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The Red Birds of Gehenna by Sanford Allen
A woman sits on an outcropping of rock, her back to me. Red birds circle above her, feathers that glint like rubies.
I climb the rocks and kneel beside her.
Her eyes are milky white and sightless. She is crying tears of blood.
Each drop that falls becomes a bird.




Sanford Allen hails from San Antonio, Texas. Home of the Alamo and some of the best $2.99 enchilada plates you're likely to find. His fiction has appeared in print and online publications including Sand: A Journal of Strange Tales, Necrotic Tissue and Niteblade. He works as a newspaper reporter -- has for almost 20 years -- and fronts the "no-account no wave blues band" Boxcar Satan.