Asylum of Cuckoos
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…
Stories
On the Day You Spend Forever with Your Dog
SHORT FICTION: When the dog dies, she doesn’t know she is dying. You shouldn’t feel sorry for her. To her, life lasts forever.
The Last Exorcist by Danny Lore Author’s Note: This piece was commissioned and then declined by a prominent magazine. The only information that has been altered/omitted are locations, as those have been deemed a national security risk. Re-post and share at will. Naheem is our last great exorcisRiding the Signal
SHORT FICTION: Alec Chu traveled the high road, swinging his bot through the trees.
Short Fiction | Apex Magazine
Short Fiction from issues of Apex Magazine
eZines
For Sale: Fantasy Coffins (Ababuo Need Not Apply) | Apex Magazine
The sign outside Hello Design Coffin Works read, FOR SALE: FANTASY COFFINS. But the little girl imagined more ominous words floating just below the other letters, “Ababuo Need Not Apply.” via Pocket
Cottage Country | Apex Magazine
Cottage Country | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2pGDQ9u
1957 | Apex Magazine
1957 | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2ypuKBE
Hurt Me | Apex Magazine
There weren’t many three-bedroom houses that a single woman could afford. 1532 Lachmont Drive was an exception. Built in the 1930s from masonry block, it sat in the middle of a line of houses that had once been very similar to it. via Pocket
When the Fall is All That’s Left | Apex Magazine
2,275 Words Listen to the audio edition of “When the Fall is All That’s Left” # # # For Gabriele, gravity had ended. She spun unmoored, drifting in the outgassing light that spill…
Benjamin Schneider’s Little Greys | Apex Magazine
By Nir Yaniv Translated from Hebrew by Lavie Tidhar This story is part of a special issue of Apex Magazine guest edited by Lavie Tidhar featuring international writers in support of his anthology T…
Aunt Dissy’s Policy Dream Book | Apex Magazine
7,700 Words “Want some candy?” Aunt Dissy asked when I was seven. Delighted, I thrust open my hand. “Let me see it,” she said. She grabbed my hand before I could hide it in my pocket, forced me to …
Tumbledown | Apex Magazine
8,700 words It was too early in the season for a plague, but plague never waited on the turn of the seasons. Sarnai knew that as well as anyone. From inside the tram, Sarnai saw wan winter light tr…
«Légendaire.» | Apex Magazine
9,400 Words Having seen the reggaezzi perform, the righteous of Sea-john shake their heads in wonder. They will then murmur severally or as one, «Légendaire.» [Tonight] The cavalcade forms u…
The Button Bin | Apex Magazine
5,700 Words “The Button Bin” was originally published by Helix: Speculative Fiction Quarterly in 2007 You know he’s the one who made your beloved niece disappear. He’s come out of his shop now, fus…
The Quiltmaker | Apex Magazine
20,000 words prologue: the pattern You never imagined you’d be in a place like this again. Mothers. Fathers. Schoolteachers. Children. All about you, children. To a tiny part of you, this setting i…
The Faithful Soldier, Prompted | Apex Magazine
By Saladin Ahmed If I die on this piece-of-shit road, Lubna’s chances die with me. Ali leveled his shotgun at the growling tiger. In the name of God, who needs no credit rating, let me live! Even w…
Langknech and Tzi-Tzi in the Land of the Mad | Apex Magazine
By Forrest Aguirre “A beautiful day,” Langknech giraffe said to friend Tzi-Tzi. And, indeed, it was a beautiful day. The smiling face of the sun shone down from sky blue, and where ther…
Radishes | Apex Magazine
By Nick Wolven Weeds rise from the roof. We live beneath an accidental garden. It got worse with the summer rains. The shingles grew moldy, and yellow stalks rooted and sucked at the tar, turnin…
The Tomato Thief | Apex Magazine
14,000 Words 2017 Hugo Award Winner — Best Novelette WSFA Small Press Award-winner Grandma Harken lived on the edge of town, in a house with its back to the desert. Some people said that she lived …
Useless Things | Apex Magazine
7,300 Words “Señora?” The man standing at my screen door is travel stained. Migrant, up from Mexico. The dogs haven’t heard him come up, but now they erupt in a frenzy of barking to make up for the…
Luminaria | Apex Magazine
2018 Darrell Awards Finalist 10,100 Words Each invitation, written on thick paper, hand-sweet, heavy stock. Deckled edges. Shadows grow long. The cicadas whir in the heat. She descends the great st…
Waste | Apex Magazine
4,800 Words I was born with a tongue, but the others were not. This is how it is: We who live on the edge of the Heap are different. Harper’s arms are no more than nimble flippers that sprout expos…
Jesus Christ, Reanimator | Apex Magazine
4,600 Words The Second Coming was something of a washout, if you remember. It lit up early-warning radar like a Christmas tree, of course, and the Israeli Air Force gave the heavenly host a respect…
Paperclips and Memories and Things That Won’t Be Missed | Apex Magazine
750 Words The ghost in my attic is Margaret, but she lets me call her Margie. She was seventy–six years old when she died, and now that she’s a ghost she sits in her rocking chair day and night, ho…
Repairing the World | Apex Magazine
4900 Words By the time Lila and Bridger arrived, the sitting room floor was already part savannah. Yellow grass grew on dirt where hardwood had once been. The border between grass and floor hissed …
In the Trunk by Tory Hoke – Syntax & Salt Magazine
Tory writes, draws, and codes in Los Angeles. Her fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Drabblecast, and PseudoPod, and her art has appeared in Strange Horizons, Apex, and Spellbound. I canR…
ParanormalThe Button Bin | Apex Magazine
5,700 Words “The Button Bin” was originally published by Helix: Speculative Fiction Quarterly in 2007 You know he’s the one who made your beloved niece disappear. He’s come out of his shop now, fus…
Radishes | Apex Magazine
By Nick Wolven Weeds rise from the roof. We live beneath an accidental garden. It got worse with the summer rains. The shingles grew moldy, and yellow stalks rooted and sucked at the tar, turnin…
Hiraeth: Tragedy in Four Acts
4,000 Words “I fell,” said the cyborg, and for a moment his audience stood astounded, waiting for the larger speech, the longer explanation. None came. “I fell,” he said once, and spoke no further.…
The Three-tongued Mummy | Apex Magazine
7,400 Words In the flickering amber torchlight, the mummy’s skin was burnished sienna where Jackson peeled the rotting bandages off. When Jackson pressed fore and middle fingers to the slender coll…