SHORT FICTION: Monday. “Pisces. You started showing your hidden skills and people are noticing! Accept the changes that are coming.”Field Biology of the Wee Fairies

SHORT FICTION: I watched my love die in the claw of a Scorpion Man.The Barnum Effect

SHORT FICTION: When he learn he couldn’t have one, he did find a child in the water.Jewel of the Vashwa

SHORT FICTION: Have you lost me yet? The trick question, as if I am something to be found and kept, locked in your chest of bones.Gasping

SHORT FICTION: First it’s in my toes, like they’re being suckled on by a mouth full of battery acid; then my feet buzz, pins and needles in my soles before a bigger, more insistent spasm shoots up …La Ciguapa, For the Reeds, For Herself

Prism

For Southern Girls When the Zodiac Ain’t Near Enough

SHORT FICTION: I ascend during the church picnic. My thighs peel off the plastic bench with a crisp smack, and I’m two feet into the air before I understand what is happening.Kerouac’s Renascence

In the morning, when the fog lies thick and heavy on the water, I sit at my workbench and seed the next simulant. It takes fourteen double-C commands to move the digital embryo into the simulation …The Chariots, the Horsemen

When You’re Ready

Suzie Q

The voices begin three days before someone is to die. The coffin-maker wakes up covered in sweat. He has been talking in his sleep again, his wife says, in the language of the dead.Three Meetings of the Pregnant Man Support Group

SHORT FICTION: You wake up to your phone crawling across your face, buzzing hard against your cheekbone. Snatch it up on muscle memory and the little plastic cilia retract. The screen is achingly b…Cherry Wood Coffin

SHORT FICTION: Not everything that’s missing was taken, but once it’s gone, it’s gone, ain’t it? There’s nothing to be done about it now. What isn’t dead is burned to the ground. What isn’t mourned…Fifteen Minutes Hate

SHORT FICTION: “Thank you for accepting me into your life, Mr. Sonata.” I started explaining my functions and maintenance requirements. He put a finger to his lips, so I lapsed into silence.Mother Jones and the Nasty Eclipse

SHORT FICTION: The war was fought in twelve minutes between twenty-four people on thirty-six sides.Cold Blue Sky

Stars so Sharp They Break the Skin

Murders Fell from Our Wombs

3,300 words Five knew two things about Brother Ted Gunderson: The man loved Jesus, and hated his own son. Five was never allowed to call him Father or Pa. Once Five was old enough to string the wor…The Sharp Edges of Anger

SHORT FICTION: Intrigue is our game. We play it well. It is all we have. She steps out of the pub with smoke on her lips, heels in her hands. A flicker of gin hides behind her eyes. Her interest me…Clap Your Hands

ORIGINAL SHORT FICTION: Beneath you, the airbus—an older model, a little threadbare at the wings—thrums with complaints, dissatisfied with the double standards imposed by its makers: a pilot is per…We Are New(s)

ORIGINAL SHORT FICTION: The water runs lukewarm with that familiar chemical sting that all recyc water has. It cuts off after exactly one minute, making the pipes knock. It echoes deep inside the s…A Priest of Vast and Distant Places

7,300 Words Day 21 I reach the dairy mid-way through my morning rounds, expecting to find Mary hard at work inside. But the simple wood structure is silent. I knock on the door. “Mary? It’s Karen. …Irregularity

4,900 Words You’d think it would make us happy when a kid checks out the same book a zillion times in a row, but actually it just keeps us up at night. The Runaway Prince is one of those low-budget…Work, and Ye Shall Eat

A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies

Allegro con brio The night she came back, the Cut bled dimensions off onto the City … like every other night. Sinclair was ready for that day’s sunset. He’d been ready for the longest time. Alone i…The Best Friend We Never Had

4,300 Words Translated by Andy Dudak When we gaze up at the heavens, we see exactly what one sees from Mother Earth: the resplendent, teeming stars and beacons of civilization flickering in the dar…Symphony to a city under the stars

The Heaven-Moving Way

Witness the Meshing. What a crowd has gathered. Reappropriated gallows creak beneath the weight of eight brown bodies hanging. Their wrists are shackled with electric zip ties. Their bellies are sw…A Night Out at a Nice Place

6,200 Words Rhett Walker had always been a creature of unsettled dreams. When he woke on one particular night, somewhere in the dusty nowhere of west Durango, he couldn’t quite remember what had ca…To Blight a Fig Tree Before It Bears Fruit