Here at Rampant Loon Media, we strive to be educational as well as entertaining. Today, for your enlightenment, we’re taking a break from the latter in order to present an outstanding example of the former, courtesy of ...
Tiny sparks in the transvisor gave it life, the inviting warm glow building in the lens hood. The familiar tang of ozone and hot selenium followed, and soon the xerographic plates were clacking through the drum, giving a jerky-but-animated view of something happening at the other end of the wire. Deep in the transvisor...
Fear #7 has occurred to me, and it is unspeakable. It slipped in through an unguarded moment, vinegar and bloody-iron across the tongue. Even though I know it’s not real, like the six manifestations before it, I can’t stop myself from responding as if it is...
The happiest day of my life happened when I was eight years old. I can still picture it vividly, even after all these years: racing toward the playground on my bicycle while my father ran alongside me on the bike path, offering cheerful words of encouragement. The air was filled with floating dandelion fuzz...
I never told her I loved her. Yes, I asked her to be my girlfriend, and yes, I asked her if she would marry me, and to both questions she answered, “Yes.” But that was before I looked at myself with the eyes of the universe and saw nothing but emptiness...
The roots writhed, like gnarled fingers seeking purchase. “There, there,” Anthea crooned, “nearly done.” A pernicious root encircled one wrist. With a snip from her secateurs, the offending appendage dropped to the conservatory floor and lay there, twitching. Content in the warmth, surrounded by the rustle of leaves, she hummed as she worked...
My mother died when I was very young. I don’t remember much about her, just that she went out for food one day and never came back. I was scared, hungry and near hysterical when the old man found me. I’d never seen anyone like him before...
Eyeliner on so thick it will make him look her in the eyes. A hot pink bra glowed under TC’s white tank top. The top’s material was thin enough to show the freckles on her shoulder blades moving like schools of fish as she danced...
The first time I went over the top, I pissed myself. We stood in line like a huge grey centipede, uniformed bodies stretching away in both directions. To my left was Sanders, a toffee-haired girl with scars and dirty patches on her face. “You’re Malevsky, right?” she said. I nodded. “This your first time?”...
My mother was washing a rag in the sink again. Sometimes she’d forget we went to the laundrette, didn’t wash our clothes at home any more. The soap would crack our skin, made it difficult for me to play guitar. The guitar was my lifeline, the only way I was getting out of town...
1. The werecat’s blood slid off the stainless steel table and onto the tiled floor, only to be smeared under Doctor Squeaks’ slippers. Trent tried to ignore the blood. Having recently arrived at the reclamation shelter, he was eager to prove himself. “Put a hand on her leg,” said Dr. Squeaks...
I knew the pale lady was real the first night she appeared at the foot of my bed and whispered, “You were warned in two weeks, but you will ignore me yesterday, Silas,” her raspy voice so much like crumbling parchment carried on an astral wind. It was 3:14am when her coal-black eyes pierced mine...