Issue Three

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IGNACIO CARRION me. I took a deep breath and I ran all the way home. The worst thing I ever saw was what Boy did to that rabbit. The worst thing I ever did was not say anything about Patsy, until now. He takes a deep breath. As he exhales, the group of men seems to take his cue and also breathe in the last of the evening. They will think about him later. They will think about the gray rabbit and about Boy and Patsy. They will come to the conclusion that they have new blood in their ranks. Later that night, sleep is elusive as it’s been for the last couple of months. The insomnia started late in the summer when one night he had been dreaming about the day Boy killed the rabbit and, though he had never suffered from it, he realized he had been sleepwalking. He woke up in front of his bedroom window. He had been dreaming that Boy was standing outside in the middle of his backyard without a shirt and with jeans undone. Sometimes the thing that goes bump in the night is the house settling. Sometimes it’s something else. Tonight the bump wakes him and, thinking he is fully awake, he gets out of bed to look outside his window. Just as he thought, Boy is standing outside like he had in the dream. Boy is no longer sixteen. He is much older, almost old. He wears sunglasses even though it’s dark, and he is without a shirt. His body is ripped. He’s tattooed. He speaks and though he shouldn’t, he can hear the words as though Boy is whispering in his ear. “That’s not the way the story really went, did it buddy? That’s not the way it ended.” He turns away from the window and heads back to bed. If he is lucky he might be able to go back to sleep. If not, tomorrow will be a gray day. No, that’s not the way the story ended. He thinks that maybe if he says it out lout, he can end the exorcism he started earlier in the evening. He addresses the bedroom and finishes the story, telling it not as himself, but as if he was the wisteria-choked house, or the old, scarred trees or some other witness. After he killed the rabbit, Boy moved towards him, scooping him up in one movement. Patsy rushed over to get him
to let go but Boy easily backhanded her with his free hand. She fell on the ground and let out a now very audible cry. Boy carried him inside the house. He tried to get away but all Boy had to do was grip his arm, now fully swollen. The pain was too much to do anything else but concede. Boy took him to the living room of the house; there he had set up a pad for himself. He drank from an open beer bottle and held him down much like he had the rabbit just a few moments earlier. Boy unfastened the younger’s pants and pulled them down. The underwear he just ripped off. Afterwards, he pulled his pants up with his one good arm and slipped out of the house afraid to wake Boy and almost tripping over Patsy who was by now just whimpering on the ground. Ignoring the pain, he took a few steps and stopped in front of the rabbit. The ants had already started to get to her. He bent over and picked up the string still sticking out from her stomach. He gently pushed each little sack back into her. “Sorry,” he said to the rabbit and got up. He didn’t run into anyone as he made his way home and when he got there, he walked directly to the couch and fell asleep. He woke to his mother screaming, asking him what he had done to his arm. Later that night, when he and his parents returned from the hospital, David stopped by. David didn’t ask about the cast. Instead, he shared the news: Patsy flipped out after they left the house and killed Boy. She took his knife and slit his throat, then made his stomach smile. BOY
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Issue Three JUNE 2013 Volume 1, Iss
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JUNE 2013 CLEAN CLOTHES Short Story
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Lauren Hasty is a misplaced souther
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Charlie ran down the street, bare f
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She inhaled deep and then exhaled,
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called to her, she knew she wouldn
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PREDATOR by JUDITH DORE PREDATOR by
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Adam and I have been coming to this
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“Holy fuck,” he says. He falls
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Sound travels strangely underwater.
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UGLYLIGHTS by THE UGLYLIGHTS ICA BO
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magnifying glass with a lamp direct
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what they meant to her, and especia
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even if none of the other kids woul
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Nobody heard him, not even Cassie w
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pleas for mercy but breaking glass,
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When Janie came to her senses, she
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It was a choked, guttural voice, li
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more companions to join him in his
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Jackie squatted in the prison yard,
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A guard in the tower had taken aim.
Page 45 and 46: Jackie squatted in the prison yard,
Page 47 and 48: The Laugher was in the front of the
Page 49 and 50: he wanted to dispense some vigilant
Page 51 and 52: ITH TWO L’s by COLIN JAMES
Page 53 and 54: TOR STREET by LAST HOUSE ON VECTOR
Page 55 and 56: “I have your word?” Richard wen
Page 57 and 58: PEEPING TOM’S TOM’s N
Page 59 and 60: PEEPING TOM’s MASTERPIECE by NATE
Page 61 and 62: PICK UP LINE by DAN LEE PICK UP LIN
Page 63 and 64: After a few minutes of listening to
Page 65 and 66: DEN GROW? by HOW DOES ONE’s GARDE
Page 67 and 68: As that vast maw yawned there befor
Page 69 and 70: Night had barely fallen when two hi
Page 71 and 72: man began to escort Kevin down the
Page 73 and 74: “Caitlyn. What about yours?”
Page 75 and 76: “Werewolves?” Just hearing the
Page 77 and 78: SHA ANNIE ANNIEN
Page 79 and 80: SHADES OF BLUE by ANNIE NEUGEBAUER
Page 81 and 82: EYER’s RING by CASSIE MEYER’s R
Page 83 and 84: out and rubbed the dirt and dry mud
Page 85 and 86: money before speaking, “How’s i
Page 87 and 88: eflection in the mirror. Terry’s
Page 89 and 90: simple chain, an identical ring sit
Page 91 and 92: The price of admission to their clu
Page 93 and 94: knocked on his door, Boy snuck up b
Page 95: Boy placed the rabbit in the center
Page 99: hellohorror.com
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Issue Three

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