by Christian A. Larsen
And you thought ventriloquist dummies were dummies.
~*~
It was awful dark in there, that steamer trunk. Willie’d been locked inside for so long, he could almost smell the yellow coming off the crinkled newspaper wads that held him in place. If he could smell. But he couldn’t. Not really. Not when there wasn’t a drunk or a kid or someone’s cracked old grandmother to terrorize, because when they exhaled that fear, brother, it was like giving old Willie mouth-to-mouth, seeping from those rabbit-quick heartbeats into his body, all the way from the hand-carved cowlick of his painted-on hair to the cotton batting in his shoes.
Willie loved that feeling.
Continue reading HIS SPLINTERY SMILE
by Milo James Fowler
You got me ringing hell’s bells. – AC/DC
~*~
Emaciated by time, the hollow-eyed wraith at the cash register drew on his smoldering cigarette and released a ragged cough.
“You play?” he croaked.
I glanced up from the book of guitar chords, a dog-eared paperback with coffee-stained pages, but at forty-nine cents a real pawn shop bargain. “Yeah.”
“Bored with the standard crap? Those open chords and whatnot?” He spewed smoke like a dragon in its final throes. “Looking for more advanced stuff, huh.”
“Something like that.”
Continue reading POWER CHORDS
by Tom Howard
Sometimes tourists aren’t as naive as one might hope.
~*~
Scalene always had an angle. Whether it was milking the rubes at her fortune-telling table or skimming her neighbors’ food stamps when she went to the market for them, she always looked out for Number One.
Even on hot muggy Louisiana evenings when she sat outside at her table studying her Tarot cards, she kept one eye open for potential marks. She didn’t consider herself a thief; she was an opportunist. If her customers wanted to throw money at her, who was she to deny them? She wasn’t getting any younger. She tried to ignore the amount of gray replacing her thin blonde hair and the number of pounds her forty-something body had packed on, but the looks of pity she got from some of the passersby reminded her occasionally of her lot in life.
Continue reading MADAME MYSTIC
by Timothy Miller
They called him ‘Weird’ because he could hear the wytches’ cries when others couldn’t.
~*~
The stars were out, distant fireflies floating high above the walls of the Hold. A thick band of the twinkling beauties split the heavens like a glowing highway of old. The Milky Way, the grandfathers called it.
Pulling up his collar, Weird shivered. The sky was pretty enough, he supposed, but clear nights were always the coldest. Some said a cloudy sky helped hold in the warmth of the day, if you could call any day in January warm.
Continue reading WYTCHE WAY
by David Wright
Secrets worth keeping are secrets worth sharing.
~*~
Draco Donatello entered the director’s office visibly distempered – shirttail loose, bow tie missing, wine stains on his high-necked, starched-white collar. The director felt his afternoon yogurt turn immediately sour in the pit of his formidable stomach.
“Herr Donatello, what on earth has happened to you?”
“You will not believe it. I dare not say.” Draco plopped himself into one of the director’s aging velvet chairs and began, with great dramatic effect, to dab the sweat from his forehead.
Continue reading PAGANINI’S SECRET
by G. J. Wise
I knew something was wrong the moment I saw it…
~*~
August burns in Wisconsin. The sun beats down like a smithy’s hammer, white hot and relentless. Grass fires seem to crop up every year or two and I figured we were due for another burn some time soon. Heat lightning flickered in the distance making me a prophet. I thoroughly expected to hear a distant fire whistle, but I was asleep before it blew.
When I woke to the alarm, my throat was dry and scratchy. The smell of grass fire was strong and a haze filled the room. Flinging open the window, I saw smoke swirling across the yard in a low fog.
Continue reading SMOKE
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Welcome to F&T! Fear & Trembling features horror and suspense with a spiritual twist. Now, not every story will have a spiritual element, but you'll find here intelligent fiction that touches on eternal themes. On the other hand, sometimes you'll come across some good old fashioned, frightfully pulpy fun. Either way, we hope you enjoy each of these stories that just won't die.
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