She tells me I eat too many sweets as she digs her hands into my chest. She reminds me I should look after my health; after all, I won’t be young forever. Th...

She is too young to understand the sky. The sky does not understand her, either. Although, to be fair, in its vastness, it does not ignore her earthbound fas...

They started to arrive three days before the funeral, ferrying into the Grand Canyon in pickups and minivans, although there was at least one school bus and ...

His yellow eyes glow golden as cheap, unpolished citrines or dying leaves in the garden rubbish heap, darting and glittering in the face he knows to be darkl...

The Imperial Valley is comprised of small towns coated in dust and boredom. These towns are separated by endless crop fields and surrounded by endless roads....

TRAUMA She never learned to sew or embroider. The only time she ever tried, she pricked her finger and fell asleep for one hundred years. * VICE AND VIRTUE A...

We go to the carnival every year. Ever since we moved to this town, my dad takes me and whoever my friends are at the time, to the fire station 30 minutes aw...

Mom’s advice comes a little harsh. “You’re beautiful,” she’ll reassure you, drying up your tears. She’ll then take a good look at you. “You’re beautiful,” sh...

He jumps in the lake, even though he can’t swim. “If you don’t help me, I’m going to drown,” he says, forcing her to follow. She won’t. In truth, she hates sw...

I found myself dead. I walked out to the end of the driveway to get the mail, only to find myself already there, dead. Only it couldn’t be me because I tou...

Hemingway once wrote a short story in six words, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Some say this was his best work. Her story: “It Begins in Ketchum, Idaho...

I’d known exactly what Mum would say when I told her I was going. ‘But why Cuba, of all places? Is it safe?’ God, I hoped not. I’d had enough of safe. I was ...

Night clamps down on Pattaya like a vice — sky so black you forget it was ever blue. The only light is neon, glowing twisted tubes in red and pink and purple...

The sun gave birth to an embryonic luster finding its way between the crevices of my curtains. I woke up to noises of a roaring vacuum. Taylor was cleaning, ...

Every seventeen years, there was an infestation of moustaches. They creatured along sidewalks and crawled up tree trunks, while barefaced men with bated brea...

GREY HUE Due largely to my appearance—an over-sized head, large black liquid eyes, thin lips and tiny nose—people often assign to me extraterrestrial origins...

Once upon a time, there was a girl who lived in an apartment with her mother, and her father, and her older sister. She wore a red dress and parted her hair ...

I can feel it in my bones, the years long past, the promises made, the promises broken, the years to come, the bones that shatter and shift and change. I can...

The gecko peeps over a steroid-pumped shoulder. It’s neo-tribal, geometrically patterned. The clever thing is the shading, which pops it into three dimension...

The clock ticks on the spot, frozen as the air between us. Emotions drip blood from a thousand cuts, where we tortured each other. We need a treaty. Each par...