"Attention! May we have your attention?" the voice whispered hoarsely. "Can you hear our thoughts? We are here. We must reach you. Greetings. We are friendly." The man started up from his dead sleep. "What! What the hell! Who's yelling at me?" He jerked his head around and saw nothing, just the glow of the security light coming in through the grill in the door.  "Did you hear us? We are here. Please, we need your help." N...

They drove out after the Halloween drive-in movie. They didn't have dates. They just cruised by the lover's lane along the railroad tracks, slowly passing by a car or two to ogle and razz. Wilmer flashed the headlights of his convertible Mercury. Bored with that the boys stood beside his car looking down the railway line. The moon was in and out behind clouds. They discussed it. "It's so cool. Let's do it!" Jay glanced at...

Peen slipped through a gate in the wire mesh fencing, between pink oleanders, and out onto the deck of the swimming pool. He stood proudly in the simmering heat of the summer sun. His splayed feet were shod in sandals. He wore a cabana shirt dotted with green sea turtles. Added to that were Bermuda shorts in a purplish plaid pattern hanging loosely. A straw hat with pompom dangles completed his sartorial splendor.  He sli...

The Bee Flats. They'd come up with the name in Paul's dingy basement flat, which always smelled dank and foisty no matter how many Glade Plug-ins Paul threw at it. Jacko always felt a little ill the day after he'd spent time at Paul's, the damp air permeating his already overworked alveoli. The copious amount of weed they smoked obviously didn't help matters. They were proud of the name as it combined their shared interes...

Listening In The Rain I'm a good listener; always have been. Especially here inside the cemetery—just sitting in my truck, listening to the rain, hearing it tell the story, and waiting for Holly. We don’t have nice winter weather around here, just cold and rainy. The only thing it’s good for is hunting, especially for deer. But I don't hunt—not anymore. Winter became my favorite season after meeting Holly. I’d been drivin...

The Tumultuous Tale of the Tormented Terrier Well, let me tell you, it was like this. Once upon a time, our humble hovel was being run by the daughter-unit’s pet, a small, cute, cuddly and constantly yapping Yorkshire Terrier that answered to the name, Puh-Pet, but only if she happened to be in the mood. She loved nothing better than people-food treats and patroling the backyard. Since it was unfenced she had to be hitche...

 A white ball streaked across green felt and snapped into a triangle of colorful balls. The formation exploded, and the balls thumped off rails, clicked off one another, came to rolling stops. Two stripes fell into pockets.Billy Miller removed a greasy baseball cap, ran a hand through greasy hair, returned the cap to his head, and said: “I hate you.”Stephen Zander smiled and chalked his cue with a big fist. He was tall an...

Living in the body of a charred and colossal skeleton lies a man wanting to burst through the rib cages and escape. A man wanting to tear at the skin and crawl out like a birthing baby. A man trying to scream so loud that the eardrums can no longer ignore his cries. But with every scream and every scratch the skeleton heals itself and ignores that any of it happened. The only space surrounding the skeleton is a void unfat...

She doesn’t remember it anymore, and that scares her most of all. Fifteen and with the world ahead of her, she didn’t know where she was heading, but it was somewhere. She wore miniskirts and polo shirts, played tennis and was a cheerleader. She was a straight A student headed for success. And that’s what they said. Except she’s 24 now. And she doesn’t know a damn thing. You’d think they’d tell her. But I guess they only...

A vivid flash of color. Feelings that must be real. Living a life like no other In a false memory. See things and hear things, Things that speak of madness. Know things and hope for things, Things that ease the loneliness. People are with me. People there love me. If I am loved so much, Why do I feel so alone? I can see lives taken away, Or I can see lives brought today. Anything is possible here; Except, it seems, to run...

I had talked about it for years. Finally one spring day I made up my mind, it was time to get my first tattoo. Now way back then tattoo shops were not permitted in the city of Cleveland, so I had to travel a bit.I cannot recall how long I wandered between the rows of flash. Flash is what they call the pictures covering the walls in the lobby showing the ink work they can do, they range from tame to wild. I showed the arti...

It was an evening like any other in Rail City, which means an incredible amount of crimes were going on. One such crime was a bank robbery on the corner of Blank and Generic Street. Our fearless hero was on the scene in record time. When the Captain arrived, he found three raccoons robbing a bank. No kidding, they were really raccoons--not just burglars with bandit masks. Raccoons! Anything in Rail City is possible, of co...