When he’s gone this long, he usually leaves the terrace window open. Forgotten, or delayed. Either way, the food’s running thin, and the city’s seductions are calling. The strays in heat are yowling and leisurely carriages are clip-clopping outside my brickhouse lair. I pounce up the stairs to my landlord’s study, three flights above theContinue reading “Whitechapel Cat Calls”
Category Archives: strange fiction
Stitch, a horror poem
How I would prefer a sewing table to this rickety metal gurney. Mouth dangling thread tails are catching sweat beads on their journey from my forehead like an amateur I hurry. Hemming another running line in furry. One more seam, and then a taper. Bastings, patches, all needled proper. And the banging on the doorContinue reading “Stitch, a horror poem”
Stitch, a horror poem (image version)
Walls Closing on Methuselah
A historical cyberpunk – The evening city bent prismatic lights across the open floors of an ultramodern penthouse. They cast broken shadows over the figure of a man, standing bare chested with hemp-linen joggers at his floor-to-ceiling windows. Tidy smart-suite and spartan sleek walls behind him, consoles once subtly integrated into his decor, were nowContinue reading “Walls Closing on Methuselah”
Dead On Stats & Datasets
Dead On Stats & Datasets, a playfully paranoid sci-fi, by Paul Carreo Sometimes the truth has set a collision course, ready to knock you on your ass like a box truck. And in the case of Arthur Slate, it was quite literally a box truck that knocked him over his head with an unexpected truth.Continue reading “Dead On Stats & Datasets”
The Haunting of Mr. Query
The Haunting of Mr. Query, a gothic tale by Paul Carreo It was an autumn of lamentations, the day I broke my fell stare from pale rain-blurred windows. My name is Franklin Arthur Query of the House of Query, the last of my line. I was spending my waning days scratching at the bones ofContinue reading “The Haunting of Mr. Query”
New Phone, Who Dis?
New Phone, Who Dis? a sci-fi short | PART ONE (OF THREE) Look, before we start rolling, you have to promise again you won’t edit me as some lunatic conspiracy theorist. I’ve had enough trouble with alien invasion fanatics, new age cults camping outside my house. I only want to present the facts and getContinue reading “New Phone, Who Dis?”
Prelude to the Silverwater Tavern
Tales from the Silverwater Tavern, [companion playlist] “Silverwater would welcome you, but you’ve been here all along” The Mojave desert sun was getting low and cool above this dusty, relic town of Silverwater. A radio broadcast from a distant rusted tower, on top of some rundown mechanics garage, bounces around the southern canyons called the Hollowlands,Continue reading “Prelude to the Silverwater Tavern”
A Banshee’s Bargain, an Irish ghost story
PART ONE I was sitting at the pub with a pint of stout, a traveler’s backpack nestled neatly under the barstool, reading a Yeats collection of poems about faeries. I was acting the part of a tourist, in between consulting gigs and taking the time to backpack around Europe. Despite my American appearance, I knewContinue reading “A Banshee’s Bargain, an Irish ghost story “
Sisyphus Goes Job Hunting, a reimagined Greek myth (Pt. I-II)
Part I: The Rock & Roll King The tall, thin ghost of a king gasped in pause halfway up the cliffside, calloused hands planted firmly on his craggy old boulder, weighing the risks to wipe the salty sweat off his sun-squinted eyes. He looked at his raisin-wrinkled arms and down to his loose tattered tunic.Continue reading “Sisyphus Goes Job Hunting, a reimagined Greek myth (Pt. I-II)”
Paul Carreo 