By H.L. Dowless The rhythmic melody of the seductive sirens' whispering chant rode upon the midday wind; inviting, enticing, hexing,...

By Paige Johnson  People throw dirt on Tampa, Florida, all day long, calling it America’s armpit—or raunchier, ranker body parts—but my...

By Alexis Levitin   It was a long bus ride. Everyone slumbered as best they could, and finally they found themselves having coffee in a...

When they forced our neighborhood into coordinated retreat, my dad and I started stealing contact lenses. We didn’t like our eye doctor,...

By Patricia Gimer     It was a calm, sunny day for the Polar Bear Dip, but the air was bone chilling. The starting gun exploded and Anne...

By Sophie Hermann My weary arms ached as I hammered in the final nail. There wasn’t much I could do for the ruined fence, but my sorry...

By Rachel Schmidt   Our fifteenth birthdays have all been marked by the first trip to the surface. Donning braids woven with sea glass...

By Danielle Altman   I kneeled next to the elephant seal on San Simeon beach at dawn. It had been disemboweled and was missing half its...

By Heather Picardat I always hate waking up this way, dry, peeling and full of bugs. The last 13 mornings have been a repeat of the same...

By Aidan Hass   Sure, we all know how awful it is to kill someone. Let’s be real and not lie to ourselves. If you resorted to this...

By Humayun Malik     The almighty Eadhrum is weary of granting the prayers of greedy and cruel beings, corporeal and incorporeal, and...

By Jeff Stone   It was a joke. Business-as-usual side-taking politics, followed by a comically belated “understanding” of the problem and...

By Stacy Alderman   She’s already gone when I wake up too early on a Saturday. I tell myself she’s at the gym or out for a jog – that our...

By Kenneth M. Kapp Tomorrow, Antonio’s head, with its thinning hair, would become red, his skin would dry and flake, and over the next...

By Jordan Stosius All around her, she watched as her friends died.  A crack, a splinter, the deafening crash, a fall. The final gasping...

By  Lina Feuerstein Sometimes, when you wake in the morning, all you see is something gray and shapeless. Sometimes, when you look up and...

by Kate Novak “Can I bum a cigarette off you? I left mine in my other jacket at home.” I offer him my pack. He brushes his hair from his...

by Katie Fleming  At fourteen, she had what most girls wanted: a mouth wide enough to consume treetops, teeth enough to pull meat from...

By Brad Bailey When I pulled up to the house and saw my father come out the front door, my first inclination was to turn and run. My...

by Danielle Schatten When I crawled out of the ocean, my tentacles dripping with seawater and my gelatinous skin reflecting a sun that...