Stories

  • In the Alley

    by T. Gene Davis

    “They found the body in the alley at the bottom of the fire escape.”

    “The one outside my bedroom?” Henry rolled his wide eyes at his cousin. “You’re full of it.”

    “All the witnesses said he jumped for the ladder three times before they caught him. He died still reaching up grabbing at anything that came in reach.”

    A couch pillow hit Laveral hard enough to snap his head back and stop his story. Henry smiled at his mother. She didn’t notice. She glared at Laveral. He had all her attention.

    (more…)

  • Triumph of the Skies

    by Erica Ruppert

    Stars above shatter and rain down as glittering dust.

    Sima peers from her window at the shining dark sky to watch the snow sprinkle down. The tip of her nose grows cold where it presses the glass. Frost forms where she breathes. She scratches a star into the ice with her finger nail.

    Every snowflake is different, her mother told her once.

    The house breathes quiet. In the basement the furnace rumbles like a purring cat. (more…)

  • Tail

    by T. Gene Davis

    “You won’t burn my wedding pictures.” I extended my hand, demanding the memory stick back.

    “Naiomi, you plugged this into your work computer?” Carter ground his teeth while taking a deep breath, following it with a sigh. “I’ll have to run a full scan to see what kind of virus you’ve given it. You know the security policies. Your memory stick is now company property. You signed the same NDA we all signed. I’m throwing this memory stick into the incinerator.”

    “They’re the only copy of my wedding pictures, and I need to get them off that stick.” I tossed my single, long, blond braid over my shoulder for effect. I doubted tossing my braid looked terrifying. Perhaps if I swung my head around and whipped him across the face with it.

    (more…)

  • On the Wings of Doves

    by Melion Traverse

    Father first awoke the topiaries the morning after Mother died. Shrubs wriggled loose from their dirt when he passed, dormant bushes burst free and scampered across the countryside. Thus it went for eighteen years. I lived my life knowing that Father could awaken plants, but I did not realize what I, his daughter, could awaken.

    (more…)

  • Grove of the Stone Trees

    by Joshua Steely

    “Wow. Well, never say you can’t trust a copper salt merchant,” Connor said.

    Ayumi gave him an inquiring glance.

    “Is that a common saying?”

    “But what did they put it way out here for?” he continued, gesturing the screen where their ship’s camera focused in on the alien structure. “Two jumps in dead space, not so much as an asteroid within a parsec of it.”

    “That might be a bit of an exaggeration,” Ayumi said, smiling, as she watched the telemetry unfold. “But, yes. You’re right. We never would’ve found it without the trail of rumors that began with a wine-sodden copper salt merchant.”

    “Was he? I didn’t know there was a market for wine-sodden copper salts.”

    (more…)

  • Dead Again

    by Inegbenoise O. Osagie

    Everything was happening again, same births, same deaths, same events, like a rhythm playing for the second time, like walking through a path again. Mama Dayo died last week, and her son would die this week. The worst part was nothing could be done to stop it. If I told papa Dayo not to spend all of his money burying his wife because he would need some for his son’s funeral, he would probably spit on me and load upon me all kinds of curses, and when his son eventually died, his entire family would run to our house and shout out my name, drag me to the village square and beat me like a witch. They would ask questions like how did I know his son would die if I had no hand in it.

    Knowing what would happen before it did was nothing but torture—a torture that made me cry before everyone did or made me laugh before everyone else.

    (more…)

  • 2015 … Another Great Year

    Thank you for reading my speculative blog! I love sharing the wonderful stories I find in my inbox with all of you. I expect we’ll be seeing plenty of new and exciting speculative stories here over the next year.

    First off, I have a big announcement for 2016. Because of last year’s success, I’ve been able to raise the payment for stories to $100 (US). This is a respectable pro payment rate for flash fiction. It isn’t too bad a semi-pro payment rate for short stories, either. Keep the well written stories coming.

    Second, since it is the New Year, I have a New Year’s resolution to share. This year I’m planning to make my way through the River Song stories in her chronological order. I’m going to omit the graphic novels and such, but I’ll include at least one novel.

    Here’s the order I’ll watch and read them in. If anyone has any episodes I missed, or books I failed to include, please let me know. I’ll update this list as necessary.

    (more…)

  • Voodoo as I Say

    by Richard Zwicker

    One morning a dark-haired woman in her mid-twenties walked into my office. A flowing blue dress dangled off her small frame, while her gaunt face hid under a wide hat containing enough feathers for flight. A fraying at her elbows suggested her blouse had been in the family a while. Her pale lips fluttered. In respect, I rose to my full seven-foot height, and then she spoke.

    “My husband is a zombie.”

    (more…)

  • By the Light of a Shopgirl’s Star

    by Anna Yeatts

    The ting-a-ting-clank announcing a customer caught me off guard. No one came in Moore’s Gas & More in July. We didn’t have air conditioning. Even the taffy got squishy.

    I popped up from the candy row and gave my jeans a yank. “Can I help you?”

    I squinted at the customer standing by the corn chips, backlit by the window. I guessed woman because she was short. I figured she wanted the john.

    “Back there.” I pointed past the air filters. “Only got one. Uni-sex and all.”

    She stared out the window like a little kid, her fingers hooked over the magazine racks.

    “I’m Cinny if you need anything,” I said.

    I resumed my candy shelving, singing Gloria Estefan under my breath. I had a good set of pipes. Mama said my voice was sweet enough to soothe baby birds out of the nest, whatever that meant, only I was too awkward to sing in front of folks.

    The customer scuff-scuffed into the candy row like she didn’t know to pick her feet up. I turned and I figured out she was a he, and the strangest little he I’d ever seen.

    (more…)

  • Glamour Girl

    by Jill Hand

    A vampire walks into a bar. That sounds like a joke but it’s not. The vampire in question is me, Elizabeth Bathory di Mastrioni van Helsing y Menendez, Liz for short. I walk into a bar, sit down on a vacant stool, and the hot guy sitting next to me leans over.

    Yes! I’m thinking. That’s it, baby! Get nice and close. Oooh, you look good enough to eat! I can feel my fangs give a happy little tingle. It’s been awhile since I ate and I’m starving.

    Gazing into my eyes he smiles and goes…

    “Do you mind moving over so my girlfriend can sit there?”

    (more…)