The Works of Zachary Robert Long
(Ruby Laughs is a sequel to A Good Mother) She lays on the motel water-bed, her pregnant belly undulating with each breath, and though her face is hidden he knows it to be Ruby. She’s wearing her wedding dress with the bottom hiked up around her waist to bare her cunt. This too seems to undulate…
The lump in Steven’s armpit stayed the same size no matter how many times he told himself it wasn’t there. Staring at himself in the bathroom mirror. Bloodshot eyes wide and unblinking, taking in every detail. Cementing in his mind the moment everything changed. The bulb overhead flickering. One arm raised above his head, the…
The skin on my hands has been coming off lately. It starts by the nails, sort of folding back. Not quite tearing but slipping away. I have to be careful when I wash them. If the water pressure is too high it’ll catch the fold and drag it back. Then it just sits there, bunched…
During the final hours of October 10, 1961, Everett Turpin murdered his wife Dorothy Turpin with an ax. The following morning he drove his Ford F-1 into town, parked in front of the police station, got out, had a cigarette, then turned himself in. However Everett Turpin would provide no further details about the crime…
For Haleigh Masterton, the moment her stomach lining tore registered only as a dull ache. Nor did it slow her down any. It was simply another one of the many aches that came with the job and so it didn’t immediately strike her as a cause for concern. Those watching her live feed on YouTube…
A line drawing of a shower dispensing pasta noodles, the Carlos’ Clean Canteen logo, spins on a loop. The chat on the side eagerly awaits the end of a saga that has eaten up the better part of a year. The logo disappears, replaced by a grinning Latino man: the titular Carlos. Never has a…
The smiling face of Mr. Willows was the first thing that greeted Jenny as the doors to the bus swung open. It was that big wide smile he always had stupidly plastered on his face but some how it seemed even bigger, as if it had grown since she’d seen him last. Jenny stepped onto…
They wait until Adrian’s mother falls asleep then sneak out, putting their shoes on only once they are outside and the door safely shut. Eight year old explorers in the realm of the dark, Tom and Adrian creep through the backyard until the embrace of the woods separates them from the mundane world of Sega…
She first notices the dog while she is paying for her mother’s groceries. Sanaa with a brown paper bag in each arm, loaded high though not overspilling, takes the money from her outstretched hand. The grocer’s hands stain the bills as they’ve stained the bags. They’re heavy. It takes her a moment to adjust the…
She makes airplane noises while balancing the slime-covered spoon as it makes its descent, begging for a landing strip, but when he refuses to open his mouth all she can picture is ramming the spoon out the back of his cherubic head. Not that she ever would. She was a good mom. Instead she squeezes…