fiction
Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.
Albert Camus
Spring 2025
I am you and you are me by elizabeth carusi
5:30AM, Ginkgo Temple, the center of the world, the month of stars
Gold leaves fall and fly past the tall window Yuèxiá sits on as she watches the clouds drift by through the air from kids jumping in piles of leaves while others watch with grins on their faces.
scarystory.pdf by lili tanghe
User @slutforbaudelaire posted:
Have you ever heard of the Bongcheon-dong ghost?
STUPID by Ash Wang
I'm a walking pterodactyl with silver joints that creak every time I flap my wings. No I'm not, I'm a man. I'm Hercules trying to contain my golden muscles with linen. No I'm not, I'm a boy.
Fall 2024
You have one (1) new message. by Hayley Ng
Hey Mikey. It’s Callum. As always.
How've you been, man?
I hope you haven’t died yet, heh, y’know?
The Letter she was too afraid to send by Eva Vila
When Lady Capulet found the courage to enter her daughter’s bedroom again after the funeral, she found the following letter crumpled in a drawer.
Dearest Romeo,
Your words enchant me, and yet it is a toxic spell.
The Secret Library by Brian Gibson
It was only at this moment that I stumbled on the retrospectively obvious realization that I had not read any of what they would be discussing. In fact, I did not remember having received any reading material at all, either from Wright or from the other members of the group. I would have to make like I used to in school and lie through my teeth. Maybe I could mention how evocative I found the writing style—a perennial favorite.
Spring 2024
seeing red by steven renkas
He brandishes a square of bright red cloth. The cloth catches my full attention. Something about it angers me. Is this a taunt? A threat? Is my anger and confusion simply just a game to him?
Night Owl by Ava Bauer
I woke up with an uneasy feeling that today was a world whose rules I was behind on learning.
Fall 2023
who will burn? By alyssa shonk
There I sat, continuously watching people buzz by, waiting for anyone to notice me. It had been 234 days since someone took the time to glance in my direction. I always ensured my pretty glass exterior was beautiful for people to observe.
Night shift by brian gibson
Tara left the register and began locking the doors and making the rounds. However, when she reached the laundry aisle, she realized that she had made a mistake. There was still a customer in the store, a woman with matted hair and an elaborate matrix of tattoos along her arms and neck.
Spring 2023
Carmen’s Vineyard by ISABELLA ACUÑA
Pocket mirror in hand, Carmen leaned over and began the inspection. The pains had been gnawing at her stomach for weeks. The cramps clenched her tubes into a knot and tugged at the little round belly right above her vulva.
Little black book by Kamau Nosakhere
In my bed, I blink and open my eyes to the same dark ceiling. I look at my alarm clock. 10:47pm. I try again, shutting them harder. A few days later, I open my eyes to find myself in an office. The adults are talking. I’m not really there; it hasn’t really sunk in yet that he isn’t either. The man on the other side of the desk slides me a piece of paper.
the ocelot by brian gibson
The ocelots were hissing and raking their nails against their crate, exercising their acid young voices in protest. Sylvia had found them from a breeder several hours out of town, living in a trailer surrounded by cages full of squabbling ermines, spider monkeys, brackish peacocks.
summer, jackson by anna helldorfer
Julie was living with ghosts.
They followed her every move, from her dreams, into the waking moments of quiet when her vision would blur and the scene in front of her would change. Sometimes their faces were friendly. Other times—most times—they were the cracked versions of what she remembered. A horrible arrangement of wide eyes and bloody teeth.
summer in adagio by sarah fitchner
It began with the violas. He could barely hear them at first- their soft ringing muffled by a quiet transcendence; thick in the air as if a beam of light cast through fog. Then came the flutes, airy in their nature yet somehow as substantial as the strings. It was written in measures of four, with each note eager to find its next. One, two, three four; One, two three four. One, two, three four; One, two three four. Then, knocking.
breaking point by hayley ng
“December 23, 1944
Dear Ms. Davis, I imagine that by the time you receive this letter, you will have already been notified of Charles’ dea [small tear in the paper] death. I already intend to travel up to Maine once the war is over to deliver my letter to avoid the censor. I only hope that by the time I arrive, you have not moved and that you would be willing to hear me out. As someone who looksed up to Charlie and thought of him as a brother in all but blood, I hope that my letter may provide you some comfort…
Fall 2022
fiction by MIRANDA SAENZ DE VITERI
The warm July sunlight kissed my eyes ever so cheekily, stirring up a wince that grew into a frown. A quiet growl slipped out of my mouth, irritated by the fact that my much-needed beauty sleep was hastily cut short.
The tree butcher by Morgan caramello
Bob Smith’s life was just as dull as his name. The bleak walls of a photocopy shop framed his entire existence; the interior’s paint, once resembling Chantilly Lace, now faded and yellowed to a dusty Eggnog.
Spring 2022
Apartment 7 by shannon rao
Winnifred was the one who saw the fires first. The first day, she watched them burning in the distance as she slept on the couch.
The Last ones off by Brian Gibson
For his part, Ned had picked up his place in a novel he brought from home, a whodunnit which had found its way onto their coffee table from somewhere or other. Alice gave it a try, but it was too grisly for her. She had stopped after the murder scene was described, with innards and intestines hanging out of the poor girl’s abdomen and her blood seeped into the carpet and all sorts of other horrible things. It was perverted; she had lost any interest in it. Ned began reading it at once when Alice told him that she was giving it up. When she asked him why, he said that it would be wasteful not to, and of course, wastefulness was the honorary eighth cardinal sin in Ned’s estimation. He smiled at the book, hardly registering her interest in him. Maybe he had figured out who murdered that girl before the detectives did.
Fall 2021
eli by brian gibson
A radioed voice, female, can just be heard through the siren’s wailing. “This office has been placed under lockdown,” she says.
the visitor by sophia sorrentino
She’s been following me home from work again recently. I told Ben, well I tried to tell Ben, I promise I did, but he just asked if I had taken my pills.
Spring 2021
a vampire allegory by anonymous
Life is simple: walk down this road once daily.
Betty Jeanne’s Letter by Isabel Daniel and Anna Helldorfer
I drove all the way there but it felt wrong to get out of the car alone. I wish you’d come home. The train is only an hour, but it seems you can’t be bothered. I can’t help but feel like I’ve done something wrong.
Scarlett’s Letter by Isabel Daniel and Anna Helldorfer
The film starts with a little girl and her imaginary friend playing together in a meadow—actually, it’s a lot like the one by your house. The two girls spend all their time in the park daydreaming about their futures, picking flowers and praying their wishes come true. I’m still working out the details of the middle, but it ends with her in another park, only this time she’s grown up.
The ocean’s invitation by julianne holmquist
The warm sand perfectly cradled the arch of Ursula's back and the ground rose up to meet her, Ursula felt utterly sunken.
the oracle at delphi by julia taylor
I’m not an epileptic that I know of, or even an albino. I’m a fireman on the International of Maine. Besides that I don’t know. I was born of a couple of orphans in a mill town isn’t big nor small. My name is Teddy Whalen. When I first got shown in vaudeville they called it
!! YANKEE WONDER !!
Shockhead Ted the Boy Electric Wizard
but you can call me Shockhead Ted.
Fall 2020
Operator by Lia Merkelson
Job woke up one morning to find his wife and children all dead. Again.
Halloween 2020 by zachary jackson
Stranger. The stranger is sitting on a toilet. In a Wendy’s. He’s wearing a fursuit monkey costume. It's Halloween.
Going home by maeve ambrose
Juli matches her thumb up with the quarter-sized bruise on her left arm and pushes down.
Spring 2020 and Earlier
quarry by bessie rubinstein
Boasting graffitied rock faces, cautionary tales of drownings, and morbid animals like Moby Dick, the quarry had the air of borderline danger us small-town high schoolers hunted.
NOTHING GOLD BY ALEXANDRA RICHARDSON
“Dance with me.”
A Shade Darker by mary alter
Of course there were rumors of a time before the darkness, but nobody now could stretch to even the farthest trenches of their imagination to conceive it.
follow your heart by ann pekata
Marie stared straight ahead, betraying her heart and fulfilling her duty.