The Haunted Traveler May 2017 Edition

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26 was so quiet, there in the locked microwave I was too complacent to fix. “Mama, mama, why?” I slanted my eyes, placing my palms to my face, only to moan “Goddammit” as I realized some glass made its way into the palm of the hand laid flat against the floor. I scraped my cheek, right beneath my eye. My once captive roommate rivaled my sanguine corsages, her feet like chickens in their gnarled pacing, fingernails pitted, bruised a good gray. Like myself, she bore no eyelashes, but mine were lost through a prodding desire to release the least of tensions, even if my bad habits resulted in conjunctivitis. On the coffee table laid a flyswatter. I grabbed it, extending my hand towards the girl to assert that I meant no harm. I used the handle to sift through the glass as I crawled further towards where she kneeled. We stared at each other a moment longer, but still, I couldn’t smell the dying flesh or rotting teeth that curled outward from her collapsing build. I inhaled again, smelling nothing but cool air, and found myself sitting across from her, my uncut palm outreached. She slapped me across the face, then growled. I figured this was a case like the one in California, in which a grown girl was found confined to a toilet, already late for that critical period when one retains meaningful language. I tried to gesticulate, pointing to her, waving at the shattered microwave door, and finally, forcing a grimace as I looked to the bottom of the refrigerator, still dripping with some dark fluid. I turned to her and she bit at her nails, as cats so nibble
27 at overgrown claws in the absence of a sturdy scratching post. I still could not take offense at odors I imagined one would ordinarily smell while staring at the viscous liquid dripping from refrigerator’s lowest door. The withered girl placed her mug on the ground, full of ivory curdles and black rings associated with poorly brewed chai tea. She crawled to the refrigerator, unable to walk upright. Raising myself to my feet, I took care not to follow too closely, keeping my shadow away from her shoulder as she squeezed her head between the fridge and its neighboring kitchen cabinet. The crevice could never accommodate my calf, but her little head did well, nodding and shaking in a moderate tempo that betrayed neither sorrow nor eagerness. She propelled her body forward, branchlike limbs scratching the thin paint that coated the concrete beneath us. I heard her chew, pick, and spit. She had reached to the back of the fridge, pressing four numbers with identical dial tones, and slowly withdrew from the darkness separating dry packaged food from whatever seeped from my otherwise functional refrigerator. I took a step forward to open the door. She remained squatted on the floor, though stretched out her arms to scratch my dry skin; dust falling to the ground like disrupted flour when one makes chocolate chip cookies. I failed to tear a sheet from my only paper towel roll, the dark fluid increasing its reach to the crevices beneath the kitchen sink. The girl growled again and whimpered, “Moo.” My jaw shook as I looked down
Page 3: The Haunted Traveler
Page 6 and 7: The Haunted Traveler May 2017 Editi
Page 9 and 10: 7 Beloved Leigh Fisher The chambers
Page 11 and 12: 9 empty, she was resting on her kne
Page 13 and 14: ed by wrapping both of his arms aro
Page 15 and 16: Regardless, she just couldn’t mak
Page 17 and 18: her. She couldn’t quite tell if h
Page 19 and 20: 17 Kristine Brown
Page 21 and 22: ment was the home of Alvin and Marl
Page 23 and 24: claim, build her realm, take a fami
Page 25 and 26: 23 portunities to experiment with s
Page 27: Every day or so, I dismantled half
Page 31 and 32: anished child, though my lack of co
Page 33 and 34: 31 Good Help These Days Gordon Brow
Page 35 and 36: his business.” “Oh…” I murm
Page 37 and 38: cate thing. I believe they had come
Page 39 and 40: Over and over and over whispering,
Page 41 and 42: 39 Kristine Brown
Page 43 and 44: mind herself that she needed to rem
Page 45 and 46: 43 “Don’t you see the bruising
Page 47 and 48: The Commander and Tou came into the
Page 49 and 50: tape had been taken that they were
Page 51 and 52: 49 one of the pods and someone woul
Page 53 and 54: 51 chopathic part of their personal
Page 55 and 56: 53 Hands & Moons Ryan Dodge Khalis
Page 57 and 58: “An S-class? Those things are gig
Page 59 and 60: My eyes widened as I saw the enormi
Page 61 and 62: some lining the walls and others fo
Page 63 and 64: 61 to rid my mind of what I had jus
Page 65 and 66: his blaster and aimed it into the d
Page 67 and 68: from the Inner Systems. Ships get l
Page 69 and 70: handle it and I ran, I ran until I
Page 71 and 72: grabbed him, pulling him straight i
Page 73 and 74: 71 The Nascent Horror Bryce Simmons
Page 75 and 76: I reached the entrance, she had alr
Page 77 and 78: 75 portending some dreadful, inhuma
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throughout my spirit. “From Earth
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even butchers of the foulest abatto
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ut the wills of my cognition were n
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droplets, drenching my over coat in
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aspy panic, causing spittle to dang
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“Six.” Silence. The old man loo
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mound of dirt far over my shoulder.
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gasoline and had set it aflame. The
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125 watts per bulb. Rectangular box
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luminous. The shopping hordes with
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97 ing his missing limb. Raven kick
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“What do I say this time?” Dr.
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101 Kristine Brown
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mark beneath her left eye: pink, in
Page 107 and 108:
105 thuds on the pavement. Then I s
Page 109:
eye sockets beheld nothing ahead of
Page 112 and 113:
in the Winter’s Grasp anthology b
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