DEATH’S SONG
One of the most exciting things that happened to me in 2022 was being published in Air and Nothingness Press Orpheus and Eurydice Unbound anthology. This is my first ever publication, and was to a pro-paying press! And the anthology sold out!
THE EDGE OF NIGHT
The stars were liars. At least, that’s what her Da always said. But he was a liar too, so who knew what she could believe.
The girl sat with her eyes squeezed shut, counting backwards from one hundred the way Ma had taught her when she was alive. Before.
Ninety-seven.
The lights had gone out again.
CHOICES
“But I’m not ready.” My voice breaks the peaceful silence of our cottage.
My sister’s sure fingers falter in my hair. “No one ever is.”
“Will it hurt?” I ask, my voice small and reedy even to my own ears.
“You know I can’t tell you that,” she says mournfully. “Just be prepared for anything, Maude.”
SPAWN
INVASION: Weeks 1-4
My birthday was on a Tuesday night and it was raining. I had just finished my last shift at Watkins and Watkins, after quitting in a huff of indignation when the client I had been wooing was given to a different lawyer.
“We needed someone more forceful, sweetheart. Maybe next time.”
A male lawyer, naturally.
Dream Eater
A tattered white dress pools around the shrunken woman, her wrinkled hands curled in its folds. Beneath a star-sprinkled sky, she waits in the space between breaths before picking up one slippered foot and stepping down from the curb. Her movements are silent as she enters a quaint blue house, the third on the left.
Misaligned Priorities
A chiropractor tries to be a therapist, and quickly learns his lesson.
A chiropractor walks into a bar – the Lum Bar, ha! – would be a great opening to a joke. I’ll have to remember that one for future patients.
I once thought that listening to a patient would make treating them easier. If I understood the source of their stress – and they could explain it to an unbiased listener – then relieving it would go smoother for the both of us. A relaxed back is a happy back.
And then I met Stan.
Here’s some… ahem. Backstory:
emilyjaneestabrook.com 