And Then I Saw It
Everything changed the day I went on the plane. It could’ve been different. I should’ve known what was to come. It all started with my parents' idea to fly me…[...]
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George Anston Gets the Point
George Anston was preparing for his clandestine meeting across town. He knew there would be danger at every step but nothing would stop him from reaching his rendezvous. He sharpened…[...]
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You Did What?!
It’s right around the corner there. JESUS CHRIST! Where’d you get your license? A Kinder Surprise? No, stupid, Kinder Surprises are illegal. As is stealing a suitcase full of money…[...]
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Out of Reach
Elaine noticed the road first. Nothing had changed, not exactly. The same turns were there, the same stoplight, the same gas station on the corner. But it took longer to…[...]
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The Accidental Robber
There were a pair of police officers checking security over a local bank. The bank had just been robbed about five minutes prior and the two officers were tasked with…[...]
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Letter Nº 14
So, do you really think what happened to me in 1860 deserves a place in a book? Fine, go ahead, but on one condition: you must not publish anything before…[...]
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I’ve Said Too Much
Martin Hale didn’t speak immediately.He just watched Aaron. The city flickered behind him, reflected in the glass like something alive—restless, electrical, waiting. Aaron felt it in his chest before he…[...]
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Nothing Left Wild
Content note: This story contains themes of emotional distress and implied self-harm involving a child I got down on two skinny knees that morning, with shag carpet pressing into my…[...]
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Collectibles
The figurines were lined up neatly on the shelf. All had the same shape. At first Matilda thought they were tiny bells. But on closer inspection they were depicting a…[...]
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The Missing Piece
I pull the box out of the garage because the dogs need to go out. That was my excuse. The truth is less organized. I let them into the yard…[...]
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The Bargain
Fame had become like a spotlight that bleached everything that was human about him. In the dark of the old Victorian house, he saw his reflection through the rain-pattered window.…[...]
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Fragments of Yesterday
To Alex, memory was simple. Reliable. Things happened. He remembered them. Even the details that didn’t seem important at the time stayed with him. Which is why the feeling that…[...]
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The Bystander
The boat left and twenty students in the retired seniors class were on the lawn. One of them asked me if I was the monitor. Sure, I said, and slipped…[...]
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A Soul for a Soul
The green splintered door has called out to me day after day as I pass it on my way downstairs. Today, the call is stronger. It echoes through my bones…[...]
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Pulse of the Fool
Pulse Of The Fool I KEEP WRITING, keep trying, hoping that every effort will be something more than it was from the time before. Yet, who am I really? What…[...]
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SOMEWHERE BETWEEN CLOSING TIME AND MORNING
‘’See you tomorrow, Angie", she said, waving goodbye to her as she left the café exhausted. Hazel's shift had ended; it was 11pm. Her feet and back hurt because she…[...]
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The Inevitable Entropy of Ink
The truth will remain.He wrote the words without knowing why, only that they felt heavier than the pen that carried them. For a moment, he watched the ink settle into…[...]
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Exactly As Written
She realized it the third time.The first had been easy to dismiss.Lila had written, almost absentmindedly, “I wish the rain would stop.” She’d been sitting at her kitchen table, pen…[...]
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Trapped Inside
The squeaky wheel on Nurse Betty’s medicine cart always sent a chill down my spine. It indicated the beginning of another day trapped inside my own body, wanting to scream…[...]
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Father’s Daughter
It was a month ago when I first heard the screams. I should say ‘scream’ because that first night it was just the one, prolonged sound that pierced the night…[...]
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The Color Black
I wake to the sound of church bells. They fill the air with their chimes and dings, signaling the eighth hour of the day. There are voices outside, shouting something…[...]
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LifeTime Inc.
Mason Fleece’s eyes opened to silence for the first time in years. Screetches from his alarm clock had pulled him from dreams of rainforests and mountains every morning for the…[...]
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A Fatherly Experiment
The first thing I felt was a deep warmth that spread like a wildfire through my body. Once I felt it in my fingers and toes, my body jolted with…[...]
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Maps for the Unlost
Once, in a house at the edge of an ordinary street, a mother wrote by lamplight while her daughter slept. The lamp was brass and old and threw uneven gold…[...]
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Rows of Longing
Taryn trusted abandoned things more than she trusted people.Abandoned things did not ask her why she was quiet. They did not stare too long at her clothes or her hair…[...]
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The Blue After the Storm
April 23, 2026 - 6:20pmIt’s been gray and overcast today, which I honestly love. As an Arizonan living in Oklahoma now, I love the days where rain is expected. I…[...]
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The library of imagination
The wind rustles through the forest. Above my head the trees crack like old bones in a body. The crisp morning smell of the pines enters my nose. One of…[...]
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An Unfortunate Patient
“It was such a bizarre scene. I’m tempted to call the market and see if I can get some details,” said the host. “She was sobbing. I mean really sobbing.…[...]
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Call Your Father
The wall stared without question or expectation.There were scars hidden beneath its caked layers of paint, every one a silenced story consumed by the beige expanse. It stood despite them.…[...]
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Static in the Garden
I’ve been in bed for two days. My body feels heavy—clunky, as if my limbs have been attached incorrectly. The room is nearly empty: just a bed, a table, a…[...]
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Cracked Empties and the Ridge She Wanted Back
I set the bead against my temple and the reef-valley opened.Salt air. The sort that comes off water moving slow over living stone. A cousin’s hands in front of me…[...]
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Stone-Smell the Glass Wouldn’t Give Up
I went to the counter for enzyme on the second count. Onia was at the tray. I’d been buying enzyme from her twice a week for two years.“Morning,” I said.“Morning,”…[...]
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Growth-Scripts Fed
I set the tissue-sheet on the bench and picked up the pheromone-stylus. Thin reed, split at the tip. Most cousins used them for wall-writing. I used mine for growth-scripts.The sheet…[...]
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A Walk Through the Margin
The settlement had been called Pelto. Twenty-three cousins, a stone wall, a grain-house, a living-water system. The Hymn came through the wall on a Tuesday and by Thursday there was…[...]
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The Tendril Said Hello
The first thing I knew was the nutrient-warmth. The second was Heia’s face through the glass.She was bending over the jar, both hands flat on the bench, her breath fogging…[...]
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The Only Place I See
The only place I see is the horizon. What a beautiful and horrific view. When I am completely concentrated I can almost pinpoint the meeting of the sea and the…[...]
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The Amber Room
Her daughter had never seen color. She had never been taught what amber was. So someone needed to explain to Nessa Galloway why every crayon in Isla's box was worn…[...]
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A New Dawn
Black abyss greeted my eyes as they removed the itchy blindfold. White moonlight bouncing off the waves was the only indication that there was a sea. Stars twinkling above, waves…[...]
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The Graveyard Shift
It was Joshua's first Graveyard shift at his local gas station. For some reason people who worked this shift never stayed more than a week. No one would explain why,…[...]
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Project Violet
“Violet,” I mutter to myself as I walk through the woods. Violet; a person, dimension, thing, creature? I do not know, but the letter with that word had led me…[...]
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Red Shifted
Ezekiel Crowe once drew maps for the living. His clean lines guided lost souls through the untamed wilderness, steering them clear of swamps and bogs and onto solid ground. For…[...]
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Smoke and Signals
Experiment complete. Status: Failure.“Wynn. Good morning, Wynn.” A bird three shades darker than that of the light grey sky chirped from a thin branch outside a domed glass window that…[...]
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Ships That Don’t Come In
Catherine O’ Brady could sense something was coming, she could smell it, feel it in her very soul. Not wasting time with finding her slippers, she rushed upstairs to the…[...]
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Remember Tauberun
Mila Hoffman never believed in ghosts. Not until Tauberun.Rumors said it was a lively place, once. The baker always had fresh bread ready in the mornings. The buttery scent of…[...]
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The Carnival Slept
My waterlogged boots made dull thuds against the grounds of the lifeless carnival. The thuds were where idle chatter, victory bells, shaking coaster bars would have been. They buried the…[...]
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Reveille – A Cautionary Tale
The light came late. Not by any measure the others would have named, but Bartholomew felt the delay, a subtle slackening of something that had always arrived with certainty. Dawn…[...]
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Colors of the Sunset
I had always enjoyed watching the sunset, for as long as I can remember. Ever since I was a little girl, my mother would bring me to this beach just…[...]
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CROSS SLASH: Heaven and Hell
Dr. Sven Cain is evil.From a time during his innocent youth, Sven was the dominating factor in medical science and robotic engineering. He didn’t just practice medical science and robotic…[...]
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Blue Mouths
The hand came first.I had held it so long I had forgotten it was not mine — five fingers, dark and perfect, the nails still curved like little shells. I…[...]
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The Small Ones First
I found them by their heat.From altitude, the planet read mostly in blues and greens, the thermal signature of a world still within habitable range but trending wrong. Pockets of…[...]
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Visions In the Night
Harry hadn’t slept in four days. Every night, the banging continued, louder and louder with each passing day. A few times, he would debate going outside and seeing what it…[...]
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Song of Shipwrecks
Angelic notes from a hellion, trapped not by choice, but because my voice and what it was born into; it chooses to call to the waves of the sea. I…[...]
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The ghosts left behind
There was a stillness to the air, to an almost impossible degree, as if the air itself had begun to forget how to stir and dance until the stone that…[...]
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Don’t Follow the Song
The light from the laptop strained her eyes more than the late hour itself. Ioana scrolled absently through articles, forums, and videos sent by people convinced they had captured the…[...]
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The Last Thing That Still Works
My hand is no longer a hand. It is bone and blood and something that won’t obey me. Daisy didn’t run. She bolted, threw me hard enough that the sky…[...]
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The Woman Across the Aisle
The Woman Across the Aisleby Owen Smith I shouldn’t be allowed in here, he thought. His footsteps echoed across the empty pews, bouncing from wall to wall like bullets ricocheting…[...]
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With so many questions why would you want answers?
It was dark.There was a slight familiar ring in my ears and I didn’t know how to stop it. I then realize I just had to open my eyes, why…[...]
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The Tachyon Fates
Another yawn slips from Kat as she leans back from the wall of data glowing on her monitor. Above her, the fluorescent lights flicker in their usual uneven rhythm, but…[...]
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THE RED IN THE RAIN
Deep red puddles collected in the dirt lanes of Masaki, thick as clotting blood. It has rained that day, though it never should have. The leaves hung heavy, each one…[...]
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Madman’s Ball
Doctor Lena was escorted into the cavernous citadel of the Hierophant, a madman cloaked in shadow. The doctor used the telescopic functionality of his cybernetic eyes to peer into the…[...]
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Silence in the dark
I haven’t been able to sleep since my daughter’s ghost started visiting me at night.I wasn’t sleeping well before, but at least I got an hour or two before daylight…[...]
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Empty Insides
On the fifth of march, as the late snow was crying from the sky into the suburbs of Tulip's Hollow, Michael Phillips woke up to discover that his liver had…[...]
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Saltwater Spirits, Sugarcane Shadows
The first thing Marisol felt was the pulse—a thrumming, blood-red heartbeat of a feather resting upon her threshold. It did not merely lie there; it breathed, twitching against the humid…[...]
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Five Days in Liminal
Monday, October 9, 2023I buried Eleanor over the summer. I didn’t cry.In fact, I must confess, I carried myself with a composed, almost nonchalant demeanor throughout the service, and mourners…[...]
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Life Sentence
Day 1535The cold floor of the cell doesn’t bother me anymore. When I first landed here, I couldn’t sit without flinching at the feeling of the frigid pavement against my…[...]
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Suitable Behavior
The years have passed, I kept some of the pictures of mom and dad. Their younger selves still smile at me inside the frame next to the stairs leading to…[...]
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File name: Caelum Altera. Case number: 2085 1141513151225
Trigger Warning: Sensitive topics. Mentions of physical violence, gore, or abuse, references substance abuse, and mental health topics. There’s a quiet click, and the quiet hum from the internal mechanism…[...]
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Hoard to Death
“You know, I feel like we have this… incredible connection,” Gary says. He’s leaning across the table to reach for my hand. I settle for the tips of my fingers…[...]
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Death Of A Tyrant
The priest conducted his sermon in a monotone voice: “…beloved husband to Annabelle. Cherished father of Nathan and Rebecca …”What a crock of shit.William John Bradshaw was a heartless prick.…[...]
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Among The Stars
Every star up there, every sun to a stellium of planets, and some people still believe we are the only life in the universe. I used to hate gardening. One…[...]
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Haint Blue Homecoming
By the time I turned off County Road 12, the kudzu had swallowed the mailbox whole. Green vines thick as rope curled around the post like something claiming a body.…[...]
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Wrong Doers
I shake my head, trying to clear my head a faint smell of smoke fills my lungs as I walk into the diner. I clutch my purse tighter and steal…[...]
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Echoes + Tropes
“Cut!” The actors relax and laugh at the director’s announcement, and I frown at them from my chair, annoyed at their contentment. “Hannah?” It’s my co-writer, Neal, who notices my…[...]
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Back for Good
“Tallest man you’ll ever see,” Wally said. “I swear.” “But that was fourteen years ago,” Laura said. “Oh yeah, Mark was already old by then. If Mark’s alive, he’s at…[...]
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Mr. & Mrs. Bright
It was a lovely restaurant. The same old stereotypical candlelight dinner with two people who love each other as if it was their life's work. As if holding each other,…[...]
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What Did We Bury?
INMATE FOUND DEAD IN CELL: Ellis Rucker, 28, found unresponsive in his cell at Kessler Correctional early Thursday. Prison officials say foul play has not been ruled out. Clara read…[...]
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The Carver Twins
The Carver twins had been swapping places since before they had language for deception, and now, at their father's funeral, they would perform their most dangerous switch yet, because one…[...]
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Better Late
The day couldn’t make up its mind. Summer had come early, seen that no one was ready for it and so it had eloped with Spring in the dead of…[...]
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The Last Night of Iron
Rain hammered the Rusted Saints clubhouse hard enough to shake the windows. Water rolled off the rusted gutters outside while thunder moved across San Perdido like distant artillery. Most of…[...]
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The Thing In the Casket
[CW: References to suicide.] The thing in the casket looked nothing like Ryan Cole. Rain poured off the sides of the heavy canvas canopy, turning the graveyard grass to mud.…[...]
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Lowered with him
Every eye in the church finds her in the front row. Their attention presses against her skin, hot and inescapable, and all she wants is to disappear into the polished…[...]
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The Way Out
**SENSITIVE CONTENT: themes of trafficking, incest, drug usage/dealing, and prostitution** She woke to the sound of her boyfriend’s phone going off. Next to her in bed, he’s slumped over the…[...]
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