All Stories

Chapter One: Nadia Under the cover of darkness, Nadia often snuck outside the walls of Tide Manor. She’d been doing it for years without a hitch, though sometimes her father’s eyes narrowed at her the next morning, suggesting he might be aware of her deceit. Maybe she was paranoid. Her father had a knack for […]

“I thought you’d be an egg,” the cashier says. She looks down at my ID, one pierced brow arched. “I get that a lot,” I say, shoving my hands in my pockets. Glancing back, I see the woman behind me has hair like Dolly Parton and a cart full of soda—twelve liters of Dr. Pepper. […]

Chapter One: Protection Mother always said you could gauge a man’s character by the way he drinks his tea. A cup of Kizbegi black—a rich amber number infused with essence of rosehip, barberry, and wild thyme; the pleasant bite of dried citrus peel tempered by a cube of vanilla sugar and a splash of brandy—languished […]

No one remembered when the first clown had arrived, smelling of fried dough. It hadn’t seemed like an occasion to mark. Someone is having a birthday party, they thought, or they’re part of a school play. But then more clowns came. The townspeople consulted one another: Excuse me, did you order a clown? Of course […]

ALL SALES BINDING Lot 121: Memory artifacts harvested from a willing human host in full compliance with regulations. Ideal for collectors, spellworkers, and totemic practitioners. Proof of provenance assured.  # Figure A. Copper penny, worn smooth, dangerous as a raven’s wing sheening green-black in the sun. Once when you were eleven and afraid and the […]

Sir Robert wipes his bloody blade on his enemy’s doublet. The vicious Count Feyt lies on the chequered floor, a pool of brilliant red spreading beneath him. Andrea tries to move but the rope bites into her soft skin. The gentle breeze wafts the odour of death to her nostrils. Sir Robert turns to her, […]

I consider myself pretty lucky. Out of all the hospices in the Tri-State area, my doctor referred me to this one. Here, I have my own room. That’s not a given when it comes to hospices. Sometimes they’ll stick two of us, or even three, to a room. No thanks. I’m already confronting my own […]