Part Two

More great free fiction for you, even more tomorrow.


 [Art from Allegory, linked below]




Fiction
• Now Posted: Allegory Volume 21/48

• "The Kingdom of Grey" by Davin Ireland
     "The gleaming Bentley pulled off the road and rolled to a stop beneath a leisurely sweep of trees. Gravel crunched loudly in the quiet country air. The Permanent Secretary, who had not spoken a word since leaving the capital at six o’clock sharp that morning, turned to face his guest with an obvious degree of reluctance."
• "Saving Face" by Thomas Canfield
      "“This is what you wanted to show me?” Luanne was puzzled. “This is what you were making all the fuss about?”"
• "A Place to Breathe" by Joshua D. Moyes
     "Freedom wasn’t something I thought much about until I was sat on my bunk, on a mattress thin and stained from however many bodies before mine, staring at the wall. Both my hands was wedged up under my ass because I didn’t like the way they’d been shaking and flapping around like bats."
• "That Goldurned Hole" by Gary Cuba
     "That goldurned hole opened itself up last week, out in the fallow field next to our farmhouse. Horace, my old coon dog, was the first one to let me know about it, raising holy howling hell like he always does when something unusual was going on. That hole wasn't supposed to be there--and Horace knows better than anybody else what ain't right in our local envir'ment."
• "Dining with the Devil" by Arthur Davis
     "Daniel Sullivan tightened the braided black and red silk cord around his waist and smoothed over the apron it was holding in place. Ricardo had repeatedly cautioned him that casual appearance compromised presentation; and the restaurant business was first about presentation, than cuisine. The imposing owner and chef’s word was absolute."
• "Drugleggers Run" by Kurt Heinrich Hyatt
      "In the beginning there was space without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And from the darkness came the exploration starship of Excon Mining Corporation journeying from the outer rim until it came to Sheridan’s Planet with its endless forests and rich beds of ores. And the chief executive officer of Excon looked upon the data sheets from the survey team and saw that it was good."
• "Revolver Concert" by Spencer Carvalho
     “So before the show starts,” Joan continues, “this guy in a black suit comes out carrying an old wooden table about two feet wide and places it by the microphone stand. Then he opens the drawer of the table and removes the revolver.” She smiles upon saying the word revolver. “He places the revolver on the table, closes the drawer, and just walks away. Then later, David Wilde comes out and at random points during the show he fires the gun into the audience.”
• "Flight" by Adele Elliott
     "I have learned a lot from my night flights. (Yes, they are always at night.) One thing, is that even with the thrill of levitating, the same room can become boring. I have learned, too, that with practice, I can move up and down vertically, and forward horizontally. Once, I dropped almost to the floor, upright, in a walking pose. Then, I reached my hand to the doorknob and turned it. I slipped into the hall and then the kitchen, plopping down hard on a chair. "

• Now Posted: NewMyths Issue 23, June 1, 2013. Fantasy. Science Fiction.

• "The Dragon's Back Door" by D.A. D'Amico.
      "Surprisingly, it didn't smell that bad at all. The odors wafting through the cramped chamber were somehow tasty; reminiscent of the great boar they'd roasted last Michaelmas. Andeanus could feel his stomach protesting, reminding him that he hadn't eaten since he sneaked into the old monastery the dragon used as a lair."
• "Speed Dating Books" by Sabrina Dorie.
     "A gravelly voice projected itself from a copy of the Stephen King novel, "Hey, lady. You want some literary thrills? Get between these sheets." The book on the table of best-sellers flipped to its climax, exposing the juiciest part of the story. I turned my gaze to the floor, not ready to see so much. Really, I didn't even know the book."
• "Tyler's Ten" by Larry Hodges
     "Tippecanoe was dead. After only thirty days in office, the nation's ninth president, 68-year-old William Henry Harrison, was gone, done in by pneumonia after giving a two-hour inaugural address in freezing cold, telling the American people all the things he would now never do."
• "Outside the Body" by Philip Roberts
     "Roy was used to finding all sorts of undesirable crap when the time came to evict a tenant, and most of it he could ignore or throw away, but when he opened the door to the abandoned apartment C2, he found bedbugs."

Flash Fiction

• At Toasted Cake: "No More Teachers, No More Books" by Nathaniel Lee. Audio.
• At Cafe Irreal:

• "Girl Fishers" by Eva Langston 
• "The Room" by Richard Baldasty 
• "The Mirrors Were Gardens" by Mat Joiner 
• "Marie De Salle" by Edmund Zagorin 
• "Training Hege" by AE Reiff 

• At New Myths:

• "iLove" by Diarmuid de Barra
• "A drowning/Leviathan" by Lynette Mejia
• "Molting Season" by Kenneth O'Shaughnessy

Audio Fiction
• At Beam Me Up:  Episode #368. Science Fiction.
     "The Hunted" by Robert Fraizer and "No Great Magic - Chapter 6" by Fritz Leiber. "I'd been going to think. But instead I just sat there, experiencing my body and the room around it, steadying myself or maybe readying myself. I couldn't tell which, but it was nothing to think about, only to feel. My heartbeat became a very faint, slow, solid throb. My spine straightened."