No matter where I go, there is always fright. Like an alcohol burn in my throat, like an acid that burns like hell. No matter where I run, I race into the cold iron bars of a closed prison gate. I am then isolated, segregated,...
“There must be a God.” I have never been a religious man, yet this, I found scrawled on the top line, several pages in my legal pad. It just appeared - following nine blank pages. The broken parable is in my handwriting, but to be honest,...
Business was slow at the Tavern last night. Now, that wasn’t REALLY anything new (especially with this past month). Unfortunately, that didn’t keep my nerves from essentially spiking all night. Of all nights, this was the worst one to have no patrons – bar none!...
“We got a serious unnerstandin’ gap here.” Joe shook his head, fishing out a Marlboro from his shirt pocket. “I don’t need th’ money that bad.” The shiny quarter gleamed in the late morning sun, “I give you quarter,” the Asian man insisted. “Nope,” Joe lit his...
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...
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...
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...
