The short fiction of j hardy carroll
When Chet regained consciousness he had no idea of the time. They had taken his watch. They had taken everything, even the emergency fifty he kept beneath his insole. His mouth was swollen and it felt like they’d broken some ribs. He raised his head and looked around at the alley. A short cut had…
A hundred fathoms down, the sun looks like a ten-watt porch light. The suit, which felt so heavy on the surface, is now a second skin–except the boots, which seem even heavier. You move slowly on the bottom, breath loud in your ears as you clomp through the ooze like the giant in The Brave Little Tailor.…
Horst checks everything for the third time in an hour. The machine gun is loaded and pointing down the valley. Ammunition cases are stacked where the loader can get them, the satchel of grenades open at his feet with the handles facing upward, as specified in the regulations. He checks his belt to make sure his knife and…
NORFOLK– MARCH 17 Authorities arrested a man today they believe is the “Forest Skinner,” suspected of committing a series of unsolved murders around Norfolk County during the 1970s and 80s. The suspect, who was wearing what appeared to be a handmade suit of unidentified animal hide, was severely malnourished and offered no resistance. The arrest was the result of a CrimeLine…
She stood as they always stand when I make my presentation, stiff and even haughty, as though an armour of professionalism will somehow shield them from what I am about to show, will somehow protect them from feeling anything. Of course it does not, it cannot, but I play along. I get paid either way, so…
The words rolled over her then, crushed her flat as piecrust beneath a rolling pin. She watched him shaping the words with his mouth, this doctor whom she had grudgingly agreed to see after her husband had had what he thought was the last word in their long argument. Go. Now there was another word. Cancer. And…
My Dear Claude– The experiments continue despite my so-called “setback.” It was an accident, despite what you may have heard. You’re absolutely correct in your assessment of my current state of mind. I am indeed frustrated that my colleagues see me as a fraud and even a madman, all the more since my dismissal from…
All my life I seen things different. I look at a place and I don’t see it like it looks now. I seen everything ever happened in that place all at once, like the way you can drill into a tree and count the rings. Some places, like roofs and treetops and the high sides of buildings,…
“I won’t do it. I can’t. Please.” He put his arm around her. “Really, Susan. It will be fine. This thing carries thousands of people across every day. There’s never been an accident. It’s safe as houses, as my Gran would say.” “You don’t understand. It’s…it’s…” She began to cry again. “Look, darling. We’re nearly to…
Have you ever sat in one place and watched it get dark? By that I mean have you sat alone in one place without moving or speaking, staring at a boat or a building or a stadium across the water while the shadows deepen and swell up into the sky until everything turns blue-black? A chill breeze across the…