Welcome to issue 17. Seventeen slick little stories. And here be monsters, heroes too, for balance, but can you tell which is which, the val...

by Shannon Bell He looks me up and down. “There’s beauty in dirt.” I don’t know what to say. His finger pokes painfully into my flesh....

by Dakota Canon I went to the doctor because the spirit inside me had died. “I can save you,” he said, his own hero. “We’ll have to cut ...

by Rach Chappers Broken, I collapsed on the bed and tossed away the can. A decade of pretence lived in fear, years of assaults stripping m...

by Michelle Vongkaysone I wasted my life fighting that beast. Always elusive, preying on my weary flesh. Its presence provoked my deepes...

by Allen Ashley At the labyrinth’s core, I clamp my bare hands around the beast’s neck. It’s his weak point: where bull head joins brawny ...

by John Xero Slowly, the crimson veil slips from my eyes. The world is obscured no longer. And yet the red remains: slick on my skin, dren...

by Lyric Hyde He saw the blade drawn back, his blood glistening on its tip. He felt the pain, sharp in his chest, and clutched at his hear...

by Chad Plunk Sir Adalbert heard of the awful flaming dragon threatening the village, causing trembling terror in the women and children, ...

by Thomas Diehl One careful hit and the stone chipped just the right way to make the perfect cleft in the hero's chin. Nothing but per...

by Joseph S. Pete Dillinger once robbed this dive bar. That was the legend; that was the lore. Jukebox and dollar PBRs be damned, that was...

by Stella Turner The eulogy, fit for the hero he was! Saving an old woman from her burning flat, rescuing a family trapped in quicksand. A...

by Gregory Lloyd All around us, the ship is dying. Everything is on fire. There's maybe one minute of life left for us, but our fight ...

by John Xero The moonlit mist whirled in ragged, agitated eddies as Elijah stumbled onwards, a single word tolling through his mind: Hom...

by Sarah McPherson Don’t go near the trees, mother said, but I don’t believe in childish nonsense. I trail my hand across dank moss-spatte...

by Owoh Ugonna Alexander In the thick forest came voices stolen from lost birds but bound to men. They ran through the night to a place ...

by Scott Beggs He crouched on the hill a behemoth. Mud hugged his boots though it hadn’t rained in weeks, and an empty smile anchored his ...