“Cradle to the Grave”.
from Best of Carnage House Year Two from Carnage House
They wanted to punish him. He just wanted them to tell him what he did.
It’s been a great honor to have “Cradle to the Grave” selected for Best of Carnage House Year Two. Poor Ted Collins is going to be waking up in front that Judas Cradle for a long time after this.
“Daydreams and Nightmares”
from Spirits and Spreadsheets from Ps and Qs Publishing
There’s one on every team.
Gloria’s coworkers are exhausted, and not entirely because of their crazy schedule and miserable conditions. They’ve been cooped up in the same meeting room for too many days in a row. Lines have been crossed. And someone is keeping a tally of mistakes and missteps—and passing a unique sort of judgment.
“Cradle to the Grave”
from Carnage House, Issue 7
They wanted to punish him. He just wanted them to tell him what he did.
Ted Collins wakes up as his face hits the rough wooden floor. He’s been beaten. He’s been drugged. And it’s the cops with his blood on their knuckles. But right now the cops aren’t looking at him. They’re focused on a device that can make anyone confess…to anything.
“Edge Mountain Hello”
from Feral Lands from Samak Press
Martin Tracer misses his wife, even though he knows right where she is, on life support in the hospital room down the hall. Desperate to rekindle old memories, he retreats to one of her favorite spots, Edge Mountain Hawk Sanctuary. He arrives near dark, on a blustery winter evening, and the higher he climbs, the more things go downhill…
“Bitter Water”
from Dolls in the Attic from Terrorcore Publishing
Ashley Keating is a single mom in 1980s New York City, doing her best. On a lark, she takes her daughter Lizzy consignment shopping, never imagining that Lizzy would fall in love with a porcelain doll that costs more than a month’s rent. The price is only going to go up, though, because the doll also took notice of Lizzy.
“The Heart of the Universe Is a Hole”
from Fraidy Cat Quarterly Volume 1 from Fraidy Cat Press
Professor Phil Grant lost his wife , and now his son has flown off to college. Overwhelming loneliness threatens to consume him, but he’s putting one foot in front of the other. He’s getting by. Then, one night, he finds himself standing in his backyard, gazing into a blank space between the stars, and a cold curiosity stirs within him. Is his lost love still out there?
“Caverns of Error”
from The Elemental Cycle: Air from Eerie River Publishing
Kaley has mixed emotions over her birthday present, an outdated console that once meant the world to her departed father. Hoping to feel connected to a man she barely knew, she finds herself playing late into the night, only to find that her father’s favorite game holds secrets she could not have dreamt.
“The Unsaid Good-Bye”
- Vocal.media Top Story August 2021
- Winner Vocal Summer Fiction Series, final week
Click here to read!
Vic never got along with her father, but she loved her great-grandmother. With her dad’s passing, she has returned to her great-grandmother’s former home for the first time in years. Alone in the house, she remembers how much she hates the mural in the shower. Worse, she senses it doesn’t like her, either.
“Walk Me Home”
Recorded by two channels for YouTube, “Walk Me Home” (aka “Brad and Constance”) is the story of Brad, a young man trying to get home after curfew who finds himself lost in a part of the city he rarely visits. His only companion is a girl his own age, who came out of the darkness the moment after his car broke down. Their only illumination comes from the streetlights burning overhead. And then the lights start to go out.
“House on the Edge of Midnight”
from Dungeon Magazine #76 from Wizards of the Coast
A group of adventurers wash ashore in the wake of a shipwreck and must seek shelter in the abode of a reclusive scientist. What at first seems like much-needed hospitality soon becomes a night of horror.
R.E. Dyer 