Galentine’s Day & Other Short Stories
from My Bloody Valentine: a PUNK NOIR Magazine series
TGI Friday and to celebrate the incoming weekend here are four more dark tales of romance gone bad from four extremely talented authors!
You know the drill! Please like, share, and restack.
Cheers always,
– Stephen J. Golds, editor-in-chief
The Plight of Man by Peter Bertlessen
Danny glared at the open register — 20’s, 50’s, and $100 bills all neatly stacked.
The thought of snatching the drawer lingered, after all, he still hadn’t gotten his girl a gift for Valentine’s. He’d forgotten their anniversary and barely lived to tell the tale. He’d had half a mind to take a crowbar to the jeweler’s display case and lift that 10-ct. stone she’d been eyeing — if only he had a crowbar. The moral ambiguity of a smash-and-grab or sleeping on the curb caused him to dither.
“Will that be all, sir?” The cashier asked.
“Do you guys carry crowbars?”
Bio
Peter Bertlessen’s previous work can be found in Punk Noir Magazine, Frontier Tales, Close To The Bone Publishing, Pulp Lit Mag, and other literary journals. He’d venture to say he writes; however, a more apt description would be he stabs the pages with his pen just to watch them bleed. A counterculture enthusiast dead set on smashing the glass ceiling of one’s imagination and sharing the shattered shards with the masses.
Passion of the Crime by Nathan Pettigrew
Protecting me, my Rottweiler Brooklyn once ripped a pit bull’s head open.
Took me an hour to clean the blood and muck from our bodies.
I didn’t understand killing. I could only imagine myself doing it in a heated crime of passion, like some horrible moment with an abusive one gone wrong.
When it finally happened, I found myself breaking Brooklyn’s neck. She used to be the love of my life, but I was married now, and Brooklyn tore her teeth into my newlywed’s dress.
I simply couldn’t allow her to do more.
Bio
Nathan Pettigrew was born and raised an hour south of New Orleans. His story Yemma was recently awarded 2nd Place in the 22nd Annual Writer’s Digest Short Short Story Competition. Other stories have appeared in Deep South Magazine, Shooter, Penumbra Online, Stoneboat, Punk Noir, and the bestselling Gone anthology from Red Dog Press, edited by Stephen J. Golds.
Galentine’s Day by Jessica Slee
Gracie blends the concealer over the bruise below Anna’s eye.
The faded purple gone, she hands the brush over so Anna can practice on a smaller mark by her hairline. “Your turn.”
“Thanks for teaching me how to do this.” Wincing, Anna dabs at the bruise.
Gracie wants to say she’d done the same for far too long, until her old boyfriend’s little accident—he had always loved hiking, and he shouldn’t have gone out alone, and so late at night. As Anna dutifully applies her makeup, Gracie knows she’ll teach her another lesson, once she’s ready to learn.
Bio
Jessica Slee studied English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a Claymore Award Winner, and in 2022 she was longlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger and the First Pages Prize. She was recognized in the Honor Roll of The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2024 and her work appears in Shotgun Honey Presents: Thicker Than Water.
Love is a Dangerous Thing by David Milner
Burning rubber up the mountainside, Sally behind the wheel, Theo gazes in childlike wonder at the bulging sack of gold.
They’d made it. On the other side of the mountain, he’d ditch the bitch. Easier to be alone in this game. Then again… She is Split-Second Sally?
“Something on your mind, Theo?”
“You could slow down.”
“That a fact?”
“We made it, baby.”
“I’ll never let you go, Theo.”
She turns the wheel sharp before he can take a breath. Through the barrier into a darkness of certain death.
All Theo hears is berserk laughter.
Bio
David Milner’s stories have appeared in print and online at Punk Noir, Duality Books, Spillwords Press, Impspired Magazine. His plays include, I’m Still Here, performed live on Resonance 104.4FM Radio, and Shinwell: An Extra Break For Breakfast, published by Impspired Books. He adapted and directed his story, Into the Breach, as a short film for the Rise of The Resistance Festival, screened at Bloomsbury Theatre and Wellcome Collection. Afounder member of the punk band Vee V V (Edils Records), David finds his stories when he’s out and about, or they find him. He lives in South London.
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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