Tobey glanced around the bar with a drunken agenda clearly reading across his unshaven face. At this time in the morning, only a few regulars were left in the Painted Quarry Saloon and none of them sober enough to care what burly Tobey had on...
Have you ever woken up from a dead sleep in the middle of the night with a crushing obligation sitting on your chest like a bull elephant? No? Me neither. My sleep is never clouded with vivid dreams or horrific nightmares. To me, it is...
I light another cigarette. My lips, pursed upon the filter, draw the tobacco to ignite as my lungs crowd with smoke. I had quit the habit some ten years prior due to health provocation, which may explain why I choked and wheezed through the first...
Early morning mist wraps the Texas highway like a burial shroud. A red BMW emerges from the fog behind us. I hold my breath and squint to see the license plate in the vanity mirror. It’s from Colorado. I breathe out and lean back in my seat. “So...
Shorty Small, a man neither short nor small, entered the coffee shop, surveyed the patrons and found who he sought. Homer LaCroix sat in a corner table munching on a beignet with a mug of coffee in his right hand. When he approached the table, he...
Prologue Joie slowly opened her eyes, tingles of numbing sensations prickled throughout her body. Not being able to focus on any one thought, she attempted to squint through the foggy blurred vision at what she could make out. The color green was predominant along with hues...
Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Corpus Christi, TX December 30, 2020 The mysterious artifact that doesn't exist, but everyone is still looking for, by Ben Read. Those in the know refer to it as "the item." Supposedly this secret item is worth untold riches, can cure cancer, or make the...
Peace can be found even in times of war, thought Hershel Güterbach. Hunched before his rustic kitchen’s sole window, he placed his liver-spotted hands on the rim of a deep basin sink as his pupils reflected the picture-perfect spring day. A cloudless sky of radiant...
“Trust me,” Cameron said, smiling at his wife, Diana. She looked back at him no less worried, but he continued to lead her to the basement door. Diana hit the brakes and shook her head, her fingers slipping out of his. Cameron sighed. He looked at...
Bert set his drink down on the end table beside his recliner and he stared towards the window. Without looking he lifted the remote and muted the television. He thought he heard movement on the porch. It had happened before and turned out to be...
I need to clarify before I go any further: I DID NOT push him! I didn’t push him off the ledge. I don’t give a damn what’s being said. Even if I had, however… we’re all about to find out soon just how little it would...
“Have you come to relieve your burden unto the Lord?” asked the elder priest from behind the blind of the confession booth. Silence hung to answer the offer. Rather than immediately persist, the elder priest decided to let him take his time. For in the...
My brother Vincent died during Covid. He had choked in his bed, needing a ventilator we couldn’t afford, and I didn’t even know it until it was too late… He died on the top bunk, alone and struggling to breathe while I was out trying to find...
This happened about six years ago, when I was spending some time in the big house for a few misdemeanors. In a way, this pushed me to get on the straight and narrow. I’ve never really given myself permission to talk about it, but my therapist says...
I had just sat down for my ride home on the late charter bus when I felt something odd under my seat. It was like sitting on a lump; it wasn’t too big, but it was definitely uncomfortable. Instinctively I reached under to try and remove...
This isn’t really happening. This feels like some fucking Twilight Zone shit. I think the plane I’m on is going to crash. Maybe it should, though. Maybe it would be better if we all died rather than let whatever the hell is aboard spread elsewhere. Sorry. Let me explain. ...
Our plane cropped over the horizon, the endless woods meandering and covering every inch of land for miles around the forested area, effectively isolating it from the rest of the earth by mountains on almost all sides. Within the bowl-shaped valley of greenery, it was...
The inside of this tent felt like the inside of Carrie’s heart: cold, empty, a place once full of people now deserted. Outside the purple tent she could hear the excited carnival-goers, the BB guns popping balloons, bells dinging whether or not someone lost or...
I am a creature of habit. I routinely do the same thing every day, and if there’s a break in my routine, I’m very sensitive to panic. For example, if I am not having my dinner at 6:30 pm on the dot, I’m overcome with...
My early childhood was spent on my father’s farm in the middle of nowhere. Literally, in the middle of nowhere. We had no hospitals or police stations near us; everything we ate, we made from scratch. It was like being Amish or something. The farm was called Beacon...
