KN Magazine: Short Stories
The Plumbing Problem
In “The Plumbing Problem,” H. James Carls crafts a darkly ironic tale of wealth, desire, and quiet calculation. When a plumber is called to investigate a mysterious odor in an opulent estate, an unsettling conversation reveals more than a simple household issue. What follows is a subtle, chilling exploration of manipulation, motive, and the dangerous consequences of what goes unseen—and unsaid.
You’re Perfect
Beren has watched from the doorway for months, longing to belong to the joyful, radiant community gathered in a basement meeting room. When she is finally welcomed inside, the warmth, music, and affection feel intoxicating—like flight. But as acceptance turns to possession, and belonging morphs into something far more sinister, Beren discovers that some invitations are not acts of love, but of hunger.
The Canaries
A pharmaceutical CEO is abducted, blindfolded, buried alive, and forced to listen. His captors are not seeking ransom or revenge—they want accountability. As the night unfolds, a chilling moral reckoning emerges, transforming a kidnapping into a meditation on power, profit, illness, and the cost of being unheard.
Survival Tactics
In a scorched desert landscape where family history and buried grudges collide, a mother and daughter visit an estranged patriarch whose past crimes and looming inheritance spark a deadly reckoning. Survival Tactics is a tense, character-driven crime story about violence deferred, revenge rehearsed, and the brutal clarity of self-preservation.
Oh, Susanna
When a long-lost accomplice strolls back into town, elderly Susanna finally gets her chance at revenge. But in this darkly funny, sharply drawn tale of aging, resentment, and poetic justice, nothing is quite what it seems—and Susanna’s methods are far older, quieter, and deadlier than anyone guesses.
THE CHAMBER
In this richly imagined historical tale, a master torturer is betrayed by the king he served—only to escape a brutal death in the chamber he designed. A darkly clever story of deception, survival, and poetic justice.
THE HOLE IN THE ICE
A month after Peggy disappeared, Tom stands over the square hole in the ice—the same hole the cops had searched and abandoned. As black water sloshes and secrets stir beneath the frozen surface, Tom reflects on what he’s done… until something—or someone—rises to meet him.
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