Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer It really wasn’t clever. Every time that she went out, they followed her together. On Tuesday morn when she went out, she carried a huge white bag. Not unusual when going to shop, but laden enough to sag. She sallied boldly round the ...

Author: Robb White The black hole first appeared in Aaron Jesperson’s upstairs room Thursday night and seemed nothing more than a fuzzy donut, a “wobbly thing,” according to Emma, when she went in to look for him. She found him in the kitchen swearing and holding his hand ...

Author: Keith Downey Crammed as he was into the middle seat of Row F between two gargantuan human specimens, Zim wasn’t sure that he could even reach the tesseract in his pocket, let alone activate it. Excess tissue, barely contained by overworked athletic pants, reached ...

Author: Irene Montaner She wandered along time caring for the dead. No galaxy was too big, no planet too insignificant. Everything that had ever lived within the boundaries of her universe was worth of her attention, regardless of whether it had existed for eons or ...

Author: J. David Thayer I lay in my hospital bed with both arms crushed and my face and eyes cut to pieces. A loose timber from a logger swatted my Jeep into a drainage ditch. The accident should have killed me, but I survived. Didn’t feel like it. Well-meaning people, when ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher Another excursion. Another plane flight. Another jungle. He called Stacy his heedless girlfriend because she didn’t care what anybody thought. Probably not even him. She didn’t want vacations like your average girlfriend. Never a weekend in the ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer She slides the ornately embossed door aside and enters the first-class stall. It’s empty but for a man, he barely stirs as he reads aloud from a menu. “Calvados Glazed Roast Duck with Apple Sauce.” “William.” “Miss White.” The ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The pavement shimmers gently in the afternoon heat. The baristas have been reduced to serving nothing but iced coffee. “944,013.” Alec looks up to see someone with a vaguely familiar face take the seat opposite, then a waft of cigarette ...

Author: David Henson I loved the house next door. She was a bungalow. I’m a brick ranch. I fell in love with her after becoming sentient though I don’t remember exactly when that was. Achieving self-awareness isn’t like flipping a switch. It’s more like gradually turning ...

Author: DJ Lunan I know these are my earthquakes. My greed, guilt, and responsibility. Fair dues. But I am not learning a lesson. Earth is being terminated. With each tremor, our house groans like a war-weary galleon. Imperceptibly minute specks of rubble, wood dust, and ...

Author: Amanda Hard Scarlet and orange leaves, chips of autumnal tree paint, fell on dry grass as the phoenix in my bird bath lifted his tired eyes. “Damned,” he squawked, before flashing bright white, a blur of sparks and feathers of gray ash that floated to the ground ...

Author: Mishal Imaan Syed I woke to a ceiling gilded with stars. “She’s awake,” someone murmured. I rubbed the dreams from my eyes, trying to make out the fluttering form of someone. “Who are you?” I asked. “A creature of the night.” The voice was pure velvet and silver ...

Author: Mandy Szewczuk We saw it coming, our apocalypse, through binoculars. It didn’t burn out our eyes, the way movies told us it would because it wasn’t a mushroom cloud or column of incandescent fire. What we saw, standing on top of our apartment building because when ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer The rain has given up falling in drops and now lambastes the windscreen in heavy punched lumps. The manic whip of the wipers suddenly stops and the engine dies and she eases the car, tempering the brake with her foot until the squeal of ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer To our right, there are five rows of aircars just hanging there. In addition, there are six layers below and five above. All sleek, shining, and not moving. “Look at it. Six by twelve, going nowhere.” Tish’s right. We picked the wrong ...

Author: Richard M. O'Donnell, Sr. To: Four-Eight-Nine From: You Know Subject: Last Request Dear FEN, Pour my ashes under the face-down headstone. You know the one. The one we pushed over that night and danced on, the one in the Last Woods on the forgotten farm we ...

Author: Franco Amati It took nine dates for Jolene to let me inhabit her mind. With a woman as intriguing as her, it’s tempting to sneak in without permission. But trust me, it’s always more enjoyable with permission. I snuck into the head of the last girl I dated, and ...

Author: Marlin Bressi Souls don't have asses, but the courtroom has wooden benches just the same because God likes it that way, likes things just so, and in His Infinite Wisdom has decided that this place ought to look like the set of a Perry Mason rerun. Like the others ...