Lightning: The Weekly Knob & The Writing Cooperative Contest — The tree had been struck by lightning several times a year for decades. Or, so that’s what everyone in the town said. Limbs gnarled and roots craggy, weaving into and around each other, rocks and animal bones swallowed into its timber, it had the presence of a great fighter, confident…

As dawn’s light began to seep in below the door, her stomach churned. Freedom was all too brief. Every night, time wound down quicker than the night before. Every day, time crept slower than the day before. …

A Simple Story about Hemorrhoid Cream — Meth was the best thing to happen to homemade hemorrhoid cream since hemorrhoids were invented, Aunt T’d proclaim time and again as she crushed tiny, red pills with her pestle. Meth and Kim K. Before meth, that real pseudo-ephedrine was easy to come by. But no one could get the…

A Story Inspired by the Prompt “Jar” — The air began to soften, filling the room with a glorious tingling that put everyone at ease. Perhaps a shared hallucination or maybe the presence of otherworldly beings, none were ever sure. …

What We Want, What We Wish — The balls spun, twirled, whirled, and drifted down to land, a yellow one in a gull’s mouth, the others resting on the bottom. Inez pushed the fat, white button again, bubbles gurgled upward into the water, sending the balls pirouetting haphazardly toward the gulls. “Inez!” Sandra yelled. “Enough, already! It’s…

Back in the day, not so long ago, there was this place: it was called the closet. All the boys who loved boys and girls who loved girls and those who loved people and boys who were actually girls and girls who were actually boys and boys and girls who…

A Conversation Over Pie — “Psychopaths have it easy,” she said. Steve spit out his coffee in a snort, “What the hell do you mean? How is being a psychopath an ‘easy’ thing?” “They don’t feel guilt,” she snarked, emphatically shoveling a bite of pie into her mouth. “I’m thinking about becoming one.” Blueberries dancing…