The Hair of Time

It passes through the moment faster than you do. If you stand there, the thing humming in your groin, your gut, for a full hour, your total exposure time might be measured in mere milliseconds, but the thing itself is… energetic. You’ll know you’ve intersected its temporal flightpath as it passes through eternity. You’ll remember … Continue reading The Hair of Time

The Sco2rlet Letter

[F]or there was exactly the very print of a foot, toes, heel, and every part of the foot; how it came thither, I knew not, nor could in the least imagine. […] [I]t came into my thought one day, that all this be a meer chimera of my own; and that this foot might be … Continue reading The Sco2rlet Letter

Arrest

In the middle of the night, the men in the blue helmets broke into Nikolai Ivanovich Komarov's house and arrested him for using the wrong words. As Nikolai’s wife Daria clutched his arm and whispered to him in Russian, her honey-brown eyes glinting with fear and worry, Nikolai asked the men what he had said … Continue reading Arrest

Falling, or The Semiotics of Disobedience

“And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.” — Genesis 3:14 Suffice it to say that existence sans sin is … Continue reading Falling, or The Semiotics of Disobedience

Though The Witches Are All Hung

June 26th, 1977 The red brick obscenity rose up seven stories against the feverish New York City skyline. Dilapidation was the apartment’s principle character, though beneath the grime and squalor a strange dignity remained; hinting at the structure’s queer tenacity, its utter unwillingness to yield wholly to the ravages of time. Built in the style … Continue reading Though The Witches Are All Hung

Thirteen Apples

The four young people stood around a wooden table, one per side. Heather had red hair and curves, Jason was stick thin with long hair and chin scruff, Cara was petite with purple hair, and Lorin’s head was buzzed. The table was bare but for thirteen apples, all arranged in a neat row. “You’re first,” … Continue reading Thirteen Apples

Souvenirs From Dead Man’s House

It was Wednesday evening at 461 High Dr. on an otherwise quiet week; when we say quiet, we mean nothing had deviated from the usual chaos and jittery thrill seeking the gang was accustomed to. Like slobbering dogs the boys were getting drunk playing Gin Rummy on the coffee table while the girls gossiped outside … Continue reading Souvenirs From Dead Man’s House

Semen World

The SeaWorld dolphin enclosure always had a smell of semen to it. A combination of the stinking fish fed to the dolphins and the cutting bleach from the janitor’s custom-cleaning-detergent created the horrible scent. Joseph found himself breathing through his mouth every time his patrol route made its way east, past the manta-ray hut and … Continue reading Semen World

Sailor’s Knoll

I The looters came in mobs, raiding homes and stores. At first, wakes of broken glass and the occasional vehicle fire. Then the cops stopped patrolling, and now there are bodies splayed in the roads and doubled over fences. No coroners in navy blue windbreakers. Instead, dogs tearing at the flesh. Rats and racoons. All … Continue reading Sailor’s Knoll

The Rat-Man of Yellowdale Industrial

He was a singularly odd shaped man, reminiscent of a sort of Innsmouth type but rodentlike rather than piscine. His shoulders were grotesquely rounded, in the manner of a quadruped almost, like an otter or squirrel, his short arms projected forward and down, no hint of the Germanic squareness one considers the norm. His spine … Continue reading The Rat-Man of Yellowdale Industrial