Pretty Persuasion

Sam found the devil's words to be persuasive. "Where do I sign?"

"Right here, fine sir."

As he put pen to paper, Sam paused. "I almost feel bad. It's just too good to be true."

"I assure you every clause will be followed to the letter."

"It's just I don't like to agree to anything unless I feel certain both parties will be happy."

Six hours of negotiation later, the devil finally had the satisfaction of capturing Sam's signature. Never mind a soul was no longer included. He had at least saddled Sam with a lifetime subscription to Satan's Substack.

Are We All Bound In Hell?

The quantum traveler reviewed history yet again.

Age of change?

Age of reality?

Watching the Mandela effects replace known history?

Or a mind swapped into a shifted realm?

For?

In Abe Lincoln's election 1860 only 2 parties ran. Not 4.

Lincoln according to Hillary Clinton and myself was a senator.

The question really is does any of it matter?

Or is this all some sort of dream?

Science confirms we live in a simulator.

So a test is expected at the end of a simulated training run.

Is life the test or is hell just all there is to expect?

From Guest Contributor Clinton Siegle

The Sound Of Silence

I pine for smiling yellow walls, the low murmur of conversation.

Social distancing exiled me.

I try to write among sterile walls. Blank screens taunt.

There’s no favorite table in the corner. This space is devoid of smiling baristas with big glasses. No laughter from large rectangular tables or sizzling coffee. No undergraduates talking of failed chem tests and parties. I can’t inhale fragments of conversation or insert myself into their worlds.

There’s just silence, the occasional clump of feet upstairs.

I play movies, but my companions are always lonely 80s working-class characters or Lifetime psychopaths.

I surrender to silence.

From Guest Contributor Yash Seyedbagheri

Yash is a graduate of Colorado State University's MFA program in fiction. Yash’s work is forthcoming or has been published in WestWard Quarterly, Café Lit, 50 Word Stories, (mac)ro (mic), and Ariel Chart.

What Should Have Been

She was my first kiss at seven, she had a crush on me. She moved away a year later and was forgotten until high school when she found me on social media. I was busy, having parties and ignored her texts. In university, she found me again, through a friend, but I had no time, as I needed to study. Years later, by fortune, we bumped on the street. We talked for a few minutes, but that was all. Once more we met, this time at a funeral. Here I realized my folly, as I said goodbye to my soulmate.

From Guest Contributor Jordan Altman