KEEPING THE APOCALYPSE AT BAY, ONE STORY AT A TIME.
MILTON
A Category Four hurricane traps Clay Dorado in a Titusville hotel as time, memory, and reality begin to fracture around him. A misdelivered box, impossible voices, and a storm that feels aware push him toward a truth he’s spent his whole life avoiding.
A slow, atmospheric descent into cosmic dread — where the most dangerous place to be trapped is inside your own head.
LINK: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H4479FYT
BLUE
Black Sheep: Unique Tales of Terror and Wonder No. 36: October 2026—Edited by Wayne Kyle Spitzer
Over lunch at a crowded city café, Steve—the city's most incredulous infotainment enthusiast—insists strangers are tracking him, and Carlos—exhausted of decision-making fatigue—waves it off—until a woman in an impossible shade of blue appears and claims to have witnessed all 888,346 of their lives.
“There’s always someone watching someone, and there is always someone else watching the someone who is watching someone.”
Amazon.com: Black Sheep: Unique Tales of Terror and Wonder No. 36: October 2026: 9798174956162: Spitzer, Wayne Kyle, Kaiser, Evan, Couture, Joe, Nuzzi, Mark, Dellechiaie, Dan, Meade, Matthew Thomas, Stevens, Asher, Shepherd, Kelly, Ross, Bendix, Larson, George: Books
THE MIGHTY SYLVESTER
Wonder and Whimsey — Journey’s End Publishing, Autumn 2026
A lazy kingdom, a curious child, and a seal who thinks the world belongs to him.
Sylvester is old, fat, stubborn, and absolutely convinced a family’s backyard belongs to him. He naps there, eats there, fights birds there, and ignores every human who tries to send him back to the ocean. But one summer, a curious young girl wanders into his lazy kingdom, and something changes. What follows is mischief, chaos, and a quiet bond between a wild seal who doesn’t understand a word humans say and a child who understands him perfectly.
NOT MRS. JONES
Asylumania: Psychosis
Wicked Shadow Press — Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty
During a storm that won’t quit, Maxine—receptionist, aquarium caretaker, and firm believer in keeping life simple—checks in a walk‑in patient who calls herself Mrs. Jones. She arrives dripping water, wrapped in bone and feathers, carrying a staff and smelling like a freshly extinguished fire pit. Maxine has seen plenty in twenty years behind a desk, but nothing quite like this.
A quiet, unsettling story about intrusion, inheritance, and the moment an ordinary day decides it’s done being ordinary in the therapist’s office.
“When the worm becomes the winged thing, does the debt remain with it?”
Link: Asylumania: Psychosis
AISLE SEVEN
Two mages. One jar. Things escalate.
https://100wordfiction.com/story.php?slug=aisle-seven
THE ENCORE
Flash of the Dead: Snakes
Wicked Shadow Press — Edited by Rasiika Sen & Parth Sarathi Chakraborty
Garrick the Bard just wants to sing filthy songs, charm a hostile crowd, keep his serpents happy, and scrape together a miserable living. The Melted Candle’s patrons prefer to drown him in jeers, bones, and whatever scraps they can throw. But when a mysterious sorceress takes an unexpected interest in the musician — and in the serpents that coil at his feet — strange music follows.
“Goodness is predictable. Questionable things? They sing.”
THE GROMSKIN
Mobius Blvd: Stories from the Byway Between Reality and Dream #29 and Dark Horses Magazine of Weird Fiction #53 —Edited by Wayne Kyle Spitzer
In a secluded yard where the forest presses close, a father and daughter tend their birdfeeder, their gardens, and the strange, ancient soil their family has fed for generations. As Jane grows, the rituals of the yard reveal their true purpose: to nourish something older than the trees, something that watches from the grove and slips through cracks in the world.
A tale of a father and daughter maintaining a birdfeeder in the prettiest yard in the universe.
LINK 1 (Mobius Blvd #29): https://www.amazon.com/Mobius-Blvd-Stories-Between-Reality/dp/B0GMPKQWZX/
LINK 2 (Dark Horses #53): https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Horses-Magazine-Weird-Fiction/dp/B0H25PJ1JV/
LICKED CLEAN
Published in January House Literary Journal
Paul Whittaker, a meticulous prosecutor and obsessive stamp collector, acquires a rare Inverted Jenny that reveals far more than postal history. Visions of his own moral compromises surface, forcing him to confront the thin line between collector and collected.
How many bad people are just good people with bad habits?
LINK: https://januaryhouselit.com/2026/05/15/licked-clean/
FISHING LINE
Flash of the Dead: Space
Wicked Shadow Press — Edited by Rasiika Sen & Parth Sarathi Chakraborty
Kanksha Golshani and Kiyomi Ito work aboard Midpoint Station, the halfway mark of Proxima Centauri b’s space elevator. When the tether starts vibrating with a pattern that feels wrong—rhythmic, pulsed, almost alive—they realize the surface has gone dark and something enormous is climbing the ribbon. The elevator was never just a structure. It was a summons. And whatever answered it is coming straight for them.
A cosmic horror of scale and silence, where the elevator to heaven becomes the mouth of a god
AVAILABLE LIGHT
Infinity Publishing March 2006
When Ryan Celsius dies, he expects peace—but death has other plans. What should have been a final rest becomes a violent return to a world he no longer belongs to. As he claws back into the light, he discovers that whatever waits beyond this life is not gentle, not forgiving, and not finished with him.
A supernatural descent into what comes after the last breath—and what happens when you’re dragged back from it.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0741434237
THE LAUNDROMAT
The Literary Hatchet, Issue #41 Pear Tree Press
Edited by Stefanie A. Taylor & Michael Brimbau
A late‑night load of laundry becomes a confession booth for a woman who talks to the machines because no one else will listen. But something listens back. As the cycles spin and the lights flicker, the room begins to answer her—softly at first, then with intent.
A quiet, unnerving tale about routine, loneliness, and the thing that learns your secrets while you wash your clothes.
www.amazon.com/Literary-Hatchet-Double-Issue-41/dp/B0H18BY113/
MARIGOLD
Exorcists of the Dead: Infestation
Wicked Shadow Press—Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty
Zeke Grayson carries a vase that should never have been filled. A woman exorcised but not released, sealed in glass because nothing else could hold her. When he wanders into Persephone’s Gamble, a carnival of fire‑eaters, fortune‑tellers, and ritual performers, the troupe immediately senses what clings to him. The goats, the Showman, the Foreteller, the Flamedancer — all of them know the truth: he’s brought a soul that refuses to stay dead. And the moment the flames go out, the thing inside the vase begins to wake. A tale of possession, ritual spectacle, and the terrible weight of carrying someone else’s unfinished death.
When the flames die and the town goes dark, the soul in Zeke’s glass finally decides it’s time to come out.
https://www.lulu.com/shop/rasiika-sen-and-parth-sarathi-chakraborty/exorcists-of-the-dead-infestation/paperback/product-2k7k8q.html(lulu.com in Bing)
THE IGLOO
Small Town Secrets
Wicked Shadow Press—Edited by Rasiika Sen & Parth Sarathi Chakraborty
After the storm, Tommy, Josephine, Lee, and Jessica decide to build the biggest igloo their town has ever seen. They drag snow from the church, the ballfield, even the cemetery. It feels like a game. It feels harmless.
By morning, the igloo looks different. The entrance is deeper. The ground is sinking. Something underneath has noticed what they built.
.
A story about childhood courage, buried hunger, and the price you pay when you wake something that was supposed to stay asleep.
FRANCINE’S YARD SALE
Published in The Bloomin’ Onion Literary Magazine
Edited by Daniel Groves, MFA
When Harvester Glorbizzle of the Triangulum galaxy crash‑lands in suburban New Jersey, he discovers a human ritual known as the yard sale and becomes convinced its host—Francine, sunhat, sunglasses, earrings—is a powerful Earth shaman capable of downing spacecraft.
A flash‑fiction romp of cosmic delusion, suburban warfare, and one woman who will absolutely not tolerate extraterrestrial nonsense at her yard sale.
https://www.thebloominonion.com/francines-yard-sale-mark-nuzzi
THE REAL DEAL DEAN
Published in Freedom Fiction Journal—Edited by Ujjwal Dey
Ladies and gentlemen, viewers, subscribers, emoji‑spammers, conspiracy‑theorists, and that one guy who keeps insisting he hit a neighbor’s kid with his car on the way here—WELCOME to the literary event of the century, brought to you by Freedom Fiction Journal.
Tonight, we celebrate DEAN. Yes, that Dean. The man who colors his hair with shoe polish every Sunday. The man whose thumbs are so calloused from texting he could sand a canoe with them. The man who believes crocheting gloves and flying a trapeze are basically the same skill set if you watch enough videos.
Dean, who refuses to wear shorts in public unless water is involved. Dean, who scrubs his sneakers monthly like they’re holy relics. Dean, who once threw a controller at a wall so hard it achieved orbit.
And folks, the safety net? GONE. Removed. Dismantled. Carried away by arena staff who look like they’re reconsidering their life choices. Dean said nets are for “wimps who want to try a zip‑line course,” and honestly, that’s the LEAST concerning thing he’s said tonight.
Meanwhile, the chat is a war zone:
One woman is turning her garage into a chicken hatchery.
Someone else is ranking wizards.
A guy named DarkForestTheoryR33L is begging an alien super‑intelligence to eradicate him.
Another viewer is furious about McDonald’s pickles.
Someone thinks tamales are a health food.
A podiatrist is singing.
A man named Steven is apparently a woman from Thailand.
And Miss‑Saxobeat is banning people like she’s Thanos with a mod panel.
And through it all, Dean stands there in a yellow‑and‑black leotard so tight it’s technically a medical emergency, explaining the tensile strength of his colon:
“My cheeks are as solid and smooth as glaciers!”
Inspirational.
Dean has trained for this moment by:
Losing 38 pounds
Drinking four energy drinks a day
Pedaling an exercise bike while swallowing “a pile of pills”
Watching trapeze videos
And yelling “I CAN BE ANYTHING!” at strangers
He has no inner monologue. He cannot mentally sing “My bologna has a first name.” He cannot hear himself think because there is nothing in there to hear.
And yet— AND YET— Dean will fly.
Or fall.
Or explode.
Or all three.
A delirious, unhinged, laugh‑until‑you‑question‑humanity satire of influencer culture, livestream chaos, and the terrifying power of a man who believes gravity is optional if you shout loudly enough.
https://www.freedomfiction.com/2025/10/real-deal-dean-by-mark-nuzzi/
