by Evan Baughfman The male drops his offering at the female’s feet. She examines the rock, contemplating if it’s worth starting a nest with this other penguin. Then, she realises the gift it isn’t a stone, but a human eye. On the beach: butchered “ecotourists,” pecked to ribbons by frustrated seabirds. Penguins are tired of […]
by Liam Hogan The nose is a smudge, the mouth a line, but the eyes… The eyes are huge, and wide, and a soulless black. My gaze is frozen, my hand, reaching for the off switch, rigid. When I fed ten years of anime into the AI, I thought I knew what I’d get: copyright […]
by Lori Green Jun ran her fingers down the tender flesh of her arm, the scars long healed. A gift from her father. His voice still echoed inside her skull. Buta. Nothing but a pig, an unwanted girl. Before she turned; she would have done anything for him. No matter, the hakken had embraced her […]
by Lisa H. Owens Kimmie will set me free, thought Digme, extracting the vial of luminescent drops hidden beneath his cassock. He’d traded hard-earned quiffles on the sorcerer’s promise of a life beyond reach of his cruel maester. Liquid mercury—dropped upon Kimmie’s iron-gall ink eyes—begat cavernous pools of light and the animator bowed his head. […]
by C.L. Sidell She stands by the river—silver hair gleaming in the moonlight, limbs pale as milk. Haru drops the kettle, deaf to its clanging against the pebbled shore. “Beautiful…” The kimono-clad vixen turns. Smiling, eyes twinkling, she extends a porcelain-smooth palm. Haru steps forward. Drawn by seductiveness. Blind to reason. Only as furred fingers […]
by Pauline Yates Aya, the transfer student, acts nonchalant, but beneath her straight fringe, her enormous eyes glisten with new-school nerves, and she clutches a diary to her flat chest like a life support. Fool. That diary begs to be read. Especially by me. I snatch the diary from her matchstick fingers. Flipping it open, […]
by Mike Rader You’re killing me girl, you’re thrilling me girl, with your pert nose and lips like roses love yo’ eyes but then I spies the dagger in your hand! It looks awesome and you wanna nab me you wanna stab me you mean to harm me girl embalm me girl I won’t let […]
by Jasiah Witkofsky What the hell are these kids watching?! I flip on the tube after my sons scurry off to finish their homework. A blinding series of flashes and I nearly spill my brewski on my crotch. Damn kids! The voices of some bratty teens squeals over the worst music I have ever heard. […]
by Don Money The task force had found the monster’s lair after months on the trail of the kuchisake-onna, The Slit-Mouth Killer, as the papers dubbed her. The investigation had consumed Captain Suto, the bloody images were a web of scars in his mind. Suto’s department issued .38 Special revolver looked out of place amongst […]
by JB Corso Thomas floats away in bloody chunks towards their subterranean nest. Bits of his ear, sections of his tail, and several whiskers are carried away after their workers methodically snip each bloody piece away. Memories of his guttural whining hang within my tortured mind like mangrove tree seeds. The locals warned me about […]