Death Remembers By Brynn MacNab The bartender gestured toward Death’s empty glass. “Another one?” “No. Just about time for me to be going.” Most people never even noticed Death, at least not until he came for them. Maybe there was a special dispensation for bartenders. This one had mentioned his name on several occasions,…
Time Waits for One Man By Aeryn Rudel “Okay, so you’re immortal?” Nadine set her iPhone on the table and pressed record. “I won’t register on that,” said the man seated across from her. He was tall and thin, with a sharp nose, a wide, clear brow, and eyes so brown they were almost…
Partitions by Robert S. Wilson “Honey, can you take out the trash?” The moment the words slip from my mouth I realize my mistake. “Sure.” Devin gives me a solemn smile and rushes over to the trash can next to the refrigerator, opens the lid, and begins pulling out the white plastic bag. I’m…
Murder, Martyr, Maybe By Shannon Fay You can always spot the moment someone recognizes you. It’s like seeing a train change track in their brain, all their attention now barrelling towards you, the wide whites of their eyes shining like headlights. It has happened again right now, mid job interview. The interviewer, Irene, stares…
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…
