via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io When Vivian and her daughter witness the family matriarch die without leaving a corpse, Vivian can no longer ignore the family “gift” or the choice that lies before her. I nearly drop the plate I am holding. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Distant stars blinked over Buguma island in the lower southern delta of West Africa. Sea waves turned, crickets droned, and guinea fowl warbled. I was on a forest path, walking to my village, looking over my shoulder, for I could hear something lurk…

There were many in the beginning, dozens of basil seedlings basking under the warm sky and nodding dreamily at one another as if to say, “you’re growing, as am I, and that is right and good. via Pocket

As she trudged down the alley, out of sight of the grey uniforms, Cenessa saw a small puddle. But how? via Pocket

The first catechism of Eulalia is DIVERSITY LEADS TO STRENGTH. Its sigil is a square made of four interlocked components, reminiscent of hands each grasping the wrist of the next, forming a box. via Pocket

It is strange to imagine that serpent-men might love serpents. After all, they go to great lengths to wreak destruction on the beasts, travelling far out on the fickle and changing sea to slay them. One might not imagine, too, that serpent-men love …

Inquisitator’s Log: July 11, 20—; 11:53 pm The Donald Q. Haute residence, Springstump Township The electromail came in the night, heralded by a ping from my desktop computing-box. via Pocket

Sonata II Shailani – L. Chan – Metaphorosis Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/38vK5Rj This is part 2 of L. Chan’s novella, Sonata. Part 1 ran in January 2020. What has gone before: Sona has travelled north, up the lawless swathes of the Periphery of the Empire Sound. He’s enlisted the help of Shailani, a former soldier with the Imper…

Sona, on a quest for vengeance, has enlisted help of the Six Named to play a piece of heretical Music composed by his mother, the Lady Kristyk. via Pocket

There’s a packet of powder taped to my inner thigh, and it feels like the plastic is burning a hole through my leg. Two police officers wave me towards the chem-detecting archway—one last hurdle before I can board the ferry. via Pocket The Propagator – Simone Kern – Metaphorosis Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/343ZdEC

There is a city where the outer walls shift and entrances dance away, so that a passerby might think they are merely approaching from the wrong side. via Pocket There is a City, He Told Me – Evan James Sheldon – Metaphorosis Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2TqS2TA

Grow, Divide, Sacrifice, Thrive – Jo Miles – Metaphorosis Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/39vCMuj The circular driveway at the Randolph family house was already full when Chris arrived, packed tight with cars all the way out to the curb, so Chris parked on the street. via Pocket

When Levy Green awoke, he looked around for a few blinking moments, and did not try to remember. He was alone. Through an open window, he could see it was day. Something, somewhere was beeping. via Pocket via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Misalignment – Erik Goldsmith – Metaphorosis Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/33ogjfi

The Eighth Fathom – Chris Panatier – Metaphorosis Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2TtaoDv In a past beyond the reach of time’s measure, we fell from the Galaxy Beam and into the waters of a primordial world. From the shattered wreckage of our Great Hull, we salvaged the ascension core and dove into the salted darkness. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io The Season of Withering – Lisa Short – Metaphorosis Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2oUJtEe

The lander sloped down from orbit towards the jagged peninsula that leaked westwards from Earth’s great landmass. Salzmann’s eyes tracked across the surface as they broke the cloud cover. It stretched brown-green to the limits of his vision, shorn o… via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io A Final Resting Place – Matt Hornsby – Metaphorosis Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/355DGfc

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Julian’s voice filtered through her dying radio. The Prince of Cats was a speck of light, dimming through the gold-grey film that, atom by atom, was devouring her helmet. Valley tried to say something, anything. Failed. via Pocket A Layer Thin As Breath – Thea Boodhoo – Metaphorosis Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/32EdU06

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io I dream of vast landscapes. The distance bends like cotton on a washing line or a rabbit vanishing down a hole. In my dream, women come, carrying brutally tined forks. Their hands crook around their bodies and somehow they are monstrous and too big.… A Yellow Landscape – Sarah McGill – Metaphorosis Magazine via Instapaper http://bit.ly/2KcW7rU

The damned shadows did me in. They should have been blue. Yellowish light should cast blue or violet shadows, every artist learned that. While disregard for basic colour principles was new and exciting in paint, in life it was awful. via Pocket via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io

Two giant polyps were nibbling at the husk of a shopping mall some miles off. I was focused on a sludge-tower, though, just a half mile down the hill from me. I’d have to pass it. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io The old woman looked up from where she was kneeling in her garden, tending to the tiny green shoots that were poking through the soil. “There’s a name I ain’t heard in a while,” she said to the young whippersnapper shifting from foot to foot on the …

The train car reeked of cigarettes and rumbled like a storm. Loud enough to drown out the voice of every passenger crammed inside it, but still Inez’s heartbeat rattled between her ears. via Pocket via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io “The night sky is beautiful,” Seven says. “Deep and dark, blue-black and starless. It has a certain ineffable purity to it, don’t you think?” Mara glances up. This world is a young one, snugged tight against the galactic core. via Pocket A Bear, or a Spider, or an Elephant – Edward Ashton – Metaphorosis Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2M96dKF