THE FOLLOWING STORY IS A SEQUEL TO THE STORY: "Kill the Curdler" The funny thing about problems, Ackerman reflected, was that they never went away. They just changed into other problems. Sometimes smaller, sometimes larger, but never gone. Problems fed on each other, just like everything else....
“Remember, the entrance door to the sanctuary is inside you.” — Rumi, 13th Century I had a wife once, aeons ago; but I can't remember her name. I can’t even see her face in my dreams anymore. I must write all this down before any more of those...
Rachel sat alone amongst the dilapidated pews strewn carelessly on the church floor. It had been longer than she cared to remember since she had visited the church, and time had not been kind to the once-warming embrace of its dimly lit walls. Now it...
In simple terms, I cannot write the story as it happened. I must dumb it down for those critics who refuse to delve into a simple dictionary. Let us move on in the simplicity of common language that we all might understand. The bar was noisy,...
1 A loud thud exploded in front of me. The precise spot which seconds earlier would have landed my body had it not been for the fate from the faint whine in the sky forcing me to halt in my tracks and look up. I would...
Mary Wyles My name is Richard William Kinnley. I’m seventeen years old. Other than that, I ain’t got nothin’ to say til my daddy and lawyer get here. ***** I gaze down the old farm road which stretches for miles in front of me. The hood ornament on...
"Yea, buddy," Jason Biggs shouted, smiled, and then gulped down the rest of his brewski as Bon Scott fabulously articulated that he was on the highway to Hell. He crushed the can and tossed it out of his open window. His gray chest hair fluttered...
"A bit of a lemon, isn't it?" Sheila asked as she hefted the first box out of the moving van. A short, high chuckle responded to her question as she turned around to see Matt, her husband, striking a superhero pose with his fists at...
1 She stared at the detail of the concrete work. Reaching out, her fingers lightly touched the surface and found it to be very smooth. Every imperfection of the model’s body was detailed as if the sculptor knew her intimately. From the dimple in her chin...
The small town lay still in the wake of its most eventful annual celebration, St. Patrick's Day. Every year on the anniversary of the Saint's death, all the local residents from miles around fill the square and line the streets, clad in their tackiest emerald...
Charles Walker Woods was a gentleman of means. In a city rapidly being subsumed by the dim fog of industry, he felt it was not just his right to stand out as a breath of fresh air—it was his duty. Were it not for people...
Bertram couldn’t be sure how long Emeline had been dead. She'd been in the bathroom, taking one of her late afternoon soaks. He hadn't heard a peep out of her since she'd turned off the faucets over an hour ago. He didn’t think much about...
Something is wrong with Sleigh Town—Roni knew that much about it. During the pre-covid era of twenty-eighteen, I was hired as a night security guard for a park in our town, right on the cusp of December. Since its grand-opening in the seventies, the acres were established...
The poster was simple. Someone had done their best with it, but their best wasn’t very good. MONSTIR HUNTIRS WANTED, read the boldly misspelled words at the top. Below that was a drawing straight out of a child’s imagination. It showed a hunched creature with big,...
American Journal of Russian History Volume XXI Issue 3 Dead Letters: Imperial Russian Army Correspondence from the Eastern Front in World War I Written and Translated by Oksana Volkov, PhD As soon as Imperial Russia entered World War I, the “Provisional regulations on military censorship” law was imposed on...
Nearly three years ago, when the pandemic began, I moved my family to a small hamlet in the Scottish Highlands. I won’t give you its name. I wouldn’t want you to find this place. That being said, I can no longer keep this secret to myself. Before...
Craving attention, sharply and peremptorily acting out. I have been disengaged from reality. I am in my own utopia, absorbed in thought, insanely agitated even with the least little distraction. A fan blowing the edges of my paper in a waving fashion makes me want...
No other couple on the planet had a larger dragon to slay than Henry and Anne. Maybe it was no dragon at all. Nothing was as sinister as what the couple had allowed to crawl in between them and separate them. First, this succubus came...
As I wipe the mirror clean of the settled dust, the chaff, the ash, I, in fact, am erasing the last fingerprints known to exist of the one who only ever existed in my mind. It was real for me, though I am told, unconvincingly,...
1 Corinthians 13:12 – Young’s Literal Translation 1898 “..for we see now through a mirror obscurely, and then face to face; now I know in part, and then I shall fully know, as also I was known..” We see through a glass darkly. Irresolvable shadows from immemorial...
