The cowboy lay by the creek, his breath shallow, his body stiffening in the fading light. The sun dipped lower, turning the water to gold. That was what he wanted–wasn’t it? Gold. Westward dreams of it. He planted that dream deep and watched it grow and consume him. It burned him up until he couldn’t…

In the year of our Lord 1577, the hamlets of Bungay and Blythburgh lay wrapped in a suffocating stillness, the air taut with the charge of a storm yet to break. In both villages, the faithful crowded into their sanctuaries—stone walls meant to shelter the soul but holding the weight of unspoken sins. The Church…

Sound travels well over rocks and hard-packed earth. That’s why I could hear the guy with the dirty bike. His voice carried through the still air, taunting, “Watch him get his ass stomped by those Mustangs.” I glanced at the small herd that had formed around me. Each was a beautiful creature, coats shimmering under…

This old-age business is more troublesome than a rash on a summer day. Yesterday, I made a startling discovery: I need not lift a finger to upset the balance of my body’s delicate sensibilities. No, all it takes now is the audacity to exist. As per the usual routine, I did my best impersonation of…

When the aliens landed in my backyard, I was midway through a nap on the sunny patch by the window. The sudden green glow pouring through my cat door was not exactly ideal. Neither was the saucer the size of a kiddie pool hovering over my begonias. “Great,” I thought, flicking my tail. “Another Tuesday…

I spent the night in the hills east of home, an exile under the sky where the landscape is disfigured and ancient and the air thick, with the weight of forgotten histories. It felt like I had wandered into the past, away from the hum of modern life, where my only companions were the ghosts…

Missy had always thought she understood her father-in-law. Burdick was a straightforward man–brusque, stubborn, and unfiltered. He didn’t say things. He threw them into the air, daring someone to catch them. Tonight, though, something about his tone felt different. “You think you’ve got a dirty mind?” Burdick said, his eyes glinting over the rim of…

Nevada’s always been a place for folks who like their odds as wild as their whiskey—and I’ll tell you, they’ve kept it that way since before they even had the state line drawn. Back in ’62, when it was just a dust-swept territory and hadn’t quite set its sights on statehood, you’d think there was…

It was a dark and stormy night in the small town of Virginia City. The wind howled through the trees, and the moon cast eerie shadows on the ground. The townsfolk were on edge following rumors of a werewolf lurking in the woods. Denny, the local handyman, was heading home from a late-night job, having…

JL might’ve been the walrus, but me, I’m the groundhog. same damn day, every damn time, waking to the grind of a clock that doesn’t care I’m tired. the weather moves, but I don’t. months slap the calendar, but it’s all the same— cigarettes and cracked mugs, shadows stretched thin over yesterday’s junk. the grave’s…