by Katherine Villyard | Feb 21, 2024 | drabble
It’s almost the full moon, and I’m out of sick time. I’m tired, and itchy, and I shaved this morning and have a five o’clock shadow at noon. I just want to curl up under the conference table and take a nap. Instead, I go to the lunch line in the cafeteria downstairs....
by Katherine Villyard | Feb 14, 2024 | free fiction, short fiction
This story was originally published in Electric Velocipede on December 30, 2013, and reprinted in Love Stories. She knew the signs of drowning; she’d seen it many times. Mouth below the waterline, arms pressing the body up out of the water for a breath. He didn’t cry...
by Katherine Villyard | Mar 24, 2023 | drabble, vampires
No drabbles here, no,I was sick and overworked.Sorry about that. “Vampire Nightclubs”? Back in my day, we didn’t go to nightclubs. There were pubs, and gentlemen’s clubs that were NOT what you think of when I say that phrase today, dances, the opera, the theater. I...
by Katherine Villyard | Mar 13, 2023 | drabble
If you take a left turn off the subway platform, you’ll find a secret door. The door will open for a gift of silver. Once through, you’ll find that you’re outside in a magenta twilight, with lush, fragrant flowers and strange, beautiful animals. Leave them be. Follow...
by Katherine Villyard | Mar 12, 2023 | drabble
My university roommate smells like a wet dog. I, on the other hand, rush to my classes under an umbrella and stay up all night studying, while she snores. Our suitemate often shows up with dishes of food. We don’t know where she got them. I don’t eat, of course, but...
by Katherine Villyard | Mar 11, 2023 | drabble
Their lives are so short. Can you believe that at one point, this was illegal? Emily would have had to carry on with broken hips, trashed kidneys, a heart condition that makes surgical intervention impossible. Emily deserved more than this kind of suffering. Which is...
by Katherine Villyard | Mar 10, 2023 | drabble
I’m trying to do daily drabbles, for fun. The definition of drabble that I’m using here is that each one is a little microfiction of exactly 100 words. I enjoy the challenge of making it exactly 100 words, and it’s a fun exercise. So hey, if you want...
by Katherine Villyard | Mar 10, 2023 | drabble
Electronics don’t work in water. Melusine had a “dry room,” where she kept her Xbox, her computer, her television, her cellphone. The glow from her monitor and a collection of LED lights illuminated the cave walls in blue and green and pink. She would run a nice bath...
by Katherine Villyard | Mar 9, 2023 | drabble, vampires
We sat together in the dark, musty office, nervous. The woman across the desk had a wrinkle between her forehead as she frowned at her computer, then back at the papers. “So, what made you want to adopt a baby?” Her voice was bored, toneless. The keyboard clattered....
by Katherine Villyard | Mar 8, 2023 | drabble
She closed the conference room doors and knelt on the meeting table. A packet of salt provided a circle around her. She called upon the forces of plenty, of power, of clever, strategic war, and lit a green candle in the center of the table. Outside, visible through...