Joshua G. J. Insole

“Dead Last” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #235

His running outfit lay on the bed, with his number bib—ninety-four, a jab at his increasing age?—set to the side.Edmund Lyndone sighed. He’d been at this running malarkey for years and had never cracked the top ten even once. Still, today could be his lucky day. What was it the kids said? You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. He pulled off his t-shirt and slipped his designer running shirt over his head.Dena groaned from the doorway behind him. ‘You’re not actually doing another one, are you Dad? It took you almost two weeks to recover ...

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“Flowers for Omnomnom” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #234

The plant occupied most of Nell Turnbulle’s greenhouse.Nell stood and smiled at her with a mother’s love. ‘Let’s see what he makes of you, then.’The plant—all eight feet, thirty teeth, eight tentacles of her—quivered in response. Her pretty blue flowers shook and danced.Nell smiled. Audrey listened to her mother. Audrey was a good girl. And she would show Grayson that her plant-breeding hobby wasn’t ‘nonsense’ and ‘money down the tubes’. It was a viable business, and it made her happy. It was her own. Of course, even now, Nell noticed that s...

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“The Perfect Shot” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #232

The first howl sliced through the evening like a fang through flesh.Cooper Elwine shivered. He knew there were local werewolves, but to have confirmation chilled him. He patted the Smith & Wesson in its holster. He’d loaded it with five silver-tipped cartridges. ‘In case,’ he murmured to himself.Overhead, the sky had begun to darken. The supermoon was on the horizon, in all its celestial glory. It glimpsed through the trees, poking its face out here and there as if in hiding.His heart trilled within its constraints of bone, trying to bre...

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“Making Friends” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #231

The humans stood clustered by the bus stop as the October rain pelted at them sideways from a dull grey sky.Milton Downere felt a snake of nervousness coil inside of him. This was it, the big test. It had been so long since he’d interacted with people in earnest. All his interactions had ended in running and screaming. But not this time, no. He had learned his lesson. He had refused to let reality’s rain extinguish his hope. But now he had to navigate a human body once more. And this one had deteriorated since its end. He held its bones toge...

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“28 Sleighs Later” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #229

Above the laughter and Christmas music, the bang against the door came: thump thump thump.Paul Reyes sighed. He patted his wife’s hand and pushed his chair away from the table. ‘Don’t worry, love, I’ve got this one.’Rosemary frowned at him. ‘But everybody’s here. Who could it be?’He stopped. Rose had framed the doorbell with tinsel. You couldn’t miss it. It would take a brain-dead person to knock instead of ringing. He shrugged. ‘Carolers, or something. I’ll give ‘em a quid and tell ‘em to bugger off.’A round of laughter rippled around the t...

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“Bloody Drunk” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #228

Something wooden clattered to the stones outside, issuing a loud, hollow bang.Marley Strudwicke jerked awake and sat bolt upright in his bed. During his years of service to the master, he had learned to have a keen ear and a shallow sleep. It wasn’t the first time some brave hunter had reached the castle. But Marley would ensure it would be their last visit. He grabbed ahold of the pistol on his bedside table and held his breath, listening.A burp and a whisper followed. ‘Bugger it.’Marley exhaled, and his grip on the gun loosened. He’d recog...

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“Better Living Dead Through Chemistry” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #227

The curved mountain road disappeared under his tires.Grant Grahams yawned. Retirement couldn’t come soon enough. He should have already finished, but a medicine company had had a breakthrough. Nobody else had time to deliver their latest in anti-ageing skin cream technology. So, he tacked on an extra day to his work life. It wouldn’t kill him. He blinked and squinted through the windshield of his tanker truck into the night beyond. ‘Wakey wakey, Grant.’* * *The curved mountain road disappeared under his tires.Dane Huxleye shuddered. One more...

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“Sail On, Salem” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Mara Thames closed her eyes and let the delicious night wind kiss her upturned face.The land fell away, and the North Atlantic Ocean opened before her. The black waves frothed in the moonlight, a void that plummeted to the depths of Hell below. If she pointed her broomstick down, would Lucifer offer her advice? Would he right all the wrongs with the snap of his long-nailed fingers? The crash of the water upon itself soothed the incessant murmur in her soul: Hush, my child, hush. The fine spray flecked her skin, and she licked the salt from h...

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“What Kind of a Man?” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Hector Skinner worked by candlelight, but not for the ambience. If the kids—the monsters the news assured him stalked the night—saw his kitchen light, they would bang on his door. First, they’d demand entry with the authority of a police raid. Then, they’d insist on payment. First, the candy. A plastic pumpkin containing the best teeth rotters he could buy sat on the front stoop. But one thing would lead to another. Then, they’d request cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, and money; they’d want it all. And if he didn’t have it? Well, then he’d pay...

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“Garlic” by Joshua G. J. Insole

As the sun drooped below the horizon and painted the sky with blood, Vincens Borde flicked on the UV lights.Behind him, his two assistants busied themselves about the kitchen. Two kids, but good kids. Well, good enough when you considered the options at his disposal. It had gotten harder to find people who wanted to work in a kitchen under the care of an admitted megalomaniac. And Vincens knew that the recent scourge hadn’t been the sole cause. Did it have something to do with the pittance he paid his employees? He shook his head. No, it cou...

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“My Heart in Your Hands” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #133

Misty Hargraves stared up at the house’s dim windows and fiddled with the keys.The Sun twinkled above and left half the building in shadow. The blue door sat beneath an eave, its letterbox mouth a straight line, its glass eyes black. The front windows showed the same, in that they showed nothing but darkness. Misty squinted, but the upstairs rooms offered no further insight. Finally, her gaze rose to the attic window in the middle of the pointed roof. Her eyes played a trick on her, and something shifted behind the glass. But that would be r...

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“Eat Your Carrot” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Terry and Larry watched — as they always did — in awe as the smallest of the Big Ones filled their food bowl.Neither of them spoke a word, and the world around them seemed to hush. As if the very air itself held its breath and paused in anticipation. The Big Ones had the size and strength to kill them in one stamp of their lower paws or one squeeze of their upper ones. But they never did that. No, the Big Ones looked after them. The small Big One stepped away, and then voila — grass hay, fresh vegetables and pellets. It said something in its...

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“Flies of Exile Pt. II” by Joshua G. J. Insole

The snarls and growls bounced down the stairwell like the blasts of a shotgun. Girl crouched and waited, but the sounds persisted. She crept up the steps, her bare feet silent on the concrete. The barks came over and over and over, without reprieve. Girl’s fingers tightened around the spoon as she stared through the star-shaped hole in the door. Overhead, blue stretched off into infinity. Wisps of white clouds floated across the patch of sky. She made no sound as she neared the exit. The spiders had pierced the metal and bent it inwards ...

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“Flies of Exile Pt. I” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Girl snarled at Sister when she reached for the can with the spoon in it. The younger child winced and retreated. She scuttled back behind the emaciated corpse of Mama and stared at Girl from the shadows. In the darkness, the paleness of Sister’s skin shone like a light, and the circles around her eyes put the gloom to shame. The whites of her sclera glinted as she watched Girl take another mouthful. Mama gave off the odour of an unflushed toilet with a sweet aftertaste. The shape of her body and the features of her face had collapsed in...

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“Don(n)er” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Neil Mason opened the curtains to a wall of white.“Oh dang.” He glanced to his copy of Michael Wallis’s The Best Land Under Heaven on the nightstand. A butterfly fluttered in his chest. He pushed the feeling down. You expected snow when you stayed in an Alpine chalet — they anticipated this sort of weather. Besides, the forecast hadn’t predicted a blizzard. Nothing extreme could have crept up on them out of nowhere, could it? Also, he didn’t want that to happen. Neil gazed into the featureless oblivion.Or did he?“Mmh, what time is it, hon?” ...

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