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 ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher I was oppressed by the constraint of the unyielding humidity and the dust which coated every inch of this installation despite the scrubbers working full time. Outside the dull sodium lights that lit up the hallway seeped in through gaps in the ...

Author: Delvon T. Mattingly For weeks, all I did was listen, my eyes closed. My body grew numb months ago, down to my fingers and toes, unable to recall the last time I saw my phalanges, or my body at that matter. But I wasn’t going to stop until I found my person, even if ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer Daena Nova stares through the recycled molecules in the air and laments that she hates flying even more than her pores do. But business is business and she has a man to meet. The schematics held on the flash-drive that’s wedged into the ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer You can stalk the worlds like death incarnate, should you have the technology and the psychological issues necessary. You might even descend upon worlds in fire and fury in an attempt to become some sort of manifest divinity to the ...

Author: Michael Mieher There are only two of us now. We are starving. We will have to risk the long trek to find shelter, sustenance, spare parts... anything of use. I am so blessed that the love of my life and I, from our first meeting on our school's playground, ...

Author: Elaine Thomas Zzzzzt! Itty bitty pretty kitty, my ass. That cat is a monster. Why she constantly murmurs baby talk at him is beyond me. Yes, I may be jealous. Sure, I wish I could cuddle and be her pet. But it cannot be. Even if I had a form that could ...

Author: David Barber Sometimes spacers come back to see us. Anyone chosen for a visit gets notified, which is why Vera is waiting in a tidy house, with a home-baked Victoria sponge and wearing her sleeveless cotton print dress with the sage-green leaf pattern, because ...

Author: DJ Lunan “I just see me, Ma’am”, I reply into her bathroom mirror through clenched teeth, hoping I can preserve my volley of lies deep inside, hermetically sealed in a light-resistant jar, preserved in termite vinegar and moon-salt. But this mirror doesn’t lie. I ...

Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer Mersion stayed off the open streets, choosing to pick a much more demanding path through the cratered homes and rubble where the bombs had fallen. His progress was further impaired by the amount of meat that he'd lost from his body. ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer Catherine Jenkins has worked on the dissection floor for many years but has not once considered the gory nature of her job. Nobody here does. Humanix is a huge corporation and this factory is surely one of its largest. Multi-storied, ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer There’s an expectant pause as the screen fills with blurry grey patterns. Martin gently places a finger on the forearm of the dishevelled man to his left. Thumbs stop flicking across the screen of a smartphone. Bleary eyes lift to briefly ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher “You’re just a goddamn computer!” And you are an annoying human being. “Yeah, but you don’t get to tell me what to do. Who the hell do you think you are – my mother?” I am sure if your mother were here in this facility instead of living the ...

Author: Luke Saldanha I feel a rattling and distant heat; the final storm is brewing. Yet I lie here in the grass, full of optimism. *** Enthralled, I gazed at the sky. Auntie taught me the constellations and planets as a child; I loved to stargaze and had done so ...

Author: Jack Tevreden Notes from the field: The tank commander, Bullfrog, washed down military-issue amphetamines with cold coffee carefully rationed from his thermos. Skirmishes along the Bolotene fields on the Eastern Front of this unfolding armageddon had left him ...

Author: Eli Rubin "Daddy?" He hadn't called me Daddy for years. "What's up, kiddo?" "Remember when you said I could turn off my age restrictions?" He kept bringing it up; he knew by now what I'd say. "That's something that has to be your choice, kiddo." "I did ...