Going Down & Other Short Stories
from My Bloody Valentine: a PUNK NOIR Magazine series
As De La Soul so eloquently stated, 3 is in fact a magic number, and that’s displayed here by this threesome of crimes of passion.
Cheers always,
– Stephen J. Golds, editor-in-chief
Going Down by Hubble Stark
They always fucked mornings in elevator two, panties yanked down and skirt over her hips and hands pressed against the hot metal wall for sixty-two floors.
When she rides their elevator with a crowd, her legs quiver, remembering his face reflected in the shiny metal, his teeth always gritted behind her. His office on sixty-two is off limits.
Evenings, her handprints are wiped clean.
Today, she rides down from sixty-two smiling. Her purse is lighter. She left the sharpened letter opener in his chest.
Yesterday, two foreign prints and the oil of another woman’s skin laced the elevator’s cold metal.
Bio
Originally from Mississippi, Hubble Stark writes crime and literary fiction from his cube and cafes in Missoula, MT, where he got his MFA and decided to stay around for the town’s crazy cast of amazing and infamous writers.
Love is a One Way Street by Chris Lee
The teller at the bank was just my type.
Short, curly hair, cute smile with freckles. I hoped she wouldn’t mind when I pulled the gun. I even wrote a polite note.
Money, bag, please just put it in or BAM.
She was a stone cold fox. I flirted a bit before I showed her the steel, she didn’t seem to mind. She put the money in the bag. Good girl.
I didn’t notice the sirens until they were right outside. The sly broad had fingered the silent alarm. My heart broke.
I blew a kiss, sighed and started blasting.
Bio
Chris Lee is a writer from Pennsylvania. A lover of all things mystery and noir, he hopes to one day finish the novel in his head. He has stories in Punk Noir and can be found on Instagram: @Chrimenez and X at https://x.com/Chrimenez
Bradycardia by Elizabeth Dearborn
“Pacemaker, or else a transplant. I’ll be back.” The doctor left the room.
“Baby, I’m scared,” Maurice blubbered.
Baby? He was the dependent one in this marriage, not me!
“You could get a pacemaker right away. A donor heart might –”
But he refused the pacemaker and was discharged home AMA. The next night, as I lay awake beside him, the phone rang.
“Hello, Mrs. Jones? We’ve got a donor coming in now! Your husband needs to be here within —”
Click!
“Who was that?” he mumbled.
“Wrong number.”
Bio
Elizabeth Dearborn lives near the Canadian border with her disabled veteran husband. Her work has been published in Flashshot, Burst literary ezine, the Drabbledark anthology, the final B.O.U.L.D. anthology, Punk Noir, and elsewhere.
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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