Throwback Thursday: ‘Clearing Out Nests’ by Brandon Crilly

Creatures of Coffee

What’s really behind the coffee chain you drink at? Find out in ‘Clearing Out Nests’ by Brandon Crilly in Pulp Literature Issue 16, Autumn 2017, on sale for the throwback price of $8 from now till February 15th!

Clearing Out Nests

by Brandon Crilly

Hana triple-checked that she had cleaned all the dried blood off her skin before she left the restroom.  No one in the coffee shop had noticed it when she walked in, so focused were they on their conversations or smart phones.  There had only been a few patches of gore; she thought about sitting down at the counter to see how long it took for someone to give her a weird look.  Or scream.  Willis would have killed her if she’d tried that, though, so her bloody hijab, shirt and pants went into her backpack, to join the pile of similar laundry waiting at home. 

A steaming cup of coffee was waiting for her at the long counter that looked out on the street.  Willis had a newspaper in front of him, but that was just for show; between sips of herbal tea, his eyes were on the empty building across the street, one hand resting near the duffel bag that held their weapons.  The place across the street had been a clothing store before a couple of unexplained deaths led to it closing down.  There was a gap in the polite FOR LEASE signs lining the windows, but if no one had seen Hana take it down with her when one of the ghouls threw her across the interior, she doubted anyone would bat an eye now.

“Nothing, I’m guessing?” Hana asked.

“Not a peep.”

Hana took a careful sip of coffee, but the motion still made her throat ache where that ghoul had grabbed her.  She grimaced, and Willis shook his head.

“Please don’t start already.”

“You should’ve gone left,” he said.  He licked drips of tea from his shock-white mustache.

Read the full story in Pulp Literature Issue 16, Autumn 2017, on sale till February 15th.

An Ottawa teacher by day, Brandon Crilly has been previously published by Daily Science Fiction, Abyss & Apex, OnSpec, Flame Tree Publishing, and other markets. He also reviews fiction for BlackGate.com and serves as a programming lead for Can*Con in Ottawa. With Evan May, he’s the co-host of the podcast Broadcasts from the Wasteland, described as ‘eavesdropping on a bunch of writers at the hotel bar’. You can find Brandon at brandoncrilly.wordpress.com or on Twitter @B_Crilly.

Want more from Brandon Crilly? Check out an excerpt of ‘Synchronicity and Sonata’ from Pulp Literature Issue 29, Winter 2021.