Bare Ruined Choirs

An ex-beauty queen has been found in her bedroom decapitated, limbless, a chainsaw nearby. On the wall, a decorative wooden sign says, “Breathe deeply and calmly.” How do you do that? We need a plan, an intervention, something. In Hiroshima after the bomb, they piled the bodies in the swimming pool at the college and cremated them with scrap wood. Last night when my mother finally managed to fall asleep, she dreamed she was walking through a ruined city in a hospital gown left behind from her cancer surgery, while, in the distance, sirens screamed. Assume the monster is everywhere. From Guest Contributor Howie Good

Howie is the author of The Death Row Shuffle, forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. He co-edits the online journals Unbroken and UnLost.

Lake Wakona

George and Kristen were counselors at the Lake Wakona Christian Retreat. They'd met there several years before as campers and were eager to become reacquainted now that they were in high school.

First love can be a majestic experience, filled with dizzying heights of emotion, but almost always ending in a pit of despair. For George and Kristen it would be no different. They shared their first kiss and pledged to love each other always.

Fortunately, George and Kristen would spend the rest of their lives together. Unfortunately, they were both killed that summer by the Lake Wakona chainsaw butcher.

A Stitch In Time

Revere eyed the man to his right with a growing sense of animosity.

"I don't know why I set foot in that infernal time machine of yours, Franklin," he complained.

"Would you rather be back in 1783, listening to Hancock's monotonous anecdotes?"

Franklin took the silence as a No. With a smile, he adjusted his bifocals and revved up his chainsaw.

"See you on the ground."

Franklin leapt from the jet. He glided onto the back of the saber-toothed tiger, and with the skill of a man not new to battling prehistoric animals, beheaded the monster with one swipe.

"Tax this!"