Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Criminal.
Maybe
Casual Friday evening. Casual Tinder hook-up. Online dating has really given spontaneity the opportunity to shine. So, this guy and this girl decided that they should see each other after no more than 40 minutes of joking around and making connections. He was supposed to leave the morning after, so, what gives?
By Ioana Bernaz5 years ago in Criminal
Uncle Ron
Sad, I felt surprised and profoundly sad because I had just received notification Uncle Ron died yesterday in Albania. Why was he in that odd little country, followed by wondering what happened to him were the first thoughts that entered my head accompanied by my sadness. Ron was Dad's younger brother and my favorite uncle. He traveled a lot and always brought back neat stuff as presents for our family but I loved his stories even more than the gifts; well except for that $100 chip from the casino in Monte Carlo he gave me with his promise to take me there on my twenty first birthday to wager it. He had kept that promise and I hit a bet on number one at the roulette table for three thousand five hundred dollars.
By Ron Russell5 years ago in Criminal
Her Second Favorite Mug
She tugged the thick envelope out of her mailbox. When she did, it tore on a sharp edge, revealing what was inside. Blood roared in her ears as she processed what she was seeing. She wasn’t counting money at her department store job; she was standing outside her dilapidated apartment, key to her own mailbox dangling from the door that was swaying in the wind.
By Monica Larc5 years ago in Criminal
Shelf Life
The fluorescence that poured from the shop windows coated a figure in its cold warmth as it inches closer toward the shop door. A bell that echoes of minimum wage alerts the lonely clerk behind a dingy fibreboard counter of his presence. A jolt of life journeys from the clerks leant arms on the counter and activates his autopilot greeting “gday mate how r ya?”
By Peter Nicolas5 years ago in Criminal
The Art of the Black Notebook
“You’ll need to do better than that, pretty little thing! Here, let me help you get started!” He tore a page from his little black notebook, the object of Alice's fantasy and desire and threw it in her general direction, her a crumpled pile on the wet, sodden asphalt of the dockyard. She leapt at the scrunched-up piece of paper as if it was gold dust, jumping up like a cat jumping for that ball of yarn. She ripped it open and shone the page up to the dim flickering light of the dockyard lights. None of it made sense- a pyramid here, an oval there, rectangles and a scrambled array of shapes and unrecognisable characters. What did it all mean? She lay there, defeated as his laughter rang through her head on repeat.
By Yannie HY Leung5 years ago in Criminal
Life Insurance
It started with fear, then acceptance, like watching a bird hit the window and fall down to the Earth. That's how Jimmy the Cook went out. Headlights through his back window, and before he could blink, it was all over. Poor kid just got seen talking to the wrong guy at the wrong time, probably didn't even know what he did wrong. But that's life, I guess.
By Christopher Hascall5 years ago in Criminal
On the right path
Crisp cool air stabbed into her lungs with every inhale, scratching her throat along the way, but she loved it. It wasn’t often that the heat and humidity of southern Florida gave way to cooler temps. Most days, a run like this feels like swimming through hot soup. This morning, she felt energized. Maybe today she’d improve her turtle-like pace.
By Pamela Hayford5 years ago in Criminal
Figures
Malcolm watched the man across from him with a detached sense of amusement. He was bored; any entertainment was welcome. This guy had raised enough ruckus to pull his attention away from his phone, basically sprinting into the subway car and using his momentum to make a hard left by grasping the bar at the door and swinging/sliding into the bench seat next to it. Whereupon he proceeded to strike up a cigarette while sitting directly beneath the very obvious no smoking sign.
By Joel Gray III5 years ago in Criminal
The Last Appointment of The Day
11 am. First appointment of the day. I shouldn’t laugh, but: “Relationship issues?” You’ve been married a month and your “issues” amount to her having hobbies and you having a narcissistic mother. Let me know when, after 13 years of biting your tongue and pulling the weight of two grow-ass adults, you’re on the shit side of a bitter divorce, operating a failing counselling service from a campervan, while a man who collects fingertips awaits delivery of the $15,000 you owe him thanks to a two of spades that should have been an ace.
By Rob Stephenson5 years ago in Criminal
