Pink to the Touch
Author: Jean Faux
I wonder if I have a little door that opens up at the back of my head. It wouldn’t have a handle. It would be one of those doors that you push in the right place and it softly springs open.
If it opened I wonder what someone would see. Perhaps there’s a ...
Oasis Earth
Author: Timothy Wilkie
Swathed in star shine and hidden behind the sun was our destination. I couldn't wait to be buried in the bosom of old mother earth where the worms and insects thrived on bacteria not chemicals. A long time ago I threw away my mother for life among the ...
Blip
Author: David Henson
Medical advances made a valiant run at organic immortality but couldn’t advance beyond the millennium barrier. Not surprisingly, immortality in our epoch is digital — just as you folks in the past speculated in your movies and books. Here in my time, ...
Everybody Else
Author: Majoki
“Ain’t it fun to be pals with things everybody else is afraid of?”
The clown said this right before being eviscerated.
It was unexpected. All of it. Dry Springs wasn’t usually the kind of place where folks lived in fear of killer alien robots. Which is ...
The Reluctant Dystopianist
Author: Soramimi Hanarejima
We need the dystopias she is adept at crafting—need them to serve as compelling cautionary tales now that nothing else does. But she much prefers to render quotidian moments of splendor and serendipity. She doesn’t want to put herself through the ...
The Specialism
Author: Mark Renney
At age ten, Martin had been selected for the Specialism. He, and just one other pupil, were singled out and chosen and she promptly disappeared from the school and entered one of the Academies. But Martin’s father was against the decision. He, like so ...
Purple
Author: Neil Burlington
Detective Gallant holds me down while his partner hits me even harder than he hit his wife last night. I bleed from my nose, my lips, and pretty much everywhere a face can bleed when under merciless attack by cops. I’m squeaky clean and eighteen, but ...
The Martian Invasion
Author: David Barber
Across the gulfs of space, intellects bold and curious observe our world and hasten their plans against us...
Buried deep in our cold, slow cities, age after age passed unregarded and we cared nothing for the world above until fiery scouts began ...
Merry Christmas
Author: Cal Wallace
"So," Ftk'al said, slithering gently down the steps next to his friend. "You were cancelled."
"Yeah, man," said Karl, chewing gum and spitting nothing despite his best efforts. "That's how it goes out here. Dog eat dog."
Ftk'al tried to shrug, all ...
Not A Creature Was Stirring
Author: R. J. Erbacher
Timmy woke with a start and looked up. He heard scurrying overhead. On the roof? Hooves, maybe. He laid perfectly still and listened intently. It only lasted a moment and then stopped.
For a while there was nothing and he began to lose hope that he ...
The Last Year of Confusion
Author: Majoki
Pioneering computer scientist, Alan Kay, once said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
I have to disagree. I’ve found the best way to predict the future is to control it. And the easiest way to control the future is to be in charge of ...
Quicksilver Angels
Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer
There’s an angel on the veranda, stealing my tomatoes.
Well, not actually on the veranda. She’s too tall for that. Got one foot at the top of the steps, the other on the ground. My daughter’s fascinated by the flickering shadows cast by ...
Money
Author: Jeremy Nathan Marks
‘Sir, I hope you’re happy with the service you’ve received thus far.’
‘Please alter your voice to that of a woman.’
‘Sir, I hope you’re pleased with the services you’ve so far received.’
‘I am, Moneypenny. May I call you ...
The Traveler
Author: Jean-Philippe Martin
The traveler came to our house the day before harvest, detective. I did not notice anything amiss. He said the had nothing but was willing to work, so we housed him and showed him the next day how to pack, haul, and stack the boxes of fruit. He ...
Beacon Five
Author: Stephen Dougherty
The wind picked up the dust with brutal force. It ripped up the scorched land and tossed it into the never-ending night. Through the dark maelstrom, he could see what he hoped was Beacon Five through the scuffed glass of Beacon Two, its amber light ...
Couplings
Author: Hillary Lyon
“You have three minutes,” Harmon said, sticking the end of an unlit cigar in his mouth.“Go.”
“Okay,” Jepson nervously began. “Picture this: an unlikely romance between a peppy vacuum cleaner and a stoic lawn mower.”
Harmon struck a match and lit ...
The Other Place
Author: Mark Renney
Each time Rod pushed his way through the portal, his initial response was disappointment. Although he hadn’t been aware of it the first time, he was actually stepping into the future. He realised this was an immense and astounding feat but it was just ...
Sleepover
Author: Majoki
To dream is the dream. Anyone thinking that we need to sleep to live is missing the real payoff. We should be living to sleep. Snow White had it right for the wrong reasons. She didn’t bite a poisoned apple, she micro-dosed from the forbidden fruit of the ...
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