Monsters, Mystery, & Mayhem Contest Longlist
These 39 stories thrilled us with their specific and creepy details, their attention to character, and their surprises in plot…
Tollbooth Madonna
In her old age, the Virgin Mary moves to your town in the North Carolina backwoods, buys a fixer-upper and…
Blink and You Miss Her
You were 48 hours old when I called the midwife and told her that my uterus was falling out, hanging…
Rubber Boots
Sister Francis’ long black coat whipped behind her in the wind, clipping the heads off dying dandelions and scattering white…
Stealing
When the boys’ father came to pick them up at their mother’s and take them for the day, he was…
Phantom Trails
When Tía Amelia died, we ordered KFC. “Kentucky Fried Cruelty,” she used to call it, before biting into the flesh…
Rat Girl
She calls herself Rat Girl, but she looks like a little Swiss doll. Now in the Chapel, she is singing…
Mary the Obscure
The Marys—mothers, daughters, whores, saints, queens and killers—meet every Thursday afternoon in Riverside Park during the spring and summer months.…
The Rookery
The rookery is disguised as a shed. I keep a lawnmower and a pair of hedge trimmers for the sake…
Fig
For breakfast, Zip and I will eat a rancid jar of olives, a brittle feather from the windowsill, and a…
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