fiction
Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.
Albert Camus
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 oracle at delphi by julia taylor
Somebody told me the other day that I was a character, and if I could read I could’ve been a poet. I can read. I don’t know why she said that part.
a vampire allegory by anonymous
Life is simple: walk down this road once daily.
halloween 2020 by zachary jackson
Screen. The brightness from the desktop computer in a small cubicle at a bustling office space cuts through the monotone colors, the humdrum mutter of office talk and the overall staticness and boredom of a 9 to 5 job.
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.