They had no stomachs today. Just my luck. I woke up this morning feeling frail and weak; hell was in my belly. Or maybe my liver? Nevertheless, immeasurable core pangs were going on.

His hands began to shake as the blues guitarist on stage played the final chords to an original number that had the audience on their feet with applause. The waiting was always the worst part.

At the edge of a forest, under the shadow of the Appalachian mountains, there was a cabin. Only a year old, it would soon be used as a foundation for a proper home come spring.

A loud crack split the visibly undulating heat and was immediately swallowed by it. Rushton Lovelock stood motionless for a spell and then involuntarily reached to his belt, finding each protruding leather furrow to be vacant.

Fr. Timotius ‘Tim’ Sinaga was a busy man. As the parish pastor of a sizable Catholic parish in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, he had a lot of responsibilities pertaining to his flock.

“It’s almost over,” Timmy thought for what must’ve been the fourth time as he could count no higher. Not that he hadn’t tried – he just couldn’t remember what his ma said his thumb was called.

An epitaph scored into the topside of the concrete block that engulfed the man’s feet and ankles sloshed, barely visible beneath the murk pooled in the bottom of the rowboat.

You leaned too hard into being obviously malicious in the last take. There needs to be seduction. The audience needs to feel unease. A sense deep down that something’s wrong beneath the surface but a hesitation to acknowledge it.

He sat satisfied and in silence next to the dying fire he had built after his day’s work. The pit and his chair sat atop the flat stone platform he laid during the course of summer.

“I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ …” the small congregation chanted. Six young boys dangled their bare feet over the edge of a pew,

Paul’s eyes slowly opened and he saw the dull lights of his led alarm clock. 03:32. He’d set the alarm for four o’clock. It was too late to go back to sleep now. He washed up, put on his work clothes, and went out to get his boat ready.

Kenzie was far too beautiful to transition to a man. Exceptions were sometimes made, but they came with the consequence of being looked down on by the industry.

Did you know that the ancients believed that the angels move the planets?” Nick turned to the man next to him and gave a bemused look. His friend and shipmate Tycho had always been an eccentric one.

David kept six chickens in a coop and run in his backyard. They were just about as normal chickens as could be, that is, until last Sunday.

People often talked about wanting to witness their own funeral. I couldn’t see the appeal, myself. Sure, everyone said grand things about me. But their pain hurt my soul.

Sheriff C.R. Moultrie had seen more than a few bank robberies in his time, but never one quite like what he saw that afternoon at the First Bank of Bracton. The front door creaked in the breeze as it swung by a single hinge,

Sheriff C.R. Moultrie had seen more than a few bank robberies in his time, but never one quite like what he saw that afternoon at the First Bank of Bracton. The front door creaked in the breeze as it swung by a single hinge,

It was a brisk winter evening and a deep auburn glow welled up behind the mountains in the distance where the sun sank below the horizon. There was a light snow,

He still had time. The assembly would not convene for some hours yet, Ethan reassured himself. Master had given him ample time to complete all of his tasks. “He always does,” Ethan remarked, to himself and no one but the passing countryside.

Don’t got a lot of time left, so I’ll make this quick. Gotta say something though. Somebody’ll miss me sooner or later and go looking, and if they look in the right place—this is my goodbye, I guess.