CARNAGE HOUSE

Wreck Y’Self

by Christine Morgan

Check yourself before you wreck yourself, or someone else will do it for you!

WE WERE NOT on the run.

So we told ourselves, anyway. So Bulldog insisted.

And, hell, maybe some of us believed it, or wanted to. Clung to the notion like a talisman, helping us save face or ego. Holding fast to our blind trust in Bulldog, which had gotten us through plenty of scrapes before.

I

Absolutely Knot

by Winona Morris

Behind the white picket fence, something was unraveling.

MARRIAGE WAS EVERY WOMAN’S end game. From the time she slid wet and screaming from the warm, tearing doorway of her mother into her father’s waiting arms, every woman was preparing to be a wife.

Claire never learned any different. She spent her time between birth and marriage practicing. She learned how to cook,

The Blight

by Mike Rusetsky

Some skin care issues go deeper than others.

IT STARTED AS a foul odor. Unfortunate, but there it was. You know it’s bad when you can smell your own funk, and boy, did my body bring it. The stench concentrated in my left armpit. I sniffed and immediately regretted it as my eyes watered.

“What the hell? I showered today,” I muttered to myself. I thought I

Carmen

by E.K. Charny

It’s not a bad habit. I can stop any time I want.

CARMEN HAS A HORRIBLE HABIT of eating her skin. On the bus home, she clenches her teeth between thin layers of her inner lip. When her hands are free, she brings them to her mouth without hesitation.

It is not a nervous tic. Carmen knows, if she wants to stop, she can.

The other girls have such soft skin. Thei

Violent Content

by Adam Hunter

Pain and pleasure mix together on the screen of your computer.

THE SOLDIER FIRED HIS plasma rifle. Sweat glistened on his cheeks above the collar of his blue-and-grey European Army Corps uniform. His eyes were wide, babyish, visible markers of his prayers to see his mother. He ran through the sand, kicking up clouds of dust.

The desert extended in all directions, smothered und

Savage Mountain

by Nikki Durbin

Pride comes before the fall.

MARCH 8

I’m not stupid. Far from it. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find someone smarter than me. That’s why I’m writing this diary. When I get out of this fucking crevasse, I’m gonna take it and publish it. A tale of survival, told in real time! And I AM goi

The Night Sam Popped His Cherry

by Daniel R. Robichaud

Who would you sacrifice for $100?

SAM GAPED AT HIS tío’s display of bloody devotion.

Chavez couldn’t hold the knife anymore, so it fell into the mess he’d been cutting off his flank. The flesh and blood and creamy fat had mixed into a red slurry. He looked up, lips moving as he pleaded for painkillers. The crazy Asian chick in the lat

Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend

by Kasey Hill

Who needs brass knuckles when diamonds are a girl’s best friend?

THE SIRENS COULD BE HEARD coming down the street as I sat on the steps of my front porch awaiting their arrival. Sticky, drying blood caked in my hair, on my face, hands, and clothes. I sat there twisting my wedding rings around my finger, leaving tacky fingerprints from my thumb and pointer finger on the sides of the bands

Hereditary

by Jay C. Alexander

Smoking kills.

FIRST, YOU LOSE YOUR GUT. That fat you had been trying to burn for months disappears, and you feel lighter than ever, even though there’s now a small lump right under your diaphragm. It looks cute. A few years later—maybe sooner if you’re lucky enough—you’re breathless after climbing up a flight of stairs. Beautif