We carry our offerings to the beach by moonlight, us sisters who have stayed behind. We wear hiking boots–or at least closed toed, sporty sandals–to protect our feet from broken oyster shells. Our steps are uncertain: we slip on kelp ribbons and slick rock, brace ourselves against driftwood. We dare not bring a flashlight and…
There came a time when Death decided to take a husband. She was lonely. She knew many souls as they passed to their reward or punishment, but they were never hers. She wanted someone to be hers. She wanted company. There was a young man who spent many nights with her while he cared for…
The headphones—if you could call them that—arrived in a glossy white cardboard box she’d had to sign for. She positioned the box in the circle of artificial sunlight on her kitchen table and readied the camera on the tripod. Hair in place, teeth checked, nostrils clear, she smiled wide and pressed ‘Start Live Video.’ “Hello…
I want you to be happy. That’s what everybody says at the beginning, isn’t it? I believed you when you told me, and I said the same to you. And everybody really wants that, don’t they? Of course they do. But when I wanted to apprentice in witchcraft and hone my natural abilities, you brought…
The small god tears across the universe like time might break. Their being hinges on an axiom: outpace light; see the past. They push until their form is gaseous and all the worlds become one bright luminary ahead, but it’s too little, too slow. When they look back, their star remains dark. The small god…
Movies always get this part wrong. In real hospitals, nothing beeps. Beeping means something bad is happening; your body is failing at some integral task and needs help before it collapses into chaos. But in the ICU med bay of the Starbound, the second largest vessel this side of the Rift and the crown of…
The bell chimed as the front door swung open. My head snapped up from my crossword to find a man about my age with the most striking face and killer jawline. Fuck, that’s a shame. He wore a bomber jacket, jeans with a distressed knee, and black Chucks. From what I could tell, he bore…
The Grove of Knowledge benefitted from an accord with the fungi underground. The fungi spread far and wide, with eyes and ears in every corner of the realm, allowing them to provide the trees with all manner of news. “There’s a pirate queen docked in the castle’s main harbor.” “Lady Greyton has been missing for…
I did not invite the Tongue Takers to dinner, but three extra chairs have found their way to my kitchen table. They returned early this morning. News of their arrival oozed through town like a pox, spreading across the marketplace in a wave of moaning and wailing. The cleverest of us had fled inside, locked…
Nomi knew she couldn’t eat her mother all by herself. But the idea of calling a reclamation team made a silent scream spiral out of her chest, infinite in every direction. So she sat in the corner, tucked against the bulkhead, and watched rigor mortis slowly settle the folds of her mother’s face. Nomi had…
