The frail woman pulls her coat shut, bunches her scarf, and shoves her hands deep into fur-lined pockets. In one of her hands, she imagines three plastic bags. Estelle knows the bags aren’t real. Just like she knows not to shout her dog’s name aloud in public. She knows he is no more. Tommy had… Continue reading Ghost Dog
Category: speculative
The Low Probability Bike
I remember the first time Beckett showed me the prototype. I met him in the parking lot of a Starbucks on Parker. He unloaded the garish thing from the bed of his truck, and I helped him lower it to the pavement. A couple entering Starbucks pointed and laughed at us before the door closed… Continue reading The Low Probability Bike
In a Hospital Far Away
“It’s a nice room.” The voice is familiar, but I can’t place it. Am I sleeping? Dreaming? I hear a series of melodic beeps filling the air. They have their own distinctive pitch and period. But that can’t be right, I’m no longer…, “Wayne, he’s waking up,” a soft voice filters into my awareness. As… Continue reading In a Hospital Far Away
A Session with Doctor Palmer
Today is our third meeting. The couple sits huddled together on the client’s couch. They always shiver and ask me to turn up the heat. Leanne holds the white blanket bundle on her lap like a devotee might hold a sacred relic. I can’t get her to put it down. “So, what are you saying,… Continue reading A Session with Doctor Palmer
Is this Heaven?
That woman ahead looks so familiar. It’s a humid morning, Sweat drips down the side of my face. I’m carrying my backpack though, so I’m getting a bit of a workout during my walk. It took me ten minutes, but I finally overtook the woman walking the two dogs. She was tall and slender, wearing… Continue reading Is this Heaven?
Wormhole
The exterminator wipes his brow, pockets his grease-stained handkerchief, and checks his tablet again. “Yeah. We don’t see a lot of these. If I’m honest, they told us about these in class, but I swore the instructor was pulling our legs. Pranking us. You know? That it was a joke to see which of us… Continue reading Wormhole
Mr. Auk
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 14 The people of the earth collectively pause whatever they’re doing and shift their attention to the solemn ceremony. Today it is Mr. Auk, a retired fisherman in Thailand. Who knows where it will be (or IF it will be) next month. The sleeping wake in time to watch. A… Continue reading Mr. Auk
Descartes Conundrum
The limits of thinking I wave my hands in front of the Daniel-thing’s face again. Nothing. Its eyes are open, but it’s not seeing me, not seeing anything. I thought he’d had a seizure; when I checked for a pulse or breathing I found neither. And then there was the stuff with my… Continue reading Descartes Conundrum
The In Betweeners
30-Day Flash Challenge, Day 15 The problem with disguising interdimensional portals as a door or window is eventually some busybody will try to pass through it. Then the gig is, as they theatrically say, up. T. S. Livingstone, Memoirs of a Traveller Margaux and Philippe were thrilled with their new house. She was his mother;… Continue reading The In Betweeners
On the Lam
30-Day Flash Challenge, Day 11 This is the third installment in this story Finding the Glasses Around the Fold I make it to Gstaad before being captured. But it’s not one of Bobby’s goons that catches me. It is the entity that left me the four-dimensional sunglasses. I felt jerked sideways as in… Continue reading On the Lam
Moonglow
30-Day Flash Challenge, Day 8 11:07 PM She was supposed to have gotten off two hours ago, and she is exhausted, as tired as she’s ever been. Suzy pulls her name tag off her Nurse’s smock and places it in the center console. She flicks her smartphone on, unlocks the screen, sees she… Continue reading Moonglow
Finding the Glasses
30-Day Flash Challenge, Day 6 It was the peyote that finally pushed me over the edge and showed me how to move around the fold. I had been riding the yellow dragon for months in an attempt to visualize the fourth dimension. A two-dimensional being lives, sleeps, eats, fucks, and dies in a… Continue reading Finding the Glasses
Around the Fold
I feel nausea rising as I reach around the fold. I shut my eyes, breathe deep, calm myself. It’s the glasses; they show too much. Moving your arm into the fourth dimension can overwhelm your senses. The air feels electric like a thousand electric worm-sized eels are wriggling across your skin. Human consciousness is constrained… Continue reading Around the Fold
A Scorpionic Angle of Perception
Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 99 I feel I’m not explaining it well to my friend Chris, so I start again. “Your staircase becomes the horizon, the only perfectly horizontal line one can find on an astrological natal birth chart. It’s the line that bisects the chart and runs from the ascendant,… Continue reading A Scorpionic Angle of Perception
The Taxi
Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 95 The instant I fastened my seatbelt in the backseat, I knew the rumors of an urban legend about a taxi were true. I heard the metallic click, but then there was a louder click from the door. Did the driver lock my door? I look forward… Continue reading The Taxi
Henry’s Heart
Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 90 Again, the hooded figure beside me raises his right hand, spins his index finger furiously fast, and reality goes away for several seconds. I can feel myself sliding sideways through space and time. I am like Ebeneezer. But, unlike Dickens’s curmudgeon, my sin hadn’t been greed.… Continue reading Henry’s Heart
Nicky
Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 82 I try calling her cellphone again. Damn. My useless phone displays one of three messages with every attempt. This time it’s ‘NETWORK BUSY.’ I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s the day most of us are leaving earth. The authorities never fully explained how this was even remotely possible. I’ve… Continue reading Nicky
The End of Books
Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 76 The writing prompt I chose for today’s flash fiction story was from Grammarly. It said, “Write about what you think the world will look like in 10 years.” Dare I? Since 2016, I feel I’ve lost all hope in most of my fellow countrymen, in friends, in people… Continue reading The End of Books
Rewind
Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 70 The man forgets how many times he’s replayed his life. He decides the number is fourteen or four thousand. The offer to trade his soul for a chance to relive his life had been impossible to refuse. The little girl told him he could relive his life since… Continue reading Rewind
Magic Meadow
Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 68 The first several times I took the Chisholm trail south, it was to visit the Barnes & Noble bookstore on 15th Street or Jersey Mike’s Subs that sits on the Central Expressway service road; both establishments have been the recipient of a fair amount of my money over… Continue reading Magic Meadow
Stories by Shawn 