It was the hiss that woke him. It always was. He’d seen other people come out of the big sleep, and it wasn’t pretty. A lot of people have bad dreams just as the computer is waking them up. Not normal bad dreams, but bad, bad ones. Like your worst fear coming true. That’s what…
The last time Jax saw his mother, it was the middle of the night. Well, to say he “saw” her isn’t exactly true. It was very dark and she didn’t turn on the light. It would be more accurate to say Jax felt her. He felt her weight on the mattress. He felt her hand…
Where Gerald opened his front door that morning, the neighborhood kids were blocking the street, shouting and kicking a ball around. His nerves burned at every shout and kick as he locked each of three locks from the outside. They all took separate keys, but as this was his practice, he locked them in quick…
Grace was nowhere to found. It started just like any other day. Tom waited in the pick-up line with the other parents, inching his white Camry closer and closer to the curb where the kindergartners waited in a jagged row, twisting and swinging their backpacks and occasionally covering their mouths to whisper in each other’s…
The thunder and lightning from the storm outside had lulled me into a kind of stupor. Well, that and the beer. Because of this, it barely registered when the cat came in. What did register was how the bar fell silent in two heartbeats. The silence stemmed from two extraordinary facts about the cat in…
HIM I saw her coming from halfway down the block. How could I have missed her, in that ridiculous getup? She wore a bright pink polo shirt, pastel checked pants, and honest-to-god saddle shoes. Not to mention the white leather cap with the pink pom pom on top. Everything about her, as she struggled to…
Claus eased the shuttle down onto a grassy hill just outside of what was supposed to be Detroit. When they finally landed, there was a satisfying thump, and the band erupted in cheers. Albert spun the co-pilot’s chair to face the group. He looked like he wanted to make a speech so the rest of…
Charlie kicked in the back door and Maude stumbled in behind him, clutching her abdomen with both hands. It was dark, but the blood seeping through her fingers was darker. Taking her by the shoulders, Charlie guided her to the middle of the room, then closed the door as best he could, given that it…
So have these plates. They have turkeys on them. Not happy little cartoon turkeys. Realistic looking ones. Service for twelve, to be exact, plus an enormous platter. You may ask yourself, “What is Ann doing with these dishes? They don’t quite seem like her.” And you’d be right. “The pattern is called King of the…
The first glimpse feels like flying, Mask breaking water, Fins at the ready, Unprepared. I am afraid of heights. (Absolutely no fins on the boat) Two rusty smokestacks rise upward. Set at absurd angles, They belie her. (Hold your mask and jump) Beneath, shrouded, ancient, Four hundred feet of sagging metal Reaching downward into blackness….