A young maiden with a secret: inside her chest, beneath her lace blouse, her rouged skin, and ribcage like a lobster trap, a carp lay flapping. At night it thumped against her sternum, keeping her awake. It bullied her, beating air out of her lungs, warning her against many menContinue Reading

feat. Andy Anderson, bb, Mickey Collins, Joe Galván, Sara Kachelman, Ariel Kusby, Olivia Olivia, Phoenix Singer, Piers Rippey, Remy Autumn Torres, and Katie Borak. Dear travelers of the deep, dark woods, We see you have a basket of breads and beautiful chocolates. We see you are nice in your heartContinue Reading

One day a boy was sitting on a park bench, eyeing a girl across the way whom he loved. As he heaved another deep sigh over his lovelorn position, he heard a tiny voice ask him, “What’s wrong, chum?” The boy looked down to see a tiny tick on theContinue Reading

Who knew that I’d be low below, a troll ‘neath a bridge, waiting for my next toll, gathering mold eating stale rolls and making mountains out of mole skulls just wanting to haul someone close to me   Knights often want to cross those Sir Chads make me mad butContinue Reading

Bobbi, with an “i”, was staying with the Pryces, who owned a fish restaurant. They said she could sleep in the lobster tank, which was uncomfortable but at least it was full of seawater. Bobbi’s tail kept splashing, scaring the lobsters who scuttled to the other side.         “Do youContinue Reading

There was once, outside the town of Waldheim, a man who had four dark-haired daughters. The daughters had no mother for she had died giving birth to the youngest. The man bore the youngest no grudge for that and he did what he could to care for his four girls.Continue Reading

Once upon a time, there was a man who lived in a tower at the edge of the world, in the kingdom of Highcliff. In his youth, he had been wise enough to reject the meaningless things of this world, and at the age of thirty, left the court ofContinue Reading

In a beachside village on the Island of Sumatra, there once lived a widowed mother and her son, Malin. Scarcely able to feed and clothe themselves, they suffered those regular indignities of folks in fairy tales whose poverty-stricken lives portend great rewards in the end. A filial son, Malin caredContinue Reading

In my dream I am standing in a lake, water is dark and shallow, maybe a little thick. I am standing patiently waiting for things to happen when the first ghost shows up. He’s wearing a colorful paper mask that is referring to Chinese mask traditions but the rest ofContinue Reading

“Droggoth, droggoth, feer’in spew, hrottest feeri’n spew thote burn allyn sins awayn. Droggoth, droggoth, kommen hir to burn awoth allyn mine payn.” These lines from Altholm’s Morica attest to the existence of the droggoth, whose habitation, though unknown today, is likeliest deep beneath the boreal forests of Medgidia in south-easternContinue Reading