Author: Antoinette Constable A three-year-old boy stumbles along the streets, long after bedtime, holding his mother's hand. They are skirting barricades, guns, uniforms. The mother longs to lie down and sleep a long sleep somewhere safe, somewhere dry, yet she keeps ...

Author: Mark Joseph Kevlock "Why, sir, the past is a portal to happiness!" the interior re-decorator barked. "I guess," Smithfield hedged. "I'm just not sure about this anymore." "But the work is complete! Your living room, your entire downstairs, your upstairs, your ...

Author: Roger Ley Riley signed for the package and came back inside the house. ‘What was the delivery?’ asked his wife Barbara looking up from her tablet? He looked at the label. ‘Actually, it’s from Estella.’ ‘Your ex-wife?’ ‘How many other Estellas do I know? ...

Author: Abigail Hughes Current Proprietors of Earth, We are drafting this letter in response to the riots that took place outside of our headquarters, in the hopes of putting toxic rumors about our organization to rest. If your protest taught us anything, it is that it ...

Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer She placed the order online, as she had done before. No credit checks anymore, no profiling questions, just pick a time and a place, and the service guaranteed her date would be on-time and appropriate. She showered and partially dressed ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer I’ve travelled distances that make oceans seem like ponds. I’ve dealt with solar flares and meteor storms, flown half-blind and bleeding from situations that would make a sane man scream for his mother. As I look up at the snow-white ...

Author: Hari Navarro I found a way into tomorrow but when I got there it didn't care. Though I burrowed deep through caverns cold and waited patiently for the drugs to take hold this newest of days it took no heed, no, for me this day it could care not one bit. For days ...

Author: John McLaughlin "Will it hurt?" "No, just feels a bit weird. Like your veins have turned to ice." The tech switches on the IV and they hear the gentle hum of the pump kick in. She's correct; a deathly cold is already gripping his extremities. Hayden lays back ...

Author: John Xero “The storm is upon us,” Barrett states grimly, finally looking away from his monitor, finally acknowledging the absence of hope. “How bad?” As if I need to ask. “Bad enough.” He shakes his head. “If we’d just caught the edge of it... If we could ...

Author: Jason McGraw Zach opens his AI tutor and selects “Asteroid Belt” from the index. In his learning visor, 3D images of spinning rocks reflect the sun. A male voice narrates: “The Asteroid Belt is located between --” Zach fast forwards. “There are three major types ...

Author: Hari Navarro My daughter is born into the whore spit snarl of a Cape Hatteras hurricane. Beautiful and waxy, her delicate scent distilling the shedded taint of my own sweat, piss, and blood. Blue nostrils flare as tiny lungs struggle to fill, but for this, I ...

Author: Madison McSweeney Under a sweltering summer sun in southeastern Ontario, an aerial camera watched as two boys walked through a wheat field. Each boy dragged a heavy wooden plank; as they traversed the land, stalks of wheat bent and flattened underneath them. ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The way it filters the light through dizzying shadows within to cast patterns on the ground like sun through stained glass. To them, the seemingly impossible tessellation that never repeats a shape, no matter which direction it is observed ...

Author: Anne Dewvall The tiny blue pill gleamed in Jerome's palm as it danced with electrical impulses. This capsule had the power to transform the human experience, and through that, the world, but people were wasting it, eating the same shit they always had, with slightly ...

Author: Philip Berry Brandon wiped pale grey dust off the sign. It dropped in a thin wafer that crumbled over the toe cap of his left boot. - Heat exchange: no unauthorised entry – The door spun away under the silent wave that emanated from the unit in his outstretched ...

Author: David Henson Valeria knocks down Devis and scores. The 10-year-old girl then stands over the boy and laughs. “Your daughter plays to win,” Enzo, captain of the Noah 500 says to Valeria’s father. “I like that.” Later that day, Valeria is having supper with her ...

Author: John McLaughlin She danced across the living room in a yellow sundress, her heels tapping to flamenco on the smoky hardwood. It was Charlie's favorite outfit--the one he'd gotten her for their anniversary. Her hips swayed like magic, he thought. "So what's ...

Author: Roger Ley ‘I’m sorry, Darling but I’m just not in the mood,’ said Martin Riley. ‘I’m nearly seventy and you can’t expect me to have the same enthusiasm I had when we first met.’ ‘I did not mean to upset you, Martin,’ said Mary. ‘I do not wish to put pressure on you ...