Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “Walk with me.” The tall being turns away from Nohane, sweeping it’s cloak out of the way with a graceful, flowing move. Nohane sighs. These trivial, effortless competences are what betray the elder of elders no matter how they try to ...

Author: Daniel Rogers "Victor, make coffee and display the weather." I sank into my kitchen chair, scratching my messed-up mop of hair, wishing I'd gone to bed earlier. "You failed to obtain the recommended eight hours of sleep. It would be beneficial to have a cup of ...

Author: Julie Zack “Starlight, Starbright, First star I see tonight, Wish I may, Wish I might, Have this wish, I wish tonight.” Enid loved when her older sister, Tracy, spoke the words at bedtime. “Do you remember the stars?” Enid asked. “I do,” Tracy said, ...

Author: Colin Jeffrey Sara was sure she had looked away for only a moment. That was all it took. Sam had vanished from the playground. Clouds gathered heavily in the sky as panic gripped her throat. She yelled his name, over and again, her cries buffered by the ...

Author: Jo Gatenby Lara hauled on her dust demon’s reins, desperate to keep the stupid creature on the coaster track and in the race. Desari’s wyrm, Dynamo, surged past them, scalding her with desert sand that slipped under her face mask, choking her. With kicks and ...

Author: Melissa Kobrin “Annie, it looks like Santa brought you one more present!” Annie looked up eagerly from her nest of torn wrapping paper and new toys. The Christmas tree twinkled behind her, and outside the window the sun was barely beginning to peak over the ...

Author: Majoki She crouched in the foliage at the river’s edge and watched the young man. He was not aware of her presence and she found that comforting. It was unusual for her to feel comforted or otherwise. She had only recently become sentient, and it had been an ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer There’s a smoking hole where my Rembrandt used to be. Not sure if it was blown in or out – I was too busy flying through the air to notice the finer points of the opening part of this assault. Dustin glances toward where I’m ...

Author: Gary Duehr 02.17.2055/13:46: Ahead I can see a strip of poplars like a zipper between two fields of corn stubble, the frozen stalks shorn off; I sense the need to descend and I do, I dip my nose downward: the wind shears under my wing-flaps, the missile strapped to ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher I was going catching with my Grampie. He weren’t really my Grampie but that’s how I’d always referred to him. He was old, had a bushy white moustache, a scratchy beard and a big belly. And he was good to me, not like my Pa which tanned me all the ...

Author: Jo Peace We always learn things too late. I remember the pine smell, the urgent fear as I hurried to assemble the close-in defense unit before the drones reached our position. A young voice snaps me back to the present. "Dad, why do you live alone in the ...

Author: Soramimi Hanarejima On my way home, I stop by the drugstore for a quick errand. But in the nootropics aisle, I’m thwarted by vacant shelf space. When I ask a clerk what happened to all the memorysyn, he tells me there’s been a recall. Some production issue has made ...

Author: Lewis Richards Two Shuttles slashed through the sheeting rain, trailed by twin comet tails of super heated plasma vaporising any raindrops unfortunate enough to meet them on their spiralling descent toward the fluctuating lights of the colony they raced ...

Author: Majoki Some seven thousand years ago a micrometeorite winged a pine cone, clipped the ear of a very surprised marmot, skewered a large oyster mushroom, and buried itself in the thick duff of a mountainous forest in the north Cascades. Stan Clutterdam knew none of ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer They’re running about again, but at least they’re looking happy about it. When I - we - got here, there was running, but only grim faces. Has it only been six days? Can’t have been. Wait. Go through it. Day one would have been after I ...

Author: James Jarvis The green leaves of The Great Oak glistened in the starlight. The air was still and calming. It was exactly what Liza expected. She wandered over to the base of the tree whilst deep in thought. The beauty of The Great Oak was amplified by its ...

Author: Soramimi Hanarejima When you open the door, it’s like I’m looking at an old photo, you and the hallway tinged a sentimental amber by the redshift of the decades between us. “Do you want to come in?” you ask, voice muffled by all those years. “I just got some ...

Author: Nageene Noor The world through Viktor Blackford’s window was quiet. Hannibal always started with the window, and it became a habit like an anchor, before he let himself sink into Viktor’s home. From where Hannibal observed, his whole life was mundane. Viktor was ...