by Dan Yokum He’s eighteen now, graduated, and ready to leave the bay. Ready to leave his father who fishes for scraps in the dirty water, and his mother who sells bread on the docks. He’s struggled enough, the misfit, the weirdo. As everyone and everything around him falls apart, he’s still always the kid…
Read moreApril Fooling
by Stephen Kyo Kaczmarek “Frida, you loser,” Rhiannon Gallagher mumbles, “untie me from this chair right now.” Blood cakes against her temple where I’d hit her. That’s got to hurt. It’s not like in the movies, where one tap and the girl goes down. Vlump! It took effort not to kill her. More to get…
Read moreThe Red Glasses
by Doug Devor She should have been hurrying, but she couldn’t bring herself to do so. Instead, she walked even slower than her normal pace. Her left shoe squeaked with each step. Perhaps the reason she was dragging her feet was because she didn’t really want to see him. Her grandfather certainly was not a…
Read moreA Whole New Form of Warfare
by James Moran It was hard to locate the scent of our exact meeting spot against the barometric pressure fluctuations. Clouds wandered overhead. The landscape was desert as far as the eye could see. Terrain such as this were common enough for our showdowns. No perceptive species around to witness the flashes, smell the ozone,…
Read moreLight as Air
by Peter Medeiros Lauren Chen didn’t think the crinoline would cause any trouble. It seemed innocuous enough when her stepdaughter Delwyn, almost fifteen now, pointed to a shop window and said, “That’s what I was telling you about! It’s from France. They used to make them with horsehair, but now they’re all supported with a…
Read moreHow to Kill an Electric Man
by Glenn Dungan He is wiry and nude, sprawled between a tumbleweed of wires from a gutted EMP and a pond of lichen which repopulated this once full and vibrant place. Wisps of smoke rise from the crater and disappears into the air. Jack goes into the crater to check on the man. He puts…
Read moreThe Doors to the Sky
by Chris A. Smith The netherworld, a long time ago The silence hung heavily in the Hall of Judgment. Burning torches threw long shadows across the room, and iridescent fish traced gleaming arcs in the still waters of the reflecting pool. Polished marble columns rose into the darkest corners of the temple’s ceiling, creating a…
Read moreThe Honeymoon
by T.L. Beeding “Can’t you see I’m working on it?” Phylissa threw herself against the side of the ARC-52, pressing herself flat. Bullets whizzed by, thudding into the foul-smelling mud pile their terrain rover had gotten trapped in. She gave him a nasty look. “Well, if you haven’t noticed, they’ve got us pinned. And they…
Read moreBlood Vengeance
by Zach Ellenberger The glow of the Northern Lights illuminated the night sky. The Valkyries had arrived to claim the souls of Magnus’s fallen brothers who had been slain in the valley earlier that day. Knowing the gods were present, Magnus communed with them, consulted them for their wisdom in hopes to heed their counsel….
Read moreUnder Distant Skies
by Andrew Albritton “This has to be it,” Ambrose said, taking a bite of beans in the firelight. “Tomorrow, we’ll find the treasure.” “I hope you’re right,” Garrison said. “Otherwise, we’re going to have to find jobs.” Ambrose laughed. “We can’t have that.” Ambrose and Garrison were camped at the top of a shallow canyon,…
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