To Reach Amir

Alone in his rural house--the one he'd insisted be far away from annoying neighbors--Amir notices the surface of his tea rippling and the teaspoon vibrating against the side of the porcelain cup. He turns toward his picture window. An eighteen-wheeler hauling a single wind turbine blade rolls by. It's odd enough to see any vehicle...

Idol

Holding the wooden idol in front of himself like a shield, the customer enters the shop. Dangling chimes echo in disharmony when the door hits them. The shop drips from its high ceilings to its floor with religious paraphernalia. At first, the shopkeeper smiles when he recognizes his customer from yesterday. His smile fades when...

September Resurrection

It really is true. Time does slow down, she thinks. Especially when you’re watching your co-worker choke to death. Sadie sits down on the stony landscaping next to the lagoon and stares at the moon’s reflection in the water. The smell of the fleeting September summer wafts in the air.  Maybe it was a mistake...

Baba

I dream of Baba In spirals. Before I met him dreaming, He used to stand in the corner of my bedroom Screaming That he had to tell me something. My father would rush in and usher him out. Baba looked confused and lost, But I liked to think he knew something that none of the...

Blood Has Become Water

To his family, evil had comeWhen they began treating strangers as sonsAnd their own kin, they regarded as scum. Blood has become water,For the man's fatherNo longer trusts his own son. Blood has become water;His own brother can't even be botheredBy the man's cancer. Blood has become waterBecause beating her grandchild is fodderFor his mother's...

Brink

We wait,Wait for that rain;Our loneliness is drying everything out again.We trip over splintered and buckled boards on our porch.We writhe in anxiousness for it to pour,Wondering whether we can stand another second more,Considering the possibility this dryness will never stop.We swear we will jump from this brink and flop.And then,We exhale.And feel, on our...

Gone Too Far and Gone Too Soon

Click Here for the Audio Version: https://soundcloud.com/fitful-fearful-phantasmal/gone-too-far-and-gone-too-soon-my-original-story "Nobody’s teeny brain understands what I go through! So just stop trying!" It would have been hard for anyone to resist chuckling at Ed Millard--in a patronizing way--or to at least roll their eyes. His outburst resembled one of a spoiled pre-teen stuck in a middle-aged man’s body....

Confessions Over Pancakes

Please enjoy an audio version of one of my flash fiction horror stories. And yes, that is my voice reading it. Click the link to listen:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tmA0GN0FcKAk9q60Foy11CNaObAA_sGT/view?usp=sharing

Switch

He knows exactly how it will play out: the adrenaline flooding his bloodstream will dissipate by dawn and leave him lethargic for his 8:00 am Civil Engineering Semester Exam. Daren lays in bed and tries that idiotic technique his fourth-grade teacher made the students do when they got too rowdy: relax each part of the...

Day One at The Liberty House

Jerry keeps busy. It's the only way to keep his mind off the self-condemnation. When nothing is open in town for Christmas, (including Liberty House or any other place in any town for that matter), Shift Manager Jerry volunteers to train the restaurant's new hire, Wade, who also says he has no holiday plans and...

What’s Said After a Suicide Attempt

She walks out with him through the automatic doors of the hospital. "It's really good to feel sunshine," he says to her. "Lip service?" "No, I swear. You know I have zero self-control. So, I actually mean it. It feels good to be outside right now." "Zero, huh?" "Ok...so like I've only got 17% self-control."...

Crossover

The driver is swerving the school bus more than the kid who sits in the front seat had ever noticed on other days. The front-seat kid is nothing like his peers; he is hyper-vigilant. Filling up the back rows--consumed with lewd chatter and earsplitting, rambunctious horseplay--are all the other middle schoolers who ride the 7A...

To Earth

"Thanks for meeting me out here." Carson loosens his tie. "Between you and me, if I had to hold one more interview in the mausoleum--that's what I call the company boardroom--I'da lost it." The corners of the interviewee's mouth turn up. He says nothing. "Sorry," Carson says, "I was just blowing off a little steam....

Susannah Ann and the Alien Man

It seems like a snapshot plucked from a 1980's PSA: a lone man in a beige trench coat had come and sat next to little Susannah Ann Chalmers on the swing set. Mrs. Chalmers doesn't see him approach. Eventually, she looks out her kitchen window (nearly done with the dishes) and runs toward the public...

Fortunes

You haven't been sitting in his office for more than two seconds before your boss, Crabtrey, says, "I have to fire you, Wes." "Yes. I accept that. I was prepared." Crabtrey shuts a file folder on his desk and plops it into his outbox tray. "Okey doke. So let's not draw this out. No need...

When The Lion Man Comes

"It's not a lion," the four-year-old whispers in his tribal language. He remembers back to a few months ago when he had spotted something golden along the horizon line where the hot air appeared to vibrate. The boy had screamed Lion! and all the village elders (who are skilled in hunting) went charging into the distance,...

From a Crack in the Wall (Flash Fiction and Writing Prompt / Writing Challenge!)

He forgot to bring water. Seeing as how amped up he was to start a new jogging routine, being properly prepared had slipped his mind. So, Tam Rogan felt mother nature was mocking him when he spotted a gentle gush of water spilling out of a natural rock wall. He stopped to catch his breath--now...

What To Do When The Collector Comes

When to an end they succumb, When The Collector comes, Understand it’s like the uncontrolled descent of a parachute Or the fumbled baton in a relay race. Remember then that nothing belongs to you in the first place. Hear the pop When the string In your hand, Dear Kite King, Snaps. Oh, Gudi Badsha, Mistakenly...

Published: An Ogre in Walmart

A flash fiction story of mine, entitled "An Ogre in Walmart", was accepted into Sirens Call Publications Magazine this month. It is available here ---> http://www.sirenscallpublications.com/ My story appears in issue number #43, Women in Horror 10, on page 73. Thank you so much for your support. May you all be well. Alhamdulillah.

Old Man Randall’s Return

“We’re here Mr. Randall. Home sweet home. Do you want me to give you a hand--” “No! Just leave it. My arms aren’t crippled, ya know. I can get it my own damn self.” “‘Course, Sir. My apologies,” the driver says and takes off his Patient Shuttle Service cap to wipe the perspiration from his...

So Blue

Cheryl says, “What in Sam Hill--” She wipes away the frost on her passenger-side window. “When you’re a beach lover, I guess there’s no keeping you from it!” She gestures towards a man walking along the shoreline that is across the highway. Walter says, “Wouldn’t catch me dead out there. I reckon it’s guys like...

Retribution

He writes a song for her: Verse 1 Chorus Verse 2 Chorus Bridge Verse 3 Chorus Key Change Chorus X 2 She writes a story for him: Attention-Grabbing Action-Based Opening Cleverly-Woven Exposition Establishing of Character Motivation to Move Story Forward Prose Prose Prose Dialogue Dialogue Dialogue Building of Tension Revealing of Turning Point Resolution Denouement...

Afraid To Sleep

He is afraid to fall asleep. It seems there is something he forgot That he really needs to do But doesn’t know what it is. It is something the morning won’t allow. He feels that if he stays in the night, here, safe, All would be quiet and calm And there would be no confrontation....