By Nicole Mancha I shift in my chair for the fifth time in twice as many minutes, attempting to relieve the discomfort of the stiff metal backing against my spine. Dr. Maryanne Warner sits across from me, scribbling furiously. It’s exhausting to watch, so I cannot even imagine how it must be for her. SheContinue reading “Madeline”
Category Archives: Noir
The Dead Are Smiling
By Melissa R. Mendelson Johnny Cash battled the static, but he was losing, fading in and out. The screen door to the diner wasn’t helping. It screeched opened and clattered shut, and the swearing of the cook in the kitchen was louder than the small radio over the counter by the pies. Even the buzzingContinue reading “The Dead Are Smiling”
Patches of Paradise
By Hart Vetter I. Housesitting If you ask me what I am to Royce, it gets complicated. To his business associates, as we meet for dinner, he’ll introduce me as someone I’m really not, My special friend Marianne. In the car over, he winks, Let them fill in the blanks. Case closed. If you askContinue reading “Patches of Paradise”
Walter
By Andy Betz Walter asked to unpackage three bullets of his favorite caliber. It was his prerogative to do so. No one would ever ask why. He opened his new box of factory ammunition. They watched him load all three in the cylinder, with a single space between the second and the third. Custom dictatedContinue reading “Walter”
Tracked
By Rena Robinett AIRPORT I – KALI I was sitting in the United concourse at San Francisco airport sucking Cappuccino foam off a spoon when I spotted him. This was my third time tracking him out of SFO, using a TSA security badge from an old friend. He came out of Terminal Three, walking fastContinue reading “Tracked”
All Saint’s Day of the Dead
By Jason P. Reed All Saint’s Day of the Dead is a book written by Jason P. Reed under the banner of New Bayou Books. This was said about the Author on Goodreads.com. “Jason studied English at what was then the University of Southwestern Louisiana in the mid 90s and worked as a technical writerContinue reading “All Saint’s Day of the Dead”
The Education of a Young Gentleman
By Charlie Jacobson And I eat men like air.—from Plath, Sylvia. “Lady Lazarus.” 1962. *** “Charles!” “Uh?” “Richie has a flat.” I rolled out of bed and stumbled after my mother into the kitchen. She thrust a receiver into my hand and lit a Chesterfield. I grunted. “Richie?” “Git your ass over here.” The lineContinue reading “The Education of a Young Gentleman”
Old Ninety-Seven
By Byron Spooner It’s one of those strange evenings when the moonlight reflecting off yesterday’s snow gives the whole world a soft bluish radiance. I’m out wandering around, no particular place to go, anywhere but home, and I see the Field House lights are on. The front door is unlocked. I stomp the snow fromContinue reading “Old Ninety-Seven”
Thinking of You
By Tony Sweatland Danny loves animals. And he hates people. Yesterday he knocked on a door and a woman wearing pj’s answered with a cup of hot chocolate in her hands. Meanwhile, not twenty feet away, a small dog shivered in a plastic igloo-style dog house inside a 10’ by 10’ cage. He wrote herContinue reading “Thinking of You”
Sometime After Midnight
By Steve Bates It was the police sirens that woke him. Their ever louder Banshee shrieks sliced through the early morning silence like a switchblade. He could hear as they snaked their way closer, until they screamed just outside the room. Then the sirens stopped. They were here. As Cole Edwards sat on the edgeContinue reading “Sometime After Midnight”