The Cellar

Oksana pounded the door of Zoya's wooden house. She screamed.

"Zoya, the Red Army has surrounded the village. Hide, Zoya!"

Zoya, holding her toddler Ekaterina in her arms, opened the door.

"Oh, God, help us. Oksana, where's Father Nikolai?"

"They've started a fire in the church! Hide, Zoya."

"God have mercy. Run Oksana. We'll hide in the cellar." Zoya pressed her daughter tightly to her breast. She ran to the cellar.

Zoya embraced her daughter. She heard a crashing sound. When she realized the smoke was coming from above, she said, "I love you Ekaterina. We'll be together in Heaven."

From Guest Contributor Deborah Shrimplin

Old Fire Station - Berlin - March 20, 1939

HISTORICAL FICTION ENTRY:

Removing his peaked cap, Gerhard runs his hand thru his fair, slicked-back hair. He is only a soldier: molded by the Nazi party. He isn’t a person just something to enforce Chancellor Hitler’s government. This time though, the instructions come from Joseph Goebbel. Anything marked with an X gets no mercy.

Gerhard stares into the inferno that devours the art dubbed degenerate. The canvases feeds the blaze, bubbles, and burns: turning into searing embers that fade to ash. He never understood art. The only thing he knows is everything burns. No matter the color, vibrancy, culture, religion.

We’ll all burn!

From Guest Contributor McKenzie A. Frey

The Taxidermist

He stuffed his victims, then mounted them on his wall. That's why they referred to him as the Taxidermist. His arrest, and subsequent conviction, was thought to be the end. No juror would've signed off on an insanity plea. He was locked away and, by the time his appeals were exhausted and he finally met his fate, the story had become more legend than reality.

But he was more than just a serial killer. He wasn't just preserving their skins, but also their souls. Now, with his death, those souls have been released. May God have mercy on us all.

Just A Game

Paul steps to the line and takes a deep breath. Were he to sink the next two shots, he will be celebrated globally for the rest of his life. Women will worship him. Children will be named after him. Movies will be made and he'll be the star. His legacy will be forever secure.

If he misses, however, not only will his own life be ruined, but those of an entire city.

The shots miss badly. Death, when it finally comes, will be a mercy for Paul.

And to think there was a time when basketball was just a game.