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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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....

A Whisper of the Axe (Dark Flash Fiction)

The old man swings his axe in an arc up over his head and brings it down hard. There is a wet sound when the blade makes contact. Not at all what he was hoping. And it's quieter than expected. He decides to keep at it and lifts the axe for another swing. It is...

Needles (A Dark Holiday Poem)

Things I am Thankful for This Holiday Evening: Thank you for this crackling fire Beneath my twinkling, tinsel-decorated fireplace mantel, Which I enjoy from this pillowy armchair With my knitting needles in hand and doily-adorned sewing machine close by. Thank you for the pleasant clinking of the needles And the glide of the soft yarn...

I Drink You Every Night (Dark Flash Fiction)

I hate the life that’s led by mostly everyone. Full of worrying about beauty and labels. Status and ego. Their pursuit of money and ownership of other people. When you work in marketing like I do, sometimes you marvel at our ability to push a product that is nothing more than boiled shit. And I’m...

Squeezed Dry (Flash Fiction)

(Click Below for the Audio Version) https://soundcloud.com/fitful-fearful-phantasmal/squeezed-dry-flash-fiction Where else would we go? We were children of well-to-do fathers with Silicon Valley success stories. Between semesters of our ivy league education, three of my friends and I went backpacking through Europe. I couldn’t tell you why exactly. Now, decades later, I think about what I wanted...

Equinox

Both of them an equinox, His pallid bones, her ivory blocks, Her ebony of solid wood, And his the darkness he'd withstood. His heart on every line he rained And out shed music from her veins. None knows, observing her with him, Where her blood ends and his begins. Sharesies!

In Mr. Habte’s Apartment (also, see the writer’s challenge after this story)

a list of the contents in the trash bin belonging to Mr. Nadir Habte: one set of sweat-soaked, piss-wetted, blood-stained bed sheets one shattered bedside lamp and light bulb seven used tissues--all drenched in mucus and tears, some speckled with blood glass shards from a broken bathroom wall mirror scraps cut from a length of...

Five Things We Should Have Done

1 Greeted a family That immigrated to this country, But we did not know they were coming 2 Greeted the needle That brought protection into our bodies By means of vaccine, But we were too busy pleading About a temporary sting And the terror from our ignorance of things 3 Welcomed the flood and the...

The Reaper’s Image

The King is in the FFP building again. Baba, Daddio, Bapu Stephen King, that is. I was practicing with my new refurbished condenser microphone tonight and read this well-up-to-King-standard short story from my copy of Skeleton Crew called "The Reaper's Image". I don't remember ever reading it before but I was nicely chilled by this...

Paranoid: A Chant

Non-sequitur time! This poem is not an original of mine. Its author is Stephen King, the father of macaber (har har har, intentional misspelling for phonetic delightment--delightment, which is also not a word but loved by me all the same). The original part of this post is the fact that it's me reading it aloud...

Pluto’s Address

Terrance was known for his obsession with the Gettysburg Address. Part of the reason was egocentric; it was written on November 17th, the same as his birthday. Sure, everyone knows Lincoln delivered it on the 19th but that's not when it was conceived. "It came down from the divine to Abe's hand on the 17th,"...