“Hard Knox” by Don LaPlant

The guy’s Craigslist ad was exactly what I was hoping to find that night . . .

“Charon” by Paul Renault

This happened at the Market Street garage . . .

“Careful what you wish for” by Barbara Jenkins

Hark!

When the First People found her sparse remains, Karinya’s body had already entered the Eternal Circle of Life, her spirit as free as the corbeaux circling overhead.

Wait. It’s chilly here. Let me get more comfortable . . .

“Searching for Graceland” by Vanessa de Sade

Even though it was June, the entire island was still engulfed in a soft gray mist like a widow’s mane, and I felt it caress my face with curiously skeletal fingers as I stepped gingerly down the shaky gangway they provided for foot pedestrians . . .

“Demon Children” by Frederick K. Foote Jr.

“Honey, I’m home.” Home to sulky silence, the absence of pounding footsteps, and the discordant music of two contentious nine-year-olds. I move through the eerie, foreboding silence toward her. Her—the mother of our children, and my wife of choice on most days . . .

“After the Robbery” by Aaron Fox-Lerner

Robbing the liquor store went well. Took less than a minute. Alex didn’t even need to shoot his gun at all . . .

“Fade Out” by Paul D. Marks

Fade in:

Flat on my back in the middle of one of the most famous intersections in the world, Hollywood and Vine. Cars slalom around me. Finally, it becomes clear, like a fade-in from a bad movie: what it all means. The pictures run through my mind at twenty-four frames per second . . .

“Ilyeana” by Sharon Millar

When the young soucouyant first realised there was a baby growing in her, she held the thought in her head tightly, boxing it in the same way you might wrap a pastelle: fold one side over and seal before folding the other side . . .