(12 minute read) by Christina Hoag (U.S.A) Rosa bit her lower lip and slid open the top drawer of the dresser. She didn’t know why she was trying to be quiet. Mrs. Ellen and her yapping Maltese were out, but the moment seemed to demand silence. Rosa reached into the pile of underwear and plucked …
(7 minute read) by William Falo (New Jersey) Ember hunted mice around the crooked tombstones as I watched from the pine trees, unable to let her go wild. I violated every rule of a wildlife rehabilitator, but I couldn’t let her go. I took care of her from a kit when a carnie found her running from a barn fire, and he named her Ember. I feared for her, since I saw a mounted fox at the local bar. Its empty …
(2 minute read) by D.C. Houston (Canada) They knew better than to cut down the last standing rainforest on earth. They were warned that the consequences would be cataclysmic. But greed knows only one currency. The world sat silent and still, as the creatures emerged from their slumber. In ancient mythology, honeybees were born from …
(4 minute read) by Ajala David (Ukraine) I was born at the bottom of the pit with many others like me. A massive writhing pit that churned us out in our millions. Some don’t make it more than a few seconds before they dissolve into dust and ashes. Some make it a few minutes. They …
(2 minute read) by Tim Goldstone (Wales) I had been assured that traveller’s stories of dangerous packs of wild dogs roaming the old part of the port were nonsense. Just one more of the tall tales passed from backpacker to backpacker in that part of the world. But it had nonetheless dissuaded me from venturing …
(1 minute read) by B.G. Smith (U.S.A) The encounter was an inconspicuous manifestation concealed amongst the sacraments at Sunday Mass. Sister Elizabeth stopped to adjust the tab collar dislodged from his cassock. Chestnut eyes locked with hers. Her hand brushed his chin, and a familiar warm flash originated in her pelvis and coursed through her …
(5 minute read) by Archibald Hobbs (Australia) I ceased mumbling to myself the moment the large, red dog careened down the side street and hurtled across the busy road. I looked for an owner in fevered pursuit – and listened for feverish voices – but neither came. Without debate, I resolved to follow the Labrador …
(20 minute read) by Max Talley (U.S.A) Alan Pearson surveyed the mist rising off the sea. He scanned the narrow strip of beach that curved around Whale Cove and heard the concussion of waves against monolithic offshore rocks. No sign of the lurking stranger yet. This place had been his dream for years while he …
(9 minute read) by Whitney Reinhart (U.S.A) https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ZfhPjEzXhswxA3Ku7IXEP?si=eADLy2NsQYqWQuoqFmzCgA&dl_branch=1 Russell R. Russell spent his life preparing to survive the apocalypse. Orwell, Huxley, Kirkman and, occasionally, King and Koontz were his prophets. He studied, memorized their works, the way others studied the Bible or the Quran. He daydreamed about surviving the zombie hordes à la Rick Grimes …
(4 minute read) by Sunil Sharma (India) He remembered the smirk!As he woke up, the first thing that came to mind was the grin seen years ago, in an unlikely place! Waking up, Suresh recalled the beastly encounter. It came suddenly, some dim corner of a mind becoming alert. He went back ten years to …
Pocket Fiction 