Tatau
Briana Loveall
When I was eighteen, and she was sixteen, I took my sister with me to get what would be my first tattoo—her name.I hadn’t known to research tattoo artists; ...
All Stories
The Arrangement
Olivia Gunning
Mum pads into our room when she’s finished her set on the piano, very late. I wake and watch her undress. She pulls the covers over her and looks across the roo...
The James Bonds
Hannah Lackoff
When they are not on duty, the James Bonds live at 125 Wellington Square. From the outside, it is nothing more than an unobtrusive gray metal door set in a worn...
Wax
Leah Browning
She bought a Colt .45 and hid it in a carved wooden box under her bed.There had been times, earlier in her life, when she’d looked forward to the night, the...
The Worm Eater
Sarah Starr Murphy
“Whose birthday is this?” Lara asked, as Essie turned the wheel to back into a parallel parking space on the narrow residential street. A passing postal truck h...
Follicles
Barbara Barrow
Anthony wants to keep it classic. Traditional elm wood or, in a pinch, a chip board veneer. It looks just like the real thing. But Lewis wants Ho Chi Minh fanfa...
Persimmon
Raven Leilani
The first time she speaks to you, you are on the toilet. You are both at a party, and she is waiting for a polite time to go home. Underneath the stall, you see...
What They Know
Laura Valeri
Checking her face in the mirror, she feels him move behind her, his attention absorbing the space between them. “What?” she says. He doesn’t answer, turns to ...
Take Your Eye
Laura Moretz
We were walking along South Street after group therapy when Keith popped out his glass eye. I knew he had a glass eye, and that he could pop it out, but even if...
The Boots
Kelly Griffiths
A 1977 divorce was trailblazing, and a custodial father was positively extraterrestrial. I was six.A serpentine driveway tethered our farmhouse to the count...