The Space Between Octobers By Wendy Nikel We always meet in October, though it takes me years to ask why. By that time, he’s already come and left a dozen times, never aging more than a day, though I do, year by drawn-out year. “I don’t know how it works,” he says as our…
Becoming the Morrigan by Deborah L. Davitt They never see her coming. The drug dealers and muggers, thieves and rapists, pickpockets and procurers—they all think she’s prey. She’s only been picked up on camera once. So we saw her as they did: an unassuming figure, fur-wrapped against the frigid night of this moon, nine…
Apples for the Future by Jamie Lackey My older brother Samuel stood in the center of town, beneath the spreading branches of our spirit tree. The limbs dipped low from the weight of the apples, and the leaves cast heavy shadows across his face. I stood with everyone else in a rough circle…
The Red Goddess by Melanie Rees My Red Goddess first died in front of me when I was six. The tiny wooden men with red heads brought her to me. She sat on the dry lawn and cackled a hearty laugh that set my heart ablaze. “What’s your name?” she asked. “Mack,” my…
The Astounding Life of Penny Wu by D.A. Xiaolin Spires Penny Wu hails from the ISS. No, that’s not entirely true. Scratch that. She did once hail from the ISS, where she was born, but now she drifts in space, her eversuit recycling her waste and returning it to her as oxygen and food….
Exchange by Katherine Quevedo When I got to Mario Reyes’s dorm room, I heard him scuffling around, opening and closing drawers as if he had a girl coming over. I smirked as I knocked. If he’d seen my room, he wouldn’t have bothered cleaning. He opened the door. “Hello, Leland,” he said. “Please come…
Contingencies By Sarah Hogg “What’s your password, Commander?” the Ensign pleaded. “I can avoid the collision, but the controls will only respond to your password.” The Commander was silent for a moment. Her lacerated body heaved on the fractured floor. Then she whispered his name, ragged breath scraping over the word. The Ensign took…
The Lost God-Warriors of Dhujapur By David VonAllmen Women and men run beneath the legs of thirty-foot god-warrior statues, in fear and horror, to hide away in the center of the city. There, they might live a few moments longer, while the black demons’ tusks tear through their neighbors. They haven’t spare breath for…
Shackles by Adam Fout Stepping from a spherical white craft that rests at the top of a gentle hill, the being that looks so achingly human points with fingers the color of earth. The pink light of the closest dozen suns reflects off each nail, skin the color of fresh pine needles absorbing…
At Least No One Else Will Suffer By Dawn Vogel The king will be dead before the end of this celebration of our marriage. In the days to come, some will say that I married him, and murdered him, solely for my own benefit. Who else stands to gain as much as the queen,…
