There’s dirt, and there’s grime, and then there’s whatever lives beneath the cracked-claw fingernails of Arnold K. Sprouse, the fat man who everyone was sure had been a child at some point, who forever twitched or itched at the boils beneath his skin. Worse yet, Arnold was the kind of scrounging sort of thing thatContinue reading “Bait and Twitch”
Tag Archives: Short Fiction
The Artist’s Lot
“…round…around…around…red, on black, on blue…” The old painter-woman pauses, her attention listing to the juicy black fly that buzzes around the sweltering, wallpapered room where she lay. She does not watch the fly—cannot, in her growing blindness—but lolls with it, following the sound as it moves from the outer edges of the room’s damp wallsContinue reading “The Artist’s Lot”
Lemon
At first there’s no warmth. Only the hot black pain of frostbite. Then like a shock, the blankness ends again and I feel my skin start to thaw, my blood slowly pulsing through veins that had almost forgotten how to push it. I pull past the glue of long-closed eyelids only to find the sameContinue reading “Lemon”
Nothing.
No…it didn’t start here. Not with the pissed man clutching a crushed beer can in fear on his knees. Not with the other over the wall…somewhere…spilt. After all, it’s only been how many hours? since I stopped staring at the blank wall of the TV. Only so many hours since I’d finally started listening to that otherContinue reading “Nothing.”
Fourth Annual ‘Face Your Fears’ Short Story Draw
What’s October without Spooky Stories? About this time last year, over 60 contestants braved their worst fears by entering them into my Face Your Fears Short Story Draw! Now you, just like Robert (last year’s winner), have the chance to win a short story that leaves you at the mercy of your worst fear. HeContinue reading “Fourth Annual ‘Face Your Fears’ Short Story Draw”
Jessica Barratt 