Publications
11 items
Maggot Queen
horror
A woman is forced to flee her home when narcos threaten her home. She returns home after many years to find the son she left.
I hold you in my arms after so long. I thought I had lost you forever. The narcos had banged on the door after Ruben had abandoned us. They scowled at me in their muscle shirts and dirty jeans. One was shorter than the other. Both had golden teeth. They stood at the doorway, their brand new black truck behind them and sucked their teeth.
“Where is he?” the taller one asked.
“He owes us money,” the shorter one followed.
“He’s gone. He left us.”
In the backgroun...
Double Killer: Chapter 2
suspense
Leo meets Julia's double, Angela, and gets a taste of what she's really looking for.
It was unclear how long Leo waited at the jazz bar. He kept mulling over what Julia had told him. Of course, he hadn't expected it to last forever. That was the nature of dating in New York, and the nature of dating a married woman. Still, it stung to hear her announce the end of their affair, mostly because there was no reason for it. They were safe to continue for as long as they needed to. She was too high up in society for them to worry, and the venues where they saw each other were far ben...
Double Killer: Chapter 1
suspense
A wealthy woman breaks up with her lovers and discovers someone that resembles her on the subway.
It was good to have secrets. To keep a bit of yourself hidden. To fortify your heart against everyone. The jazz music drifted through the air like a blanket billowing in the Texas sun.
Leo sat across from her in that bar. He smiled at her. It had been a month since Julia and Leo had seen each other. She had bad news for him, and she knew it wouldn't be easy.
“I think we should stop seeing each other.”
His smile disappeared.
“What do you mean?”
“I think you're...
The Miracle
suspense
A family returns from Lourdes, France with a healed son, who keeps mentioning a friend asking for payment for the miracle.
How could Jon, Molly’s stepson, be so ungrateful after what God had given him? The Escobar family had travelled all the way to Lourdes, France to pray for a miracle, and they had been answered unequivocally. By the time they had boarded a plane back to the States, Jon’s limp had disappeared. He had walked onto the plane like a perfectly normal boy of his age.
Instead of falling to his knees and thanking the heavens like he should have, Jon had sat in his plane seat with his arms cross...
The Lure
suspense
A group of bullies chooses the wrong college student to mess with. When one goes missing, the remaining ones search for any clues about where their friend might be.
Jorge's friends in college were not exactly what one would call nice. They were the class clowns,and all clowns need victims to be the butt of their jokes. Most of the time, they were each other’s perfect victims. It was not unusual to find a surprise underneath your sheets or in the communal shower. They lived for the thrill.
Jorge was happy to have found his people. Being in a place as foreign as Princeton, with its neo-gothic stone architecture and men in loafers, Jorge often felt a ...
Death Trivia
suspense
A hooded stranger attends trivia night. The stranger follows Reinaldo home and asks him the first trivia question he can't answer.
Reinaldo had been hosting trivia night for as long as he could remember. Tonight was no different. The trivia nerds greeted him at the front door of the bar, patting him on the back and smiling on their way in. This was as close as he would get to stardom, and he relished it. He was wearing his usual uniform: a sleeveless t-shirt with a slicked back mullet. He moved toward the podium the bartender, Marguerite, had placed for him at the edge of the bar. It was to be his pedestal of power.
...
Vengeful Angel
horror
A woman who knows the dark art of duplication finds that someone has started duplicating her. She races to find out who and why.
Liza enjoyed the anonymity of New York City, the faceless hordes that never noticed one another. Yet that particular night, the first day it truly felt like winter, she wished she was more faceless. She had gotten drunk at a bar in the lower east side and tried to walk in a straight line home. Her coat was open; the frigid air lashed her warm body.
She had had a feeling of being watched the entire night as she screamed at her friend over the thrumming music. There were usually leering e...
The Beckoning
horror
A woman gets a plea from her mother to come home to Baltimore. She is forced to visit and find the ugly truth about her mother.
April just happened to be walking in the door to her East Village apartment as the telephone was ringing. She would have normally let it ring, but with her mother being sick, she knew she needed to be on high alert for bad news. The second ring finished just as she picked up the receiver. Her apartment had wooden floors and an exposed brick wall. Her apartment looked unlived in, except for a few minor details, the random menu on the fridge, the trench coat hanging from a closet.
“You shou...
Pixy
horror
A teacher grows concerned for her student Pixy. She debates calling C.P.S. only to find a darker truth about her student.
The little girl at the end of the classroom cocked her head at the classroom snake, which flicked its tongue as it coiled itself in its aquarium. Belinda, the teacher who scanned the room of children, tried not to think anymore about the little girl’s name: Pixy. It must have been the outcome of two parent’s love of folk stories. It had probably sounded sweet to them. The sound of it only unsettled Belinda. She hated calling out to her. Maybe it was just Pixy’s raggedy aloofness.
The oth...
Grimswald the Clown
horror
A man discovers the hidden nature of his father's clowning hobby.
I hated that my father was a clown; hated that we would go to parties for other people’s kids. My father hardly spent time with us, preferring the comforts of his bedroom, yet he felt the need to dress up and cheer up other families. Why couldn’t he put a happy face on for us? Why was it only reserved for others?
Our humble wooden house resided in the middle of rural Texas. Surrounded by mesquites and cotton fields, it always seemed on the verge of being demolished by any passing wind. T...
Pig King
horror
Wild pigs run rampant. One woman braves the outdoors to scavenge for food for her son.
I can hear their oinks and their snorting all night. Their bodies thud against the brick walls. No one can sleep with that racket. We’ve been in this hurricane shelter for weeks. And the night is the most terrible for us. Ever since they took over the town, like some raiding army, these circular walls have been all I’ve known, all Beto and I can ever hope to know. It’s hard to imagine how they came and who sent them. They were always there probably, lurking and waiting by the rivers, sifting thr...