In my peripheral vision, I sense the table between us, the candle, the flittering moth, the book, and the other thing. Where am I? I don’t dare glance around for clues. Maybe this is a pub, and we are waiting for the girl to bring us our mead. The room is small, dimly lit, and… Continue reading A Knight Reflects
Category: thriller
Bohío
His thick fingers shake with nerves and are damp with sweat. It takes the shorter man two attempts to pry open the tiny tin lid. The three of them peer in at the contents. The pills seem too small. Are they supposed to be that small? Rick wonders idly. There are three in the tin,… Continue reading Bohío
Glitch Mendelsohn
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 9 I hurry my pace and steal a glance behind me. Damn it. They’re still there, the three teenage boys following me. Again, I allowed myself to forget that I’m an eighteen-year-old girl. What is my name this time? The body might be 18, but its rider is much older.… Continue reading Glitch Mendelsohn
Papa
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 3 Uncle Kenny never rises before noon on the camping trips. So far now, it’s just me, Cheryl, Adam, and dad, finishing our breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast. The cool air and the smokey smell usually make me feel giddy in the mornings. That isn’t the case this morning.… Continue reading Papa
Buster’s Business
30-Day Flash Challenge, Day 23 At first, I had thought gravity stopped working. Slowly the details of what had happened come into focus. I was driving, and then my truck became airborne; I remember screams, pumping the brakes, then landing with a crash, and then? I must have blacked out. When I came to, I… Continue reading Buster’s Business
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
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
Monolith 4 – Many Miles Away
30-Day Flash Challenge, Day 4 Earlier stories in this series. Monolith Monolith 2 Monolith 3; Tammy’s Choice Many miles away There’s a shadow on the door Of a cottage on the shore Of a dark Scottish lake The POLICE, Synchronicity 2 Folks that lived in the valley swore the sun never shone on… Continue reading Monolith 4 – Many Miles Away
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
Ray-Ray
Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 57 Reagan answers her phone without checking the caller ID. “Hello.” Nothing. “Hello?” Reagan says. “Did you really think you could run away from me, Ray-Ray?” Only her father had called her Ray-Ray. Reagan had always found her stalker’s presumptuous over-familiarity to be nearly as jarring as his gruesome… Continue reading Ray-Ray
Wasp
Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 54 MONDAY: I have to use the camera on my phone to see inside the bathroom vent. The disconcerting buzzing sound had been a nuisance for weeks now, and I was finally ready to investigate the source of the noise more closely. I can hear it; a dry, scratchy… Continue reading Wasp
Clive
Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 51 The man in black slips onto the street; he moves like a shadow in the dark. A light rain falls, and incredibly Clive uses the gentle sounds it makes to mask his every step. His is a profession of intense discipline, caution, and structure. If he makes a… Continue reading Clive
Stories by Shawn 