“If Nadine got into Heaven, ain’t nobody going to Hell,” Sally Simpson, one of the girls she’s standing with, says under her breath...
The Cheap Shit Gets You Drunk the Fastest
The Falcon’s Choice
He watched her hesitate for a second and wondered if this would be the time when she chose her freedom over him.
Partir
I shed my layers like an old skin – my shawl, the netted muslin at my throat, my underskirt – until all that remains is the shell of my dress, as sea green as the gown of Loro Kidu.
Searching
There she paused. The sharp wind cut her face. Loneliness cloaked her. She was nobody. Nobody loved her. Everyone took, and no one gave.
Mantis Thoughts Editor’s Pick
Isabel sautéed the onions, garlic, and ginger she’d chopped before adding the curry spices to the pan. When the aroma was right, she stirred in coconut milk and added the chicken. It would be highly seasoned, the way Alex liked it. How much peanut butter would it take, she wondered, to ensure that he’d suffer a fatal allergic reaction? Not just swelling and discomfort, but cardiac arrest.
London Burning
And what’s this? There’s someone else sitting in the corner, meal long finished, looking, looking around. Don’t like that, the way he’s looking: who sits in a chicken shop and just looks?