Category: supernatural

Sisyphus on Vacation

The heat is stifling. Our footsteps are an endless string of dry crunches on the shoulder of California State Route 190. Whose idea was it to put a bed-and-breakfast in Death Valley? Something tugs at my consciousness.  She looks at her phone again.  She always looks at her phone at this point. I can’t remember… Continue reading Sisyphus on Vacation

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

After Johnny’s Funeral

Revenge is a dish best served perpetually. I drop my purse on the kitchen counter and exhale for the first time in what feels like a decade. I hope my tears were convincing. After the funeral, Helen hugged me tightly, then looked at me with a strange expression that made me wonder. The way her… Continue reading After Johnny’s Funeral

Gerald

30-Day Flash Challenge, Day 16     Dazed, Gerald exits his cabin by breaking the window in the loft then dropping into the snow. “It must have been Maude’s table that saved me, ugly battleship thing. Oh, and the table is no beauty either,” he cackles to himself. Maude was Gerald’s ex-mother-in-law. The table was… Continue reading Gerald

Asylum

30-Day Flash Challenge, Day 5     We were supposed to have four solid days of good weather. We got about twelve hours, then the snowstorm hit, and for two hours, we sat hunkering down in one of the shelters along the Appalachian Trail designed for the thru and section hikers. Taylor’s smartphone finally got… Continue reading Asylum

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

Frank

Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 62 I loved my new studio; It had vaulted ceilings, a fireplace, and a freestanding wall that was open on both sides but created a pleasant sense of separation from the rest of the apartment. It also had a patio. It only looked out on the parking lot below… Continue reading Frank

The Elders; A Creation Myth of String and Feathers

Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 55 The elders had made the birds. They had traveled from inconceivably great distances through space and time to return to Gaia. With their careful plans and almost joyful, patient experimenting, they created the birds. Human creation myths consistently get that wrong. The evolutionists were and have always got… Continue reading The Elders; A Creation Myth of String and Feathers

Possession

Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 45 It started with the damn tea! I’m sure of it. I’ve not felt the same since I drank the mysterious tea at the Chinese restaurant two weeks ago. Now maybe the two things are not causally related, but I seriously doubt it! I drink the strange tasting tea… Continue reading Possession