CARNAGE HOUSE

My Putrid Valentine

by Violaine De Charnage

Ever been gagged with a used bloody sanitary pad?

Translated by Basile Lebret

Monica shoos the big emerald green fly with a sleight of hand. The Calliphoridae flies away before coming back to the cup of tea.

Dear Diary,

It is a pleasure to come back, to confess my emotions and my wild

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

Pigmalion

by Rosie Shrike

The perfect girl is one click away.

CONNOR SAT POISED ON his Secretlab chair like a disenchanted Roman emperor, staring disdainfully at his glowing monitors.

He glowered at the screeching female streamer in the highlight video. For one, she was too fat. She was also peppy, disgustingly so, bouncing in an effort to look attractive and babbling over the

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

Between Everything Alive

by Nathan Grimmer

It’s you and you.

FORK AND KNIFE HELD upright, she stared straight ahead, stifling the scream that brewed throughout her thirty years and threatened to escape with each moment.

She ignored the smell of sizzling fat and the burning sensation on her skin, pressing the utensils to the pufferfish on the plate. As the pain receded and the

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

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

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

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