Fiction

Jerry looks out peacefully at his friend Marky drowning again. He’s in the water. The first time he was out there, it was when his mom got sick for good, and he stopped seeing his shrink.

No matter what, it will get better.

Pain. Burning, hot, searing. Invading like a species from two countries away, determined to bring its roots down into the soil of my muscles and live off of my anguish as if it's a parasite.

Max stopped dead, in front of her “Felicity— this is a bad place to freeze!” He said guarding her

“City, move!” Payton said grabbing her arm

“All of the sudden I want to uhh go somewhere else” Max said, putting himself in front of his sister and Payton.

“Whatever’s out there, or… whoever’s out there, say your name!”

Max’s grip tightened, fingers trembling. “Emily is gone. Payton just—”

He swallowed. “—just vanished.”

His voice dropped, raw now.

“I am not losing you too.”

“Then come with me”

Max skidded to a stop beside her just as she reached the doorway.

“Emily?” Felicity called, her voice pitching higher as she stepped inside. “Payton?”

“Get in here!” he shouted. “No one lives here!”

They didn’t argue.

They rushed inside before any of them had time to question how big the house was.

The door slammed shut behind them.

The road was warmer than the sidewalk.

The East Wind is a rabbi in a darkened shul. He sits pored over the Torah scroll long into the night, his back bent like a cane. People come and go and come again, whispering prayers for the needy, the hungry, the sick.

I stared at the chains for a long moment.

They were thicker up close—layered metal, cold and ugly, dug deep enough into her scales that the edges were dark with dried blood. My stomach twisted.

“Of course I left my phone at home.”