At The Lake

Sitting in the sun with her friends at the lake, she hoped for Cannon Stevens to notice her, she hoped her mother wouldn’t notice her tan line, and she hoped she didn’t get burned.

Water hit her legs and she jumped up and ran towards Cannon who stood laughing in the shallows. Scooping water up with her hands, she splashed him and he grabbed her hands, his laugh turning into a silly grin.

That night, her mom flipped, “Bikini lines! Not on my daughter!”

Aloe couldn’t heal the cigarette burns on her stomach.

The lake water and Cannon’s touch did.

From Guest Contributor Tyrean Martinson

Tyrean is a daydreamer, believer, and writer who lives in the Northwest.

Lift The Perfume

Lift the perfume, dust, put it back down.Lift the box, dust, put it back down.Lift the moisturizer, see her initials, freeze.JS.Just last week she was teasing me about cleaning our bedroom.Well, my bedroom now.Since the accident.Not an accident, a stupid drunk drove into the side of the car.The violent end replays in my mind.My room is silent now. No more laughing. No more cuddling. No more urging me to clean up.Just an alone silence. An empty room.I put down the moisturizer.Lift another perfume, dust, put it back down.

From Guest Contributor Rodney Goodall

On The Shore

"They'd both die for you, you know," he said.

She watched as the man and the dog, floundering in the sand as though beached at low tide, laughed and barked in hoarse revelry.

"Does it scare you?" he asks.

"No. That I'd die for them, that scares me."

He watches her watch the man and the dog.

"Feeling is more frightening than being felt for?"

"It's more difficult to control," she says, finally looking at her interrogator.

"Dying," he says. "That's the ultimate in losing control."

"Not if you control how you die."

Her pockets were already full of stones. From Guest Contributor Peter Hynes

Peter's stories have appeared in such publications as Flesh & Blood, The Malahat Review, Transversions, Dark Tales, Wicked Hollow, Rain Crow, Not One Of Us, Aiofe's Kiss, Horror Library Vol 2, and On Spec.