I don’t think I died last night. At least, I’m pretty sure. I remember running across the street to grab a snack at the mini-mart. I remember freezing in panic as a semi-truck’s headlights flashed in the road. I remember scrambling up the sidewalk as the truck sped by, blasting its horn. But I could…
Human Child, Thistledown had called him, when her fairy hand wrapped around his chubby fingers and led him to this place so many seasons ago. But Human Child took too long to say when there were games to be played, dragonflies to dance with in the waterfall’s spray, or frogs with whom to sing. He…
Vera rotated the lever to transfer the next set of refugees into the airlock. Below, the Earth glowed red like a blossoming rose in a time-lapse video, the petals unfolding, spreading out across the seas. “Do we have an update on the toll?” She asked Avery through her com link. Avery sighed. “You’re just torturing…
My splashbike squelches as it leaves the concrete. I’m airborne, wet hair flailing, stinging my cheeks. I love this part, the almost not-quite making it to the other side. But despite the constant shifting rain I hit a cantilever. My splashbike bobbles, the specially designed tread of the tires defying gravity until I’ve got enough…
She didn’t love you from the start, and more the fool you were for thinking you could change that. But then, magic’s often been the refuge of the fool. If in your sorrow and anger, you fled to ancient books and the whisperings of wizards, who could call that unexpected? You didn’t mean to kill…
An Android’s Guide to Deciphering Emotions by George Nikolopoulos “They made you look human”, Clarissa says, “so you try to make yourself think like one, but that’s illogical.” Clarissa is everywhere. Her app is on half the world’s phones. She’s the most popular digital assistant, and she’s my friend. “You’re the only android that…
Livin’ Doll by Maureen Bowden Sandra Beesley lost her virginity to Eddie Wynstanley on the top deck of the New Brighton Ferry in 1959. She was fourteen. He was seventeen. The rest of the passengers were crowded onto the lower deck, sheltering from the rain. “If my dad finds out he’ll kill me,”…
Smallpox Ate the Americas Once by Leon Perniciaro Will and Santos attacked the farmhouse door with hatchets as Marco coughed blood and clutched his chest behind them. A few miles northeast, both Twofer ships jutted from Lincoln Woods State Park like massive lawn darts. “I’ve never seen anybody survive a Twofer infection this bad,” Will…
Butterfly of the Apocalypse By Adam Gaylord I close my eyes. The warm breeze smells of cut grass and I can hear children playing somewhere nearby. They laugh and scream, chasing one another in some game, unaware that they run headlong into oblivion. We’d spent the better part of a lifetime studying them,…
Correction by Adam Fout The officer, covered in armor like angled obsidian, throws Sithas into the bare room, then speaks, its words guttural, static-filled: “You will not be taken into the prison until you read and follow the instructions.” Sithas, sprawled on his back, says nothing, watches the officer leave. He cannot remember the…
