Final Cut & Other Short Stories
from My Bloody Valentine: a PUNK NOIR Magazine series
Roses are red, violets are blue, I know you love crime fiction, so here’s four more for you.
That valentine’s poesy didn’t quite work out, right? Well, hell, I tried. I’m starting to feel like the Crypt Keeper with these openings.
Anyway, here’s four more gripping flashes of crime fiction for you on this rainy (in Japan) Sunday morning. I’m going to be bringing you some of the darkest and best flash fiction on the indie scene every single day for the next few weeks of this month of romance, so stay tuned.
If you enjoy these stories please like, share and restack.
Cheers always,
– Stephen J. Golds, editor-in-chief
Final Cut by M.E. Proctor
Stabbing is intimate. A final embrace.
The knife slipping in. My hand to your heart, the warmth of you. Piercing the flesh I caressed last night, when I thought we would be together forever. I feel your breath on my neck. You think I’m saying goodbye. You say these things happen. You say it could have been me, a chance encounter, eyes that meet like the clink of crystal glasses. You have a way with words. You say it cannot be helped. Stabbing is hard, it requires strength, determination. Despair. I have the despair, my love, if nothing else.
Bio
M.E. Proctor was born in Brussels and lives in Texas. The first book in her Declan Shaw PI series, Love You Till Tuesday (2024), came out from Shotgun Honey, with the follow up, Catch Me on a Blue Day, scheduled for 2025. She’s the author of a short story collection, Family and Other Ailments, and the co-author of a retro-noir novella, Bop City Swing. Her fiction has appeared in Vautrin, Tough, Rock and a Hard Place, Bristol Noir, Mystery Tribune, Shotgun Honey, Reckon Review, and Black Cat Weeklyamong others. She’s a Derringer nominee.
A Good Egg by Merrilee Robson
“There’s some kind of bug going around,” I told him, when the stomach cramps and vomiting started. “You must have picked it up at work.”
I nursed him, as a good wife will. Soothing his fever with cool cloths and refreshing drinks. Saved his life, the doctor said.
Unlike his pretty colleague, who lived alone, except for the usual mid-day hour at her apartment, sharing the bed and the egg salad sandwiches I’d lovingly packed for his lunch.
Just after I’d seen the notice about the salmonella outbreak and the egg recall.
Bio
Merrilee Robson has published over two dozen mystery short stories, appearing in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Pulp Noir, The People’s Friend, and other magazines and anthologies. Her novel, Murder is Uncooperative, is a mystery set in a non-profit housing cooperative. She is a member of Sisters in Crime – Canada West, Crime Writers of Canada, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Merrilee lives in Vancouver with her husband and their feline overlord.
Candles by Zvi A. Sesling
I needed a vacation so I drove to Ward Bell’s.
Ward’s wife Clarice was absent… I had been expecting to see them both. Ward and I were fraternity brothers so the door was always open.
Ward and I talked about the old days at the university and then adjourned to the dining room for the evening meal. There were two candles in their holders on the table, but Ward lit neither one.
“Where’s Clarice?” I asked.
“She has always been the light of my life and was going to leave me, so I helped her along and made these candles.”
Bio
Zvi A. Sesling, Brookline, MA Poet Laureate (2017-2020), has published numerous poems and flash fiction. He edits 10 By 10 Flash Fiction Stories. His flash fiction books are 40 Stories (with Paul Beckman), Secret Behind the Gate and Wheels. Sesling lives in Brookline, MA with his wife Susan J. Dechter.
Tattoo Removal by JD Clapp
I told you bitch! He’s mine.
Didn’t I tell you I’d end up with him, that I’d fuck him stupid if that’s what it took.
What’s that? I can’t hear through that duct tape. You ain’t so sure now, are you? Sure, he’s playing hard to get, feels bad about hooking up with me…telling me how much you love him ‘cause you inked his name in that little heart on your fat titty.
Well, I got his name on mine too. See that? Better tits than yours too. Let’s see how this box-cutter fixes this little tattoo problem. Hold still…
Bio
JD Clapp lives in San Diego, CA. His work has appeared in Cowboy Jamboree, Bristol Noir, Roi Fainéant Press, trampset, Punk Noir and numerous others. In 2023, he was a Pushcart nominee in nonfiction, and had a fictional story selected as a finalist in the Hemingway Shorts, Short Story competition. He is a regular contributor to Poverty House.
These stories appear as part of My Bloody Valentine, a PUNK NOIR Magazine series.
PUNK NOIR, the online literary and arts magazine that looks at the world at its most askew, casting a bloodshot eye over the written word, film, music, television and more.
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And here it is, my little 100 words valentine!
Succinct and sweet! Love the idea of a story in 100 words