A Place Without Seasons by Y.M. Pang In the gloom of the freezer, Shiro dreams of snow. He dreams of bare trees etched like dark embroidery on the white landscape. He dreams of running beside a girl in purple boots, her long braid bouncing behind her. Her laughter is effervescent as shrine bells. She,…
I haven’t been to any conventions in a long time. Four years to be exact. But this year I’ve attended three already. Two of those were since we published our second issue. SpoCon was a great time for me. It is a small convention, so I got a chance to get to know a few…
A Salamander’s Wisdom by Rebecca Birch It didn’t hurt much, dying. A sharp, bitter taste when my teeth broke the red berry’s skin. Tingling on my tongue and the insides of my cheeks. A sudden tightness in my chest. No, dying didn’t hurt—not near as much as living while my daughter wasted away…
Okuritsuridashi by D.A. Xiaolin Spires The earth shakes and a deafening silence fills the sacred space of the Ryōgoku Sumo Hall, as India-hailed Monsoon Maker squats and watches everyone lurch in the audience. The ceiling cracks open and large chunks of plaster fall. Screams break through the silence, as audience members fan out from…
If Issue 1 brought me excitement, releasing Issue 2 brings me joy. It means we are still going strong and people want to read us. Issue 1 brought a lot of success, at one point crashing our website for about ten minutes. That was exciting, but also terrifying. It proves that the issue was more…
Our Weight on Other Worlds By Beth Goder The spaceship leaves in two hours. It’s not enough time for Clara to decide. When Doug walks in, he doesn’t notice the packed bag on the table, perhaps because it’s so small. Clara can’t take much—none of the colonists can. Launching a spaceship is expensive enough…
A Mind Of Its Own By Jeff Soesbe The knife wouldn’t take Gordon’s second dollop of cream cheese. No matter how many times he tried, the cheese flowed back into the container like water. His head still hurt from New Year’s Eve. He didn’t need this. What he needed was more cream cheese on…
A Right Angle to Here and Now By Floris M. Kleijne “What color are your M&Ms?” The woman’s arrival might have gone unnoticed, but I happened to be staring over the low wall bordering the oval meadow, gazing through the slow snow of pale pink petals drifting from the cherry trees. I stand stunned…
Just Another Night on Telegraph By Karl Dandenell She called him Harry. Actually, his name was Henry, but she was beautiful, and he was more than a little drunk, so he let her get away with it. “You are Harry. You know, hairy. All men are, but you….” She touched his bare chest, which…
Doorkeeper By Joanna Michal Hoyt Haavi stands empty-handed in front of the mirror-paneled door, waiting to turn them away. The waiting is long. Only a few dare to risk everything to find the Last Door and receive the power to right the wrongs at the foundation of this crooked world. Some of these die…
