ExperimentalObsolete, Likened to Many Things by Ken L. Jones
I use to think that days melted fast, back in the time it took you to blink forty years after the Beatles Until now, ever since I first dove One hundred New…
Section
Fiction
Short stories and flash fiction, free to read. Ninety-odd stories from the Dual Coast Magazine archive, ranging from literary fiction to humor to science fiction, and a fair amount that refuses to sit in any one of those. All of it was selected by our editors, printed in the magazine, and is open to read here. The issues these pieces appeared in are still available in paperback from Prolific Press.
Experimental
FictionA Boon from an Angel by Matias Travieso-Diaz
Norman first saw the angel on one of those November nights when the temperature is too low for air conditioning but too high for the heating unit to do any good. Unable…
FictionMud Season by Laura Rodley
The road was mudded out, yet still the mail must go through. Chester gritted his teeth as the studded snow tires of his jeep grabbed onto the ruts and rode them like…
FictionWagon, Ho! by Suzanne Cottrell
Afternoon thunderstorms converted the front ditch into a stream. Josh, Caroline, and Melissa rushed outside and jumped into their temporary pool. They flailed their arms and splashed water everywhere. They screamed and…
FictionTwirling by C L Killgore
I remember falling down. I twirled and twirled until I couldn’t stand upright. I was giddy and swooned and hit the ground hard. But I laughed. I always laughed. What was it…
FictionA Day on the Beach by Kirk Eckstine
The beach, littered with bone-white shells and coral, soaks up blood with surprising speed. My blood. The sting of salt water on open wounds keep me from passing out. Flayed muscle and…
FictionRound About the Fireflies Light by Rocco Marinelli
As Ray scanned the property, he couldn’t help but notice how run-down things had gotten after mom died. Cancer had come quickly for his mother, and when she left three years ago,…
FictionThe Compliment by Carolyn Geduld
Jill was startled awake by a sound. She sat up in bed, staring into the darkness. The blankets had been thrown aside. As her eyes adjusted, she could see them churned up…
FictionSit Down. Let Me Tell You a Funny Story. By Cynthia Pitman
I was only seventeen when I fell in love with a one-armed trumpet player. It didn’t take long. I met him. I fell in love. That quick. My older sister sang in…
FictionDear Tomorrow by Kaye Spivey
You are a creature my tired feet are limping to capture, an awakening on the horizon as luscious as the sinking sun, bright and empty as the moon and her sad face,…
FictionBigfoot by Stephen Cooper
My knuckles turned white from the death grip on my axe. Chewy clutched his shovel like a bayonet. We squinted in the cold dark forest. The campfire cast long distorted images across…
FictionThe Gift by Clive Aaron Gill
Ernie Sherman, an eighty-year-old widower, sat on a bench near the beach in Oceanside, California. The summer sun dispersed the morning mist. He enjoyed watching small fishing boats float over the kelp…
FictionMy One Regret by Shannon Hollinger
I probably shouldn’t have killed her. I know that now. But at the time, it felt like I had no other choice. I’d take it back if I could, but I can’t.…
FictionThe Old Cedar Chest by Patricia Rossi
It was strategically positioned in the eaves of the attic, wedged between the rafters, yet easily accessible to the adjoining rooms of the center hall Cape Cod, my beloved childhood home, built…
FictionThe Metaphor by Bruce Levine
The last embers died in the hearth. Charlie had been sitting there, staring for hours as the crackling logs reduced to twigs and then to lumps like coal and finally to embers,…
FictionJanice the Moirologist by Anita G. Gorman
Janice was looking for something to do, something that would be worthwhile. She had tried all sorts of activities, but none seemed to fulfill her in a way she wanted to be…
FictionMarriage Place by Will Hearn
Places are like photographs. Your first visit somewhere is the snapshot, and every visit thereafter just adds shadow, highlight, or a frame around what you already know. Like with meeting people, first…
FictionThe Grey Town by Ewa Mazierska
When Alex and I visit our summer apartment in Kinghorn, there’s always something that doesn’t work and isn’t easy to fix. This time it was the hot water boiler, and the only…
FictionThe Scream by Gloria g. Murray
When I awoke the morning of my seventieth birthday. I knew I was no longer alive. Every part of me seemed so light under the sheets. I tried to move each limb…
FictionEveryday Signs by Samantha Pilecki
When signs come, follow them. Coincidences exist, but so do smack-you-over-the-head directives. There are everyday signs, so clear you can’t ignore them. Anything can be the key to a Narnia. Any spider…