David Brown

“Closing the Doors on Craven Ridge” by David Brown

Submitted to Contest #135

As the sun’s morning rays permeated the little southwestern American town that had once stood strong against a vast army over a decade ago, the reflections of red and pink in the low clouds portended evil tidings to come. An old, slightly wrinkled, man took off his hat, as was the custom when entering a church, and took a seat in the back row pew to listen to the townsfolk debate. His cotton shirt and denim pants were caked with dust driven by the desert winds, some of which settled on the wood bench where he sat. For many hours he just list...

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“Merry Spacemen” by David Brown

Submitted to Contest #134

The cockpit of the fringers’ freighter rocked violently, as a portion of cargo in its hold shook loose and slammed against the bulkhead. Warning beacons and alarms blinked and panicked across the ship’s dashboard and heads-up displays like the desert lights of old Las Vegas. A shrill klaxon sounded as the vessel’s commander tried to hold her ship on course, but suddenly the bulky transport was outside the Q-space shipping lane and tumbling wildly through the void. If the pilot and co-pilot were not strapped in they would’ve found themselves ...

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“Debunker” by David Brown

Submitted to Contest #127

My name is Jonathan Adams, no relation to our second or sixth presidents; I’m just a simple man with simple aims; I’m what you might label a doubter, a skeptic, a cynic, a debunker, and I’ve spent the last two decades going to extremes to find the truth in order to expose magicians, alien abductees, ghost hunters, monster spotters, and especially so-called psychics. However, there was one fortune-teller in particular that I’ve always wanted to humble; her professional name is Madame Evelyn.She and I are approximately the same age, both aroun...

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“The Late Doctor Late” by David Brown

Submitted to Contest #125

Doctor Jack Late slumped on his drawing room couch, and nursed the last dram of his third fifth of London Dry gin directly from the bottle, while lamenting his latest failure. His throat burned and his nostrils were imbued with juniper when he quaffed the final nip and threw the empty flask into his fireplace. Shards from the glass container skittered across the hearth where two other bottles were already shattered.He hadn’t properly bathed in over a week, and his jet black locks drooped onto his shoulders, matted and tangled like a heap of ...

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“Labyrinthine Prime” by David Brown

Submitted to Contest #124

My name is Ebenezer, but my friends affectionately call me Ben. Regrettably, I haven’t seen any of my old mates in a very long time, as it has now been 607 days since my incarceration in this godforsaken, labyrinthine, and altogether alien prison. After all that time, my strange jailor’s daily expectations became abundantly clear. If I refused to reveal my vast secret knowledge, I didn’t eat. Fortunately, that had only happened in the inaugural days of my internment, since once I had deduced the pattern, I had been granted access to a per di...

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“Together Forever” by David Brown

Her long, pointed falcon-like wings no longer whistled; she’d gained enough altitude to reduce the frequency of her flapping and she glided from side-to-side in a generally northern direction with her gray and white tail feathers fanned out for stability. Her life-mate swooped nearby, dutifully fulfilling the will of their Maker and Master in the eternal light of the New Earth. The turtledove cocked her head; New Jerusalem’s central tower and walls were still within view but even with her keen avian eyes she could no longer make out her Mast...

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“Root and Branch” by David Brown

Submitted to Contest #117

Everything was ready for the ritual; the five clerics of the vengeful and unforgiving Xyagii, greater god of slanderous lies, encircled an oblong, obsidian altar upon which was sprawled a naked and pregnant figure. With her back to the rigid polished stone and her wrists and ankles bound to the floor by taut and stout steel chains, the woman arched her spine in terror and dismay as the red-robed high priest in his snarling obsidian mask raised a viciously curved ceremonial dagger and chanted his perilous, guttural incantations to the deity o...

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“The Hussy” by David Brown

“Mallory, I forbid you from seeing that boy!” the girl’s frazzled grandmother, who’d aged considerably since having her daughter’s child thrust upon her seventeen years prior, commanded. The stress lines at the corner of her eyes continued under a rat’s nest of course gray hair.“Well, Granny, I shouldn’t have asked! That ‘boy’ is my best friend,” Mallory countered with her hands on her hips in defiance. In that pose, she looked like a runway model, with her flowing locks of gold and her prematurely developed womanly features.“No, Mallory, th...

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“The Watering Hole on the Fringe of Forever” by David Brown

Submitted to Contest #115

A haggard cowpoke spurred his weary mount to the edge of the small settlement that had been steadily rising from the desert scrub for the last hour. A single, uneven, dirt road ran through town between a smattering of dilapidated wooden buildings. The place seemed as isolated and cut-off as a leper colony; there was no railway, no telegraph, and certainly no electricity. Kerosene street lamps were already burning in the evening dusk to stave off the rapidly approaching darkness.Dust caked the man’s black beard and face; the trail grit collec...

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“Out of Business” by David Brown

Submitted to Contest #113

“And in the last days it shall be, God declares,that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,   and your young men shall see visions,   and your old men shall dream dreams.”Acts 2:17In a medium-sized, yet growing, Pennsylvania hamlet, the black print on the rippled glass window of a heavy oaken door read:Dr. Evan Blakely, Psy.D.,Dream SpecialistThree weeks ago, the doctor was about to put a permanently closed sign on that door and search for another way to make a li...

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“Swamp Creatures (Part II of Elevator in the Sky)” by David Brown

Trigger warning: rapeCreature (krē′chər) noun1. A living being; an animal.2. A human.3. A being from outer space.4. An imaginary or fantastical being; a mythological creature.(All four have their own special place in the following narrative.)“I can’t believe that we actually got away,” Samantha Wringley said as she changed the dressing on Buck’s punctured leg. Brazilian swampland encroached on the shoulder of the two-lane road upon which Buck reclined, threatening to smother them both in its humid, emerald tentacles.“Ouch,” Buck Taylor compl...

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“Elevator in the Sky” by David Brown

Submitted to Contest #109

Samantha Wringley truly thought she’d landed her dream job. She’d graduated at the top of her class with a double major in electrical and mechanical engineering and had been aggressively courted by numerous universities to carry on with her master’s degrees. Several large corporations had also offered to not only hire her, but cover all the costs of her post-graduate education. However, Sam was tired of academia and ready for a new direction, and ‘What could be more exciting than becoming a citizen crew member of the TSC, the Transnational S...

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“Dei Ex Machina” by David Brown

Submitted to Contest #108

Doctor Marcus Bliss warily worked his way down the newly excavated section of the Temple of Jupiter, careful not to soil his freshly pressed salmon-colored polyester suit. The powerful flashlight in his left hand lit the roughly hewn corridor while his right hand braced the ceiling as he crouched to ensure that he didn’t bump his head. Entering the crypt chamber, he doused his flashlight, as the space was sufficiently lit by a pair of portable halogen work lights mounted on tripods. Two fellow archaeologists were hunched over a crate contain...

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“The Handshake” by David Brown

Submitted to Contest #103

hand·shake (hănd′shāk′)[i]noun1. The grasping of hands by two people, as in greeting or leave-taking.2. An exchange of signals between two devices when communications begin in order to ensure synchronization.It had been one very curious day for Lucas Beck, a second-year post graduate student of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette Indiana. He never in his wildest fantasies would have thought he’d land a date with Mèlina Dubois, a fellow engineering student, but that is precisely what ha...

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“Chess Game of Life” by David Brown

Submitted to Contest #102

The timeworn man abandoned his empty coffee cup and scooped the chess pieces off the end table and into a cloth bag. Picking up the brown and tan checkered game board, Adam headed up the stairs to his granddaughter’s bedroom. As he climbed, he couldn’t quite tune out the daytime news anchors’ daft drivel.“Like I’ve always said, life is like a game of chess…I don’t know how to play,” one bubble-head tittered.A second anchor cackled, “Oh dear, I thought you were going to say life is a game of chess that you will probably lose!”Thankfully their...

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