by D Kershaw
C.L. WILLIAMS is an independent author from central Virginia. He has written eight poetry books, four novellas, one novel, and a contributor to multiple anthologies, with the most recent appearance being an all-ages anthology titled Temoli from Thazbook. His most recent poetry book, The Paradox Complex, features the poem “Sad Crying Clown” that is now a video on YouTube directed by Matthew Mark Hunter of MMH Productions. C.L. Williams is currently working on his first sci-fi book, an all-ages book titled Novo: Away from Earth. When not writing, C.L. Williams is reading and sharing the work of other independent authors.
Facebook: writer434
Twitter: @writer_434
The Unfortunate Record
by Galina Trefil
The teacher expected a mundane report on the local history. So naturally the gothic teenager, rather than do a run-of-the-mill internet search, instead checked the library’s 19th century obituary records.
She flipped through the pages, hungry for the weirdest, juiciest thing she could find. And then...a suicide. A suicide allegedly committed via shotgun blast to the back of the head.
“For my assignment,” she told the class, “I discovered an actual murder.”
She relayed the details to her audience, all of whom were deliciously titillated—all but the teacher, whose violent and impulsive greatgrandfather had once been the town coroner.
GALINA TREFIL is a novelist specializing in women’s, minority, and disabled rights. Her short stories and articles have appeared in Neurology Now, UnBound Emagazine, The Guardian, Tikkun, Romea.CZ, Jewcy, Jewrotica, Telegram Magazine, Ink Drift Magazine, The Dissident Voice, Open Road Review, and the anthologies “Flock: The Journey,” “First Love,” “Sea of Secrets,” “Organic Ink,” and “Suspense Unimagined.”
The Best Resource
by Cindar Harrell
“What are you saying? That the thief is a ghost or something? No one can just walk through walls,” I heard the detective say from my hiding spot in the ceiling.
“We can’t explain it. The sensors would have been triggered no matter where they may have come in. No fingerprints, no fibres. No evidence that the crown was here at all.”
“Just give up, no one is going to catch this one. Whoever it is, they must have amazing resources,” said a second detective.
I smiled and blew him a secret kiss. He was by far my best resource.
CINDAR HARRELL loves fairy tales, especially ones with a dark twist. Her stories are often fairy tale inspired, but she is also working on a mystery series. Her stories can be found on Amazon and in various anthologies. You can follow her on Facebook and visit her blog, which she promises to try and update more often,
Website: cindarharrell.wordpress.com
Facebook: CindarHarrell
Down by the Water
by Laura Hughes
As the water’s surface glitters like sparkling diamonds in the glow of the full moon, a fierce cry breaks the silence of the night. It’s eerie sound echoing through the darkness of the trees. Then a loud splash, as a large mass pierces the tranquillity of the water, causing ripples and waves to perpetrate outward from the disturbance. All grows quiet again, except for the chirp of the crickets and the occasional hoot from an owl, as the water calms back to its original state of glistening diamonds. As if nothing happened to disturb the peaceful splendour of the night.
LAURA HUGHES was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. She is a high school graduate now residing in a small town in West Tennessee. She began writing poetry at the age of eighteen, after being diagnosed with Schizo-Affective Disorder. She used her writing as a form of therapy to help deal with the issues her illness caused. She shares her work, in the hopes that she can help others that are also afflicted and having difficulties in their lives.
The Smuggler
by Cecelia Hopkins-Drewer
“It looks like a drug deal gone wrong,” Detective Booker said, checking the residue on the gunshot victim’s fingers.
“If you look closer, you will see the drugs are still here,” Coroner Smith pointed to the bloated abdomen.
“How would anyone get them?” Booker exclaimed.
“Simple,” Smith said. He drew a sharp scalpel out of his investigative kit; slit the body open from pubic bone to ribcage and pulled out a plastic bag full of powder. “Unique method of delivery, eh?”
Booker retched. He had a sudden urge to escape from the locked morgue. Smith had turned crooked months ago.
CECELIA HOPKINS-DREWER lives in Adelaide, South Australia. She has written a Masters paper on H.P. Lovecraft, and her weird poetry has been published in THE MENTOR (edited by Ron Clarke), and SPECTRAL REALMS (edited by S.T. Joshi). Her novels include a teenage vampire series comprised of three volumes, MYSTIC EVERMORE, SAINTS AND SINNERS & AUTUMN SECRETS. Short stories have been published in WORLDS, ANGELS & MONSTERS (Dark Drabbles anthologies edited by Dean Kershaw).
Amazon: amazon.com/Cecelia-Hopkins-Drewer/e/B071G968NM
Website: chopkin39.wixsite.com/website
Mass Madness
by D.J. Elton
Brien was only four when a man in the street went crazy. Brien and Mum had just come out of Coles with three full bags, and they heard rat-a-tat tat like those machine guns you hear in the movies. Mum screamed, dropped the shopping, and pulled Brien behind a postbox.
“Help!” “Move!” “Jesus!” People ran into each other, yelling and swearing to God. Some were dropping on the ground, groping at a body part that was oozing red. Hell had come alive.
Later, the man with two guns said that he couldn’t remember anything. “Some evil just took me over.”
D.J. ELTON writes fiction and poetry, and is currently studying writing and literature which is improving her work in unexpected ways. She spends a lot of time in northern India and should probably live there, however there is much to be done in Melbourne, so this is the home base. She has meditated daily for the past 35 years and has worked in healthcare for equally as long, so she’s very happy to be writing, zoning in and out of all things literary.
Twitter: @DJEltonwrites
An Eye for Detail
by Mason Harold Hilden
Entering the crime scene, Leta Diaz was met by Detective Smith.
“Ok, Diaz, do your magic”.
Diaz began her analysis.
“The victim was slashed across the throat at the urinal. Arterial spraying shows the perp’s a pro, severing both artery and vein. The victim died covered in blood and piss. There was no attempt to approach the victim. Spray patterns here show partial outlines of the perp’s shoes, size ten”.
Like always, Smith was amazed.
Her investigation done, Diaz unlocked the maintenance door and retrieved her cleaning cart. Thirty years of her dealing with this shit had taken its toll.
MASON HAROLD HILDEN has dabbled in animation and comic-book scripting.
In a Warehouse
By Stephen Herczeg
The fireman had finished their job. The flames were out. The warehouse now just a smouldering ruin.
And there he was.
A lone body lying in the middle of the floor. Clothes singed but not burnt. No signs of trauma. My mind screamed, something didn’t seem right.
I opened his mouth and pushed a cotton swab into his throat with my forceps. I moved it across every surface. It came back clean and white. No ash or soot. He hadn’t breathed in any smoke.
I looked up at the detective.
“This man was dead before the fire. This was murder.”
STEPHEN HERCZEG is an IT Geek based in Canberra Australia. He has been writing for over twenty years and has completed a couple of dodgy novels, sixteen feature length screenplays and numerous short stories and scripts. His horror work has featured in Sproutlings, Hells Bells, Below the Stairs, Trickster’s Treats #1 and #2, Shades of Santa, Behind the Mask, Beyond the Infinite; The Body Horror Book, Anemone Enemy, Petrified Punks and Beginnings. He has also had numerous Sherlock Holmes stories
published through the Belanger Books - Sherlock Holmes anthologies.
Fire Starter
by Paula R.C. Readman
Beyond the rooftops, the sun explodes in a brilliant show of reds and oranges in the fading light. Such a simple joy to share before the noose digs in deep tomorrow. Some say it is no more than I deserve. How sweet the sun is to share its fiery light with me.
Between the heat and the screaming, I cannot tell you which I most prefer. Such a silly mistake brought me here. I lingered too long. The dancing colours held me captured as I grasped the petrol can. Caught in a blue flashing light, I had nowhere to run.
PAULA R C READMAN left school at 16 with no qualifications and worked in low paying jobs. In 1998, with no understanding of English grammar, she decided to beat her dyslexia by setting herself a challenge to become a published author. She taught herself ‘How to Write’ from books which her husband purchased from eBay. After 250 purchases, he finally told her ‘just to get on with the writing’. Since 2010, she had 24 stories published and is now waiting to see if her first novel is accepted.
Website: paulareadman1.wordpress.com
The Velvet Purse
by Peter J. Foote
Silk slippers find traction on stones, leather gloves locate gaps in the mortar, and the assassin makes silent progress up the castle wall.
Perched in the windowsill’s shadow, the assassin confirms that the climb didn’t crush the velvet purse, before taking out a slim dagger.
With a nimble stroke, the assassin slides the dagger between the shutters, eases them wide, and slips into the noble’s bedroom.
Eyes adjust and the snoring noble on the bed materialises.
Soundless, the assassin reaches the bed, opens the velvet purse, releasing the venomous spider within to discover its victim.
“No one cheats the Brotherhood.”
PETER J. FOOTE is a bestselling speculative fiction writer from Nova Scotia. Outside of writing, he runs a used bookstore specialising in fantasy & sci-fi, cosplays, and alternates between red wine and coffee as the mood demands. His short stories can be found in both print and in ebook form, with his story “Sea Monkeys” winning the inaugural “Engen Books/Kit Sora, Flash Fiction/Flash Photography” contest in March of 2018. As the founder of the group “Genre Writers of Atlantic Canada”, Peter believes that the writing community is stronger when it works together.
Twitter: @PeterJFoote1
Website: peterjfooteauthor.wordpress.com
Driving for a Living
by Jason Holden
The van rumbled along, bumping up and down as its tyres dipped in and out of holes littering the track.
Driving was Joe’s pleasure—he had bought a panel van, had turned listening to his tunes and looking at the amazing Derbyshire scenery into a job.
Unfortunately, it was a job that didn’t pay well. He was forced to look for other means of income.
His instructions were, “Don’t mess with the cargo! Don’t ask questions!”
Joe turned up the music, hoping to drown out the muffled cries for help that came from the duct taped mouths in the back.
AFTER GIVING UP A FULL-time job as a quarry operator so that his wife could follow her dream career as an academic in the field of chemistry, Jason Holden and his family left England and temporarily moved to Spain where they currently reside. While there, he took on the role of full-time parent and began to create stories for his daughter. Now that she is in school, he creates stories for himself and hopes to share those stories with others.
Orange Crumbs
by Ximena Escobar
The sun rose on the desert of his body, a television casting blue lights on his bare skin.
Ross felt unexpectedly relaxed. It was the man’s expression; once he’d put the plastic bag around his head, he’d stopped wrestling—he wanted to die, deep down, free himself from the curse of his body’s twisted appetites. As the bag of Cheetos rustled around his fingers, he felt emancipated too, from his own prison of mediocrity.
How many boys had he saved with just one bag?
He didn’t untie him.
When people began to scurry out of their doors, so did Ross.
XIMENA ESCOBAR is an emerging author of literary fiction and poetry. Originally from Chile, she is the author of a translation into Spanish of the Broadway Musical “The Wizard of Oz”, and of an original adaptation of the same, “Navidad en Oz”. Clarendon House Publications published her first short story in the UK, “The Persistence of Memory”, and Literally Stories her first online publication with “The Green Light”. She has since had several acceptances from other publishers and is working very hard exploring new exciting avenues in her writing.
She lives in Nottingham with her family.
Facebook: Ximenautora
HomiCider
by Gregg Cunningham
My shift was done, and the drive had been long. I was dying for a beer, but the usual fuckwits lined the roads, cutting in front of my rig and really pissing me off, and it was me who had to ease off the gas.
At the bar, all the little shit had to do was serve me and I would have been out of his face and well on my way to being out of mine.
But no. I get the smug attitude.
“Sorry mate, no high vis vests allowed!”
I snapped and picked up the empty Bulmer’s bottle.
GREGG CUNNINGHAM 48, short story writer who has had to pick up his game since stumbling into facebook writer’s groups. He has stories published by 559 Publishing in in 13 Bites volume 3,4,5, Plan 9 from Outer space, Other Realms, Heard It on The Radio, 559 Ways to Die, short stories publishing by Zombie Pirate Publishing in Relationship add Vice, Full Metal Horror, Phuket Tattoo, World War four and Flash Fiction Addiction (flash) with Zombie Pirate Publishing, and also in Daastan Magazine Chapter 11 and Brian,Rich and the Wardrobe.
Amazon: www.amazon.com/-/e/B016OTHX0K
Website: cortlandsdogs.wordpress.com
Bittersweet Justice
by John H. Dromey
The drawing room was crowded with miscreants of every stripe.
“This isn’t my cup of tea,” one of the men said.
“What’s that? Are you trying to tell me you don’t like this situation where a pompous amateur detective has once again persuaded the police to assemble all the murder suspects in one room so he can dramatically reveal the guilty party that no one else suspects?”
“No. I’m saying I ordered sweet tea and this is bitter.”
Just then the amateur sleuth—a remorseful killer—entered the room, glanced at the empty teacup and asked, “Who drank my hemlock?”
First published in The Literary Hatchet, 2013
JOHN H. DROMEY was born in northeast Missouri, USA. He enjoys reading—mysteries in particular—and writing in a variety of genres. He’s had short fiction published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Martian Magazine, Stupefying Stories Showcase, Thriller Magazine, Unfit Magazine, and elsewhere, as well as in a number of anthologies, including Chilling Horror Short Stories (Flame Tree Publishing, 2015).
Jetsam and Flotsam
by Pamela Jeffs
The river hides my secrets. In the jetsam and flotsam of her flow. She conceals what I have done—the sinking of Pirate Lionheart’s ship.
Lengths of rope slither through the water. Barrels roll by. A boot, laces streaming in the water. The newspapers claimed it was a pleasure craft scuttled higher up the river, but it wasn’t. How did they miss the smaller clues? The bodies floating past me look nothing like pleasure seekers. Each one has a pirate brand scored into the shoulder. But it concerns me not. I’m just waiting for the treasure map to float by.
PAMELA JEFFS is a speculative fiction author living in Queensland, Australia with her husband and two daughters. She is a member of the Queensland Writers’ Centre and has had numerous short fiction pieces published in recent national and international anthologies. In 2017 and again in 2018, Pamela was nominated for an Australian
Aurealis Award in the category of ‘Best Science Fiction Short Story’. Her debut collection titled ’Red Hour and Other Strange Tales’ was released in March 2018.
Website: www.pamelajeffs.com
Facebook: pamelajeffsauthor
Good Friends
by J.A. Hammer
There were ways not to be caught. Of course, the best way was to never have a dead body in your possession, but Amelia knew how hard that rule was to follow. The other rules though, if they were obeyed, then she was unstoppable.
- No souvenirs.
- No family members (not even annoying Ethan).
- No life insurance policies.
