-
Jesus Christ Lord of Hosts
Meets L.A. County by Holly Day
Jesus takes off His flannel shirt and ties it around
His waist, taking shelter beneath store awnings to keep His
shoulders and back from getting too sun burnt. He has run out of
cigarettes, and can't seem to shake the beginning nic-fit as easily
as He'd like. "Messiah, heal thyself," He mutters under His breath.
-
Take Care by Raven
McAllister
Mr. Johnson, or at least the thing that was at one
point Mr. Johnson, rubbed its hand atop its head, the skin black and
brown with rot. From his single right eye (the other side of his
bald cranium bore a gaping chasm packed with what I believe was
dirt) he regarded me like a toddler trying to understand the
intricacies of a situation just beyond its ability to grasp.
-
The Candy Child by Simon Owens
"Missus would like to buy candy." It’s a
question, the fumes of candy breath drift up, the candy child asks
if my mother would like to buy candy. The box opens, the inside
drips as the past intertwines with the present, then solidifies once
again. It is nothing but candy, would the missus like to buy some
candy?
-
Helios By Gary Moshimer
We don't make love -- we just cling, shrinking
yet aroused with fear, waiting for the door to open, or something
... we'll wait all night. But of course we can't. We wake to
brilliant light, icy lips, the windows wide open. Our covers are
dusted with snow. And of course the bra is gone...
-
Skinned Cats By Mike
Howard
It was all quite serious. Conventional mores forbid
teaching dietary self-denial, and promoting sexual abstinence was a
sin. Yet whole generations were at risk ... perhaps the future of
the entire Molloscoid Race.
-
Shares by Harry Ingham
...the singer was
shaking her head from side to side as she screamed something
unintelligible into a mike, and she caught him in the corner of her
eye and did a double take. She kept on singing, if that was what to
call it, but stared at him. Gradually, the other bandsters looked
where she was looking, and two of the keyboard men quit playing. The
drummer jumped to his feet and yelled "Cut!" Notes tumbled into a
pile and lay there, and it was quiet...
-
Balance
by James
Steimle
Long ago, a man once posited the argument that
time travel was logically impossible, because if time travel could
ever be invented, it would have been invented in some future day,
and travelers would endlessly have visited our past already. He was
right, but not in the way he thought.
-
Wild Horses
by
Daniel Kaysen
"For a start," said our Captain, "she's from
G-block." That shut me up. We'd never seen anyone from G-block, not
up close. G-block was where the ballet dancers were...
-
The Twenty-Five Presidents
by Vera Searles
All twenty-five smiled in unison. One replied, "Mr.
Villers, wouldn't that defeat our purpose? The terrorist network has
plans to take me hostage. Rather than cancel my normal schedule, I'm
now available to make speeches and appearances as planned..."
-
Student No. 3 by
Philip Roberts
See, Katie wasn't just killed. From what I've heard,
the killer got her while she was walking home. He pulled her into
the park and went crazy on her. The police won't release any
pictures of her body, and if even half the stuff the kids say around
school is true, I can understand why.
-
Lenny Bruce Is Not
Afraid by Debbie Taylor
There it was, in glorious TechnoTD, the World ending.
I shifted channels for an hour or two, trying to find the best
footage. I didn't want to go to the club tonight and be the only one
who had missed the apocalypse.
-
Let Your Conscience Be
Your Guide by Kenny Baumann
For a time, a long time now (three hundred and forty-eight days), I have been able to keep him under a sort of sedation. I can feel his presence, but he does not speak to me anymore. I think of him a lot, and I see his face.
-
That Good Night by Philip J. Lees
Now there is nothing more but to add my own
ruminations to this archive, for as long as I can, in the interests
of librarianly completeness. It could have been any of us, but I am
the one, it seems, the only one remaining. Being a librarian can be
a lonely job; mine is the loneliest job in the universe...
-
Along the Gray Footpaths
of Hell by Justin Stanchfield
They say the first breath is the hardest. That awful
dragging moment your lungs collapse, hard vacuum tearing the
delicate tissues to froth. You imagine your flesh burning in the
sun's unshielded glare, skin blackened and peeling as you wait to
die. Of course you don't die, because you can't die.
-
The Mind's Eye, Inc. by Denny Schnulo
Who would have thought that one of the biggest
technological breakthroughs in history would turn out to be such a
commercial flop? And yet, someone has a use for it ...
one that's destined to turn the civilized world completely
upside-down.
-
Fourth and Goal from the
Forty-Eight by Edmund R. Schubert
Football is only a game, right? Would you
bet your soul on that?
-
Voyager
Interview, Saturday by Derek Dexheimer
The most distant man-made object, drifting off
into the universe and oblivion. Could it be that it has seen
things it hasn't told us about?
-
Conversion by Mik Bennett
After the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, agent
Vulpes of the Roman Empire is sent to investigate the mystery of
Saul's disappearance, and, ultimately, to work his way into the
dangerous new cult that had purportedly desecrated their own
Messiah's tomb.
-
Stick Man by
Michael John Grist
Falling asleep in class can
get you into a lot of trouble ... but here, we learn, it could also
very dangerous.
-
Visions Of Heaven
by Telsing Andrews
Is it a place beyond time? Is it rebirth amid
an infinite cycle of lifetimes? Or is it something ...
completely unimaginable? One way or another our
protagonist is going to find out, because Death is coming for him.
-
Gilbert Visits The Infinite
by
David Olive
Faced with infinity, anything that is remotely
possible exists somewhere. Gilbert is given the
opportunity to find that one, perfect, remotely possible place.
Unfortunately no one has bothered to explain to him that he probably
won't survive to see it.
-
The Eyes And The Canvas
by Andrew Tompkins
The treasure Dennis finds could be love, or it
could be something much darker. Dare he gaze into her eyes so
beautiful, and risk opening doors to a past that could destroy
everything? Or could those eyes, like deep and knowing forest
pools, be the key to his freedom?