Short Fiction

Luther wasn't exactly human, but he is dead. He leaves behind a token that contains a power beyond anything even he could have expected.

Is your writing a reflection of your soul? Or is it a biography of your life? Or a road map of your journey...?

Too many of the words we say are simply noises we've learned to make. We say they have meaning, but do we actually know what that is?

Caroline Taylor writes short stories, novels, and nonfiction. She's clueless about the purpose of social media, but she can imagine where it might be heading.

Welcome to October 2015, and BIZARRE Month in the Piker Press! Keep an eye on your computer, strange things can happen there...

Can you say that you've lost everything when you didn't understand what it was you had?

Searching for novelty, searching for beauty, searching for excitement...why is it such a an biological imperative when so often it leads to destruction?

Haunted house? Hah. Sigfried and Roy could have done a better job than the sideshow at the Brinkman House. Still, debunking superstitious nonsense like paranormal phenomena is what scientists do. Nice that there are people willing to dedicate their lives to science.

Cora has no place to go. An answer finds her, but it isn't what she would expect...

Honesty is the best policy, the old saying goes. But the best -- for who?

Time and space are finite. But love, and spirit are not...

Is being politically correct over-rated? When is opinion a crime?

"How many fingers do you have?" someone asks you. The answer is easy -- you look at your hands and count them. But what if the questions you're asked lead to an answer that can't be seen?

"Let them eat cake"? No, that's not what you want to say to this guy...

Sometimes bad intentions can backfire -- or lead to two steps backward and maybe one forward...

He's got the floor -- so to speak -- and it's time for him to tell all...

Ah, to wake upon that shining shore again...

For the sake of his family, his destiny lies across the water. His destiny is bound up with that of a stranger...

Morgan has had enough of her mother's neediness and her brother Ricky's poor choices. Someone has to take a new direction...

Sometimes the Great Chasm that divides us makes it easier to communicate, after all...

When you're headed off into unfamiliar territory, what you wish most for is a map...

Modern science can make any of us mythic...

It's right to stand up for a principle, isn't it? Only whose principles do we choose, and where do they come from?

Night has fallen, your pillow is soft. In warmth and comfort, are you ready to fall asleep?

Cassie lives in what appears to be the perfect environment. It isn't. And the narrator is more than a fill-in at a monthly bridge game...

Nils Wolfcale earned a Bachelor of Arts from Ohio State University and an Associates Degree from Hocking Technological College in Nelsonville, Ohio. His fiction has recently been accepted by the Roanoke Review. He shares a small farm in Northern Michigan with several horses, two mules, various chickens and ducks, three cats, a vocal terrier, his wife and mother-in-law.

Niles Reddick's novel "Lead Me Home" was a national finalist for a ForeWord Award, a finalist in the Georgia Author of the Year award in the fiction category, and a nominee for an IPPY award. He works for the University of Memphis at Lambuth in Jackson, Tennessee, where he lives with his wife Michelle, two children, Audrey and Nicholas.

Death is inevitable; what comes next is something more...

Sometimes events that seem unrelated connect. Lee is ten years old; she almost died when she was seven. But she celebrates the present. Someone needs to meet her, and doesn't know it yet... First, these unrelated events wait to be understood.

<p>When you know that there's some Mulligan out there just waiting to take you down, you have to keep your eye on the ball and your hand ready for the quick draw. And dammit, you KNOW those suckers are nearby, watching, ready to take you out ... they're just not always everything you think. But some of them -- are!