CONNECT WITH MARS
Watching Alice DieI’m sitting and smoking and watching Alice pop these huge blue pills into her mouth. She just scoops them up in her hand and pops them in like it’s nothing, like they’re candy, but they’re… [more]
16 Characters, 44 Stories, and the Bird Flies AwayFrank Monroe saw the ants below. He thought of his dad. A mostly empty bottle of fine Irish whiskey sat on the glass endtable inside his penthouse. He gripped the rail. The big plasma TV… [more]
Big DealA quiet store, Saturday night, ten minutes to closing time. One customer remained, a female browsing the Pop music CD’s. The humming fluorescent lights illuminated her starkly, without shadow. Chuck Disani approached her with loping… [more]
LamarckismJim grappled with his cock, imagining himself transforming into pixels as he thrust it into the image of a woman’s vagina. A mind beyond his penis insisted this could happen. It was the same mind that assured him… [more]
We’ll Take a Lover in the AfterlifeDreamed on 15 Jan 2013. I was at my parents’ house, helping them move electronics around the living room. Everything we moved had other things behind it, flattened cardboard boxes propped up against the wall,… [more]
The ChallengerAfter Dad died and we moved in with Leon, everything went to shit. I remember the first night he did it to me. I was fourteen. Mom was–most likely passed out–downstairs on the sofa with… [more]
Ken’s DollThere’s really nothing wrong with the Valley. People accustomed to Sunset look down on it but paradise has its limits; thinking all of Los Angeles can be a palm-lined mirage of awesomeness is lunacy. The… [more]
Dinner and CharadesIt is evening, and the sun is low. I ring the doorbell to my sister’s house. She answers the door, her brown eyes alight with excitement. “Why hello, Mike!” Nicole gushes. “How’s my favorite brother… [more]
Turtle PowerIn the Black Hills we went to a replica of the Flintstone’s town where I sat in Fred’s car. My brother climbed Dino while my sister stuck her face atop Wilma’s neck. I was too… [more]
Leopard PeopleLermontov got on the plane back to Russia and put the jacket over his face, trying to picture an airport without people for his return. He tried not to think of the people he’d let… [more]
Black and Blue in ’32I’m the favorite to win. It’s not my foreign policy and it’s not my handling of domestic issues. Nobody gives a shit about the unemployment numbers, job growth, the illusory downward trend of the trade… [more]
NineMy name is George, and I have a nine-inch cock. This is its story.
BullAfter his tour of duty in Afghanistan, Billy believed he had seen everything. Arm yourself, learn to kill efficiently, develop a nose for IEDs impatient under the sand, pick up severed limbs, embrace a fallen… [more]
AMYGDALADeep in the Eureka, Kansas bunker, there still exists one Memory Replacement protocol, invented by the late Hemispheres scientist Hans Geisser. It is a cryogenic dreaming sequencing process known officially as “Foreground Switching.” The main… [more]
In Amber GehennaBehind the bar dangles a ribbon of yellow flypaper covered in glass bees, some of them still wriggling. Wings vibrating, antennae twitching. All to no avail. They’re not the only ones stuck, of course. Here… [more]
One or the OtherMy best good friend Quiddit got the bike off a fifth grader, nice orange and silver Mongoose from the Wal-Mart down in Bowling Green, with pegs and a handlebar rotor for tricks and all that… [more]
What a Difference a Day MakesWarren Samuels III was cordially invited by the Imaginautical Turbine to attend A Meeting of Fantastic Importance on the 30th of February. The words were lavishly written in thick cursive ink. The invitation was a singular… [more]
Nostalgia in Three ActsCHARACTERS Brian Watkins, a twenty-one-year-old male David Watkins, Brian’s father Charlene Watkins, Brian’s mother Jane Higgins, Brian’s twentyish girlfriend John Burrow, Brian’s twentyish friend Nate Peterson, a twenty-two-year-old male ACT ONE: April 27, 1970 ACT… [more]
Gallery of the Disappeared MenShe had seen that clouded look before, a determined mix of pity and revulsion and something else she could not define. It was there and then gone in an instant, like that first surprising zing… [more]
Dig Doug, Day 3Doug didn’t bother taking a shower. Instead, he came into work early as usual. As he stood in front of the building, waiting for Kay to unlock it, he noticed that the others stood away… [more]
1978She lived alone. She lived many lives. Her name was Jenn. She had several cats. They rarely came out. Jenn barely went out either. Her weekly trips to the store. The cherry wine. The Pall… [more]
Steven Storky and the Case of the Lost BallsSteven Storky has lost his balls. His wife, Sandy, may have them, but Steven doesn’t have the balls to ask her. It’ll be a lose-lose situation if he asks her anyway. She certainly won’t give… [more]
And Still Your Fingers on Your LipsA cross section of the sharp young minds who flourished under his tutelage will slowly be reduced to paper towels. The ink will become wet black splotches suspended in liquid purple. A dendrochronology more than… [more]
Just One LookShe looked like the kind of girl who needed to be smacked around a little before the fucking started. She should have said something before. I got taken in and it was the first time… [more]
Dig Doug, Day 2Doug woke hungry the next day. His stomach rattled and revolted like a prisoner trying to escape. For the first time ever, he wanted to go to work. Not to work on his blog, but… [more]