Stories by Joslyn Chase

A Study in Cashmere

July 9, 2020 by Joslyn Chase 2020 Summer Writing Contest, Drama, Hot, Thriller/Suspense 1 Comment

I’ve wanted to do this for so long.

Gordon stood in front of the open hall closet, running his hand across the row of hanging coats, feeling their different textures beneath his fingertips. Scratchy wool, smooth poplin, the slippery impervious surface of a rain slicker. So many coats. Why did one woman need so many?

He removed his own charcoal-gray dress coat—his only dress coat—and shrugged into it, replacing the sturdy wooden hanger. From upstairs, he heard the click of the bathroom door, the ventilation fan firing up like a helicopter engine.

She was awake.

To See The Sun

July 24, 2019 by Joslyn Chase 2019 Summer Writing Contest, Hot, Speculative Fiction 0 Comments

I’ve been in The Room so long I don’t remember what it looks like outside. I think there were colors.

Here, everything’s white. The cement floor is coated with a glossy white finish that squeaks under our rubber-soled shoes. The walls, the plastic-covered mattresses we sleep on, the blankets they give us—all white. Even the lights, burning down from the high ceiling are white with no trace of the golden glow I almost remember.

We wear white jumpsuits, no pockets. There’s no place to hide anything here. Even the bathroom is just a screened-off area without a door, open at the top so our most private moments can be witnessed through opaque windows that stretch around the upper perimeter of The Room.

Primeval

September 19, 2018 by Joslyn Chase 2018 Fall Writing Contest 5 Comments

This story is by Joslyn Chase and was part of our 2018 Fall Writing Contest. You can find all the writing contest stories here. It happened so fast. Murray’s arm nearly tore from its socket as Boomer sprang off into the night, pulling Murray behind at the end of the leash. A flurry of frenzied…

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I Am Not A Crook

May 18, 2018 by Joslyn Chase 2018 Spring Writing Contest, Hot, Thriller/Suspense 0 Comments

We could have gone back to work at old man Metzger’s nursery, shoveling gravel and six varieties of manure, each guaranteed to singe the nose hairs off a rhino. We could have caught up on the gossip, snide jokes, and nasal bickering tossed around by Betsy and Selma in the pig-hole they call the employee’s lounge. We could have gone back to collecting our Friday paychecks, enough for a week’s supply of Ramen noodles and five nights at Andy’s rundown neighborhood bar.

We could have left before any real damage done, and I was considering just that, getting ready to grab Pluto by the back of his collar and drag him out of there, already thinking how we’d laugh about this moment in years to come while tossing back beers and smirking at women. We could have turned back.

Then Pluto shot Gert Franklin and it all went to hell.

The Carson Effect

November 8, 2017 by Joslyn Chase 2017 Winter Writing Contest 16 Comments

This story is by Joslyn Chase and was part of our 2017 Winter Writing Contest. You can find all the writing contest stories here. Adam Carson woke from an anesthetized sleep and stared down the long barrel of a gun. It loomed, unwavering, two feet from his head. If he could see the hand that…

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The Better Part of Valor

July 26, 2017 by Joslyn Chase 2017 Summer Writing Contest, Drama, Hot 2 Comments

Nobody ever walks into a dive like this. It’s the kind of hole to steer clear of, unless it’s the only beacon in your stretch of inky night, a slice of flotsam, a quivering straw.

Unless you’ve got nothing left to lose.

Mark Crandall felt the sawdust underfoot, damp with spilled beer, matted and caking the treads of his combat sneakers, his fighting shoes. Their cracked leather tops sported crusty brown splotches from bloodied noses and split lips. The buzz of impact still echoed in his bones, but it hadn’t been enough. Nothing was ever enough.

He straddled a barstool, swiping a jacket sleeve over the pitted surface in front of him, sweeping away peanut shells, obliterating the oily, wet circles overlapping like an Olympic icon. Clearing the slate.

A Scar for a Scar

August 24, 2016 by Joslyn Chase 2016 5th Anniversary Contest 1 Comment

by Joslyn Chase The scar stands out in jagged relief, a topography of my grief and failure, the shiny pink mountain range trailing from my wrist nearly to my elbow, flanked by faint blue veins like rivers on a map.  It is always there, under my gaze, a memento of my guilt, a reminder that I…

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