Reading Time: 3 minutes This piece imagines a future world where apologies are necessary for every step of personal interactions with others.

Reading Time: 4 minutes A desperate young Wiccan encounters an archetypal presence in a shopping mall Santa.

Reading Time: 6 minutes Glistening like a frozen tear, delicate as a kiss, the crystal necklace lies on wine velvet cloth. Jim has never seen anything so lovely and flawless. His breath catches in his throat. It’s out of his price range. There’s no way he can afford it. There’s no way he can walk away. Something in the manner the colors intertwine weaves around his soul.

Reading Time: 4 minutes One million, two hundred-thousand seconds later, the reporter from the Tribune sips his coffee and raises his hand. “I just don’t see how people can be expected to trust you after an incident like this.”

Reading Time: 7 minutes It is the first time Gabriel has heard birdsong. Usually, birds drop lifeless at his feet. Hearing the song, Gabriel is warmed by an invincible summer. He stretches his arms toward the light.

Reading Time: 4 minutes A young slaver unknowingly captures her childhood friend, and must consider the extent to which they are each beyond salvation.

Reading Time: 8 minutes Dust fur falls like rain, feathering into the plumes of a dove. The dove’s wings become sleeves. Amimi is shining like a hologram in the glooming.

Reading Time: 4 minutes A group of mannequins from a fashion department store dream of becoming real women.

Reading Time: 7 minutes In the night shadows of trees, shunning the moonlight, a man waits. It is Kristjan, taller than Jim remembers. He is nearly naked, covered only by a wolf skin. In the night, his eyes glow red. As Jim looks at him, unable to turn away, something dark slips beneath Jim’s fingernails, flowing like a shadow into his blood.