was gathering steam, the sun blazing with indifference, exposing wounds with its heat. The whisper of a salty breeze fluttered across the dark pavement and tickled our cheeks, meager relief as we marched… Continue Reading
Sitting in his kitchen, the home he had managed to cling onto, staring at an envelope, and wondering how accurately he could guess what the letter said without opening it, Dan settled on something close to “I’m not going to… Continue Reading
We’re some distance away from the commercial Scots pine plantations (they’re too well guarded for what we have in mind), in an area of ancient woodland. Bump, bumpity, bump goes our pick-up along a narrow, snowy track. “Keep your eyes… Continue Reading
The red helmet was missing. They looked for it inside the barn next to the playground, in the gym store, and all over the small building that housed their classrooms. But it had simply disappeared. This was an inconvenience, because… Continue Reading
In a box of mixed up secondhand books, something needs to stand out. This one did. Its title, How to Disappear; Vanishment Made Easy, caught my eye at once, mixed in with cheap novels from the Fifties and various “How… Continue Reading
Leslie surreptitiously looked out her window at the new neighbor across the street. Given his age she guessed he was recently divorced. But then, given the full furnishings he was unloading, perhaps a widower downsizing. So young. A shame. She… Continue Reading
Something brought her out of sleep. A scream, she thought. It was guttural, near inhuman, and seemed to stretch out into the expanse of night and recede into the dark. She couldn’t tell if it had been real. She didn’t… Continue Reading
Harold expected the lizard to scurry into the ground cover, but then — one hand on a knee to support himself — he knelt and lifted the limp body by the tail. “Damned cats.” He scowled at his neighbor’s house.… Continue Reading
Billy found the keys in his dad’s truck one day, shortly after they shuttered the kitchen store and the place that once sold bargain books. His dad had changed light fixtures, mended walls, and tightened pipes for five years, but… Continue Reading
A teenage girl is home alone at night for the first time when a storm knocks out the lights. She calls her father. “Are the lights on in the neighborhood?” he asks. She looks out the window. “Yes.” “Then it’s… Continue Reading