Gluttony
Reading Time: 11 minutesWhat happens below decks, stays below decks in this horror/humor mashup of the biblical account of Noah’s ark and the doomed voyage of the Demeter in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Fiction
The Apotheosis of Rosie
Reading Time: 4 minutesRosie O’Connell smelled only dust where once there had been life.
Dream of Humans
Reading Time: 5 minutesShe was eight when her body rotted away. A virus. They were able to save her brain, and for the last ten years she’s been living inside an eight-year-old android body.
Bota and the Swarm
Reading Time: 15 minutesThe creatures were out there, somewhere, waiting for him. But could one stranded human defeat hundreds of hungry aliens?
Trapper
Reading Time: 2 minutesJenny hangs the traps every sunset. She measures the string against her arm and wraps it twice around each jar tied with a double knot. She hangs them from the strongest branches of the big dead oak on Hangman’s Hill.
The Boatmen
Reading Time: 6 minutesA money-grubbing politician usurps the limited resources of the town they just burned to the ground. The Boatmen has another idea.
Lighthouse In The Desert
Reading Time: 4 minutesThere is something special about desert at night: A dark-grey sea of emptiness stretched before us, with nothing but sand dunes and tall, sharp rocks for miles around. If we watched closely, we’d see it was crawling with life, with snakes, scorpions, and other little nightmares, but I kept my eyes on the road, and the hitchhiker – Joey – stared at the sky.
Conscription Day
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe firstborn of every family is called up to service, in the name of protecting the grace and honour of this Unified Earth.
The Mascareri
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe oldest mask shop in Venice has a mask for everything, and the owner will take whatever you have to offer.
The Fashion Police Are Watching
Reading Time: 4 minutesShe flails her arms and legs against the straps that bind her to a wooden chair in the middle of the boutique.
The Reward
Reading Time: 4 minutesHis mother-in-law told him he’d be rewarded for hurting her daughter. He thought she meant she was happy that she was gone. Too late, he realized he was wrong in his interpretation of reward.
Universal Story
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhen I mentioned the Kintoc spring tale of relocating entire lakes using braided ropes, a herd of elk and sub-zero temperatures, I didn’t consider that I might soon be living all of it.
Metaverse 2030
Reading Time: 18 minutesWhen Gordon finally gives in and gets fitted for Carbon 14 contact lenses, he has to learn how to see the world differently.
Out Here
Reading Time: 3 minutesA century ago, a question blossomed in our awareness that has tormented each subsequent generation’s brightest scientific minds. Since other intelligent life must be out there in a universe so vast, why haven’t they found us yet?
Invisible Bodies
Reading Time: 13 minutesIt takes place in a futuristic Rio-São Paulo megalopolis, where old and sick people die and nobody cares. Nobody except the protagonist.
As Seen From Above
Reading Time: 16 minutesWhen Dave witnesses a deadly hit-and-run from two storeys up, it triggers a chain of events that makes him question reality.
Grave Concerns
Reading Time: 4 minutes“My name is Calder Freeman. I am the head arcanist at GraveSecure.” He said it casually, like someone offhandedly mentioning they were a garbageman or an accountant, not an honest-to-God necromancer.
Moon-Boy
Reading Time: 21 minutesIn near-future England, teenage Naomi daydreams of dating a boy from the lunar Colony.
Amelia’s Appliances
Reading Time: 4 minutesAs William ambles into the kitchen to retrieve his morning coffee, he slips on a patch of melted ice. When he falls on his back, the dishwasher swings its door open and smacks him on the head.
Christmas At Grandma Minerva’s
Reading Time: 6 minutesWhen Grandma Minerva is bitten trying to buy a special Christmas present for her grandchildren, she is determined to still have a wonderful holiday before she turns.
Love Nwatta-Nwatta-Nwatta Style
Reading Time: 16 minutesCan love blossom between an man and a low-gravity spider in the most dangerous parking lot in the Galaxy?
The Old Red Schoolhouse in the Forest
Reading Time: 2 minutesWe live in an old red schoolhouse in the forest. The forest is thick and woolly, and at night you can hear the wolves sing. It is safe here.
The Letters
Reading Time: 16 minutesThe old metalworks where Seth’s father was a Robotics technician before the war drafted him; is now a graveyard. He sneaks back inside, never expecting to find Robots, a T-Rex and a communication bot. It is perfect until the police discover them; they are immediately sent for destruction.
Please Hold
Reading Time: 4 minutesBrother Gregor bent close to his work, his hands trembling as he lifted the taper. Candlelight flickered in the gloom; incense sticks pierced the fetid air. A drab grey light trickled through the tiny windows, illuminating the chalk circle drawn across the floorboards.
A Butterfly in Peking
Reading Time: 7 minutesIn a war-torn world of brutal fighting between greens and technocrats, three orphaned children collide with destiny. A single decision will define their lives.
Fangs
Reading Time: 5 minutesAnca is lonely and she knows it’s because she is different, but when she had a bad accident she encounters somebody that could be a friend.
The Box
Reading Time: 3 minutesI found it in the usual place, where I always find them. Under the rock. “Hello,” I said. “What’s your name, little feller?” No answer. But I expected that.
The Last Request of Gladimus McCarran
Reading Time: 7 minutesThe system said he is guilty and must be punished by hanging. They laughed at him so they also had to be punished.
The Scent of Daisies
Reading Time: 12 minutesJulia, an elderly woman, is haunted by dementia. Though Alzheimer’s might explain why she can’t remember picking the flowers in the hallway or putting the kettle on, she’s starting to believe she’s being haunted by something else entirely.
The Valiance
Reading Time: 7 minutesMina struggles with her gift of the Valiance dance. Her life gets a moment of quiet when her heart is touched by a lonely child. It is not what gifts we are given, but how we choose to use them.
Take Me With You
Reading Time: 4 minutesEarth is about to launch a satellite into deep space with a sole AI on board — until the AI has another idea.
The Knight of Innocence
Reading Time: 21 minutesSomeone is trying to turn Baltimore into a gate to Hell. So the mundane and magical communities turn to the one man in the city sworn to defend them. Michael White isn’t the hero you want, deserve, or need. But he is willing to work on holidays and weekends.
The Last Glance
Reading Time: 6 minutesAfter the earth has been radiated by nuclear war, survivors move below the surface and build a new society underground, only going to the surface once a year to visit the one last tree that still remains.
Fur
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhen your species is prey, you can never let your guard down. Even when you’re walking home.
All Those Perfect Moments
Reading Time: 12 minutesA sleepy town in rural Alabama holds many secrets, not all of them worth digging up.
The Haunting of Piedras Blancas
Reading Time: 5 minutesThis love story between a ghost and an alien is a mash-up of sci/fi, fantasy, and goth.
Dead Guy Walking
Reading Time: 7 minutesThe lines separating life, death, and laundry are thinner than you think.
Losing It
Reading Time: 15 minutesWhen the unsuspecting pharmacologist bumps into her former flame in a South London pub, she learns that the very future of the planet may depend on the outcome of her conversation with the drunken professor.
Masques
Reading Time: 4 minutesIn a time when death is no longer final, how many ghosts walk among us?
The Beast
Reading Time: 4 minutesMarilia has a beast to conquer. It may not have scales or sharp teeth, but it’s just as terrifying all the same. Will this strange metal machine consume her, or will she find a glimmer of hope to hold onto?
Magic for Magic
Reading Time: 4 minutesLove is blind. It feels like a gift from heaven but when it is vengeful there is hell to pay.
Araceli’s Stars
Reading Time: 2 minutesTattoos. High-fantasy identities. Zeppelins. Magic. Diversity and Inclusion. Oppression. Hope.
From Out a Full-Orbed Moon
Reading Time: 9 minutesThe ghost of Edgar Allan Poe gets more than he bargained for.
The Thirteen Quixotic Temples of Light and Darkness
Reading Time: 30 minutesA young woman purchases a set of beads from an old crone and the adventure of her life begins.
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Deify
Reading Time: 4 minutesGrace is a cult survivor who is called to identify the body of her former cult’s leader and captor.
FRIENDSHIP
Reading Time: 10 minutesA lonely alien seeks friendship and fulfillment at an Alaska farmers market.
Quantum Forever
Reading Time: 3 minutesA particle traveling from the beginning of time to the end and back contemplates the balance between hope and fate. Though powerless to control its direction, the particle still has choices.
Three Centuries. Same Radio.
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhen reaching out to the stars above, the space beyond or the ether, we allocate disproportionate energy into preparing to cast the nets over catching the fish. What do we do with it?
Hyacinth
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe allure of prospecting a deserted Mars becomes so compelling that nothing else matters. Not even love.
The Wolf of the Woods
Reading Time: 10 minutesWhen Dominic saved his sister from a monster, he didn’t anticipate he would become one too. Now, he might be the most dangerous creature in the woods and if he doesn’t get help, he could hurt the people he loves.