“Mr. Sparkles” by David Rachels

Everyone needs a go bag, but it’s one of those things that you keep putting off and then the day comes when you actually need it and HOLY SHIT you wish you hadn’t kept putting it off. At least I had gotten around to buying a bag, a $50 gym bag with a shoulder strap […]

“Voices” by Jack Dann

I was carefully papering the balsa-wood wing struts of my scale-model Gotha G-V Bomber when Crocker asked me if I ever spoke to dead people. Although Crocker is a member of the Susquehanna River Model-makers and Sex Fiends Association (which doesn’t say much because all you have to do to become a member is hang-out […]

“The Short Tale of Msgr. Pigeon” by John McCann

My first thought was, “How the hell did that thing get all the way down here?” I was sitting on a bench, several stories underground, waiting for the Warminster Line to take me home when I noticed a fat, black-throated pigeon hopping around looking for specks of food. The bird had two legs but only […]

“No One Is Innocent” by Paul D. Brazill

Marty Cook got out of his Mini Cooper, locked up the car and, with Sisyphean resignation, slowly trudged up the hill. He shivered and pulled his long black overcoat close to him. His short breaths appeared in front of him like spectres. The moonlight oozed across the city’s dank cobblestones like quicksilver; creeping between the […]

“Hellbenders” by Chris McGinley

Sheriff Shelby Hines thought about his own burial. He needed a breather before he started the last leg of a climb that ended at a tumbledown trailer high up on Black Owl Mountain. From his position, he could see the side of the single-wide, a beat-up structure with broad lines of soot under the eaves. […]

“The Myths” by J.D. Smith

One: The gun just went off. People can say what they want, but that doesn’t mean I have to believe them. This is just what people say when they don’t know what they’re doing, or they know damn well what they’ve done and they’re trying to cover their ass. It turns out the same either […]

“Walking Amsterdam” by Patricia Abbott

He was waiting for his luggage at Schiphol Airport when he spotted her. She was wearing the somber, seal-gray coat he had given her last Christmas, and it was only the crimson scarf at her throat that caught his eye. They had decided it was silly for her to meet his plane. He had outlined […]

“Bar Room Butterfly” by Barry Gifford

Roy’s grandfather subscribed to several magazines, among them Time, Field & Stream, Sport, and Reader’s Digest, but the one that interested Roy most was Chicago Crime Monthly. One afternoon Roy came home from school and found his grandfather reading a new issue. “Hi, Pops. Anything good in there?” “Hello, boy. Yes, I’ve just started an […]

“Bail, and Other Bonds” by Joseph Hirsch

1. Order of the Purple Heart It was just like the bastard to not tell me he was in town for all this time, and to wait until something serious happened before he got in touch with me. I don’t know how he got my cell number, but he called me at work, while I […]

“Steak-n-Cheese” by Mike Madden

Deangelo Roccella jerks the classic ‘73 Nova into a space and kills the engine. He draws a comb from the pocket of his Ralph Lauren and runs it through his jet black hair, pausing to admire his Sicilian good looks in the rearview. “Well, Cisco,” Deangelo says. “They got steak and they got cheese. So […]