Category: Fiction

The angry roar of heavy metal screamed from the amplifier at ear-bleeding decibels. Kip Daniels stood nearby, his fingers expertly navigating the fretboard of a blue Ibanez six-string guitar. He paused, letting the last of the grungy notes echo throughout the garage studio, his long blond hair matted to a dark sleeveless t-shirt. “Told ya… Continue reading Hell is a Stage

Prologue It had started with the funny feeling in her belly. There was a day, not too long ago, when she was just Sheila Goolsby, and her belly didn’t ache, and she weighed not much more than Tad, her husband, who was overweight but not so much overweight as Brady Berg down the street or… Continue reading The Ache

From time to time, murmurs and mutterings concerning the carnival spread amongst the houses of town like an unseen plague This signals the carnival’s imminent arrival. The carnival returns to town from the shadows of the backroads in random unknown intervals, except in certain dreams. Always presenting itself under a different name.  The whispers are… Continue reading The Sideshow of the Void

It wasn’t the time of the call; Blake was used to that, and he was a light sleeper – call it the nature of the job. When the call at 1AM is from your doctor, that raised both eyebrows. Blake wasn’t sick, and his next physical was over six months away, so obviously Dr. Miller… Continue reading Waxing Chaos

1. Call from Customer WI5223 to Qualicare Refrigerators Ltd, Des Moines Headquarters, June 23, 2019. Call transcribed December 1, 2019. “This is the Qualicare Refrigerator Customer Service Line. My name is Natalie. How may I help you?” “This is Eileen Mayers. Is this who I call when my fridge acts funny?” “Absolutely, Eileen! Can you… Continue reading Cold Hearted

Panic laced its fingers through Greg Eskew. I’ve got us lost, put us in danger. He looked at his wife, Valerie, his eleven-year-old son Michael, and his eight-year-old daughter Chelsea. All three wore new hiking boots. Relax, we’re not that far from civilization. Just a day hike. We can still get back by dark and… Continue reading A Helping Hand

Alex DeNozia worked nights. He was a forklift driver at a warehouse in Colorado Springs, and it was his job to load up product onto trailers for next day delivery after the other guys on shift had organized the product onto pallets by type and destination. It could be mind-numbingly boring, but Alex didn’t really… Continue reading The Implausible End of Everything

Creeping, October fog lay thick around the Chamberlain Hotel’s empty veranda and clung close to the windows, like fragile, but heavy hands pounding silently on the thick, leaded glass. On better days, one could have sat in a fine wicker chair, drinking strong iced tea and watching the slow New England summers roll down the… Continue reading The Daughter of Tem