SOUL THIEF

by Jeff Chapman

You’ve heard it said, “Don’t give up the ghost?”

~*~

“Hey, Jimmy. Are you coming?”

“James,” he muttered. “My name is James.”

His sister Alicia stood in the doorway to his bedroom, slapping her red wool gloves into her palm.

“No thanks.” The Facebook game spread across his monitor flickered at him. “Scout or attack?” it asked, awaiting his command.

“Dad and Mom are going to be pissed. Did you even get dressed today?”

James shrugged.

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LOCKS

by Kristi DeMeester

Dreams…or nightmares…can seem so real sometimes.

~*~
The dream woke me at 2 a.m. I looked at the window, hoped for the first gray streaks of morning, but there were none. Only the dark sound of your snores, the wheezing sound of the air conditioner.

I won’t call it a nightmare because it wasn’t fashioned in the way of typical nightmares. There were no monsters, no killers chasing after me, while I – with heavy legs – found it impossible to move. On waking our bedroom felt alien. The walls pushed against me, wanted me out, so I left you sleeping there by yourself.

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SANCTUARY

by Pauline Creeden

Survival means making hard choices. Just ask Jennie.

~*~
Jennie pressed her cheek against the scuffed white tiles that smelled of shoes and mud.  She could feel grains of sand as dirt stuck to her face, but she needed to reach under the store shelving unit to get the last can.  Her fingers touched the lip of the dented can and caused it to roll away.  Jennie took a deep breath and barely stopped the curse that surfaced.  The old Jennie might have let the curse slide, like any other high school senior, but not now.  She rose to her knees.

“Did you get it?” Mickey’s young voice echoed through the cold, empty grocery store.

Jennie almost made a smart remark like: Does it look like I got it? But when she looked into her five-year-old brother’s sunken face as he hugged the other three cans to his chest, she couldn’t consider it.

“I’ve got to go around to the other side to get it. Stay here.”

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