Erika’s fingers tense on the steering wheel as she approaches the Kansas-Colorado state line. Endless fields of wheat, waiting to be harvested, sit on both sides of the interstate, the stalks rustling whisper-soft. via Pocket The Whipping Girls | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2LNvshE

“A perm? Not sure la. Those youngsters like their hair like k-pop star, right? Long and straight.” Wing Lin daubs blue along her eyelids, a shimmer of amber. Despite her suggestions, her own hair, thick even in the last years of her sixties, is set … What to Do When It’s Nothing but Static | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2Fdp8vI

Marla and Zufi, the reigning queens of Hell, were eight years into a meaningless spat, living more as roommates than lovers, and as a consequence, Marla was irritable and Zufi was bored. via Pocket Three Petitions to the Queen of Hell | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2ubsK0Z

Ayen ran, her bare feet kicking up a cloud of ash-colored dust across the parched earth. Behind her, the hooves of horses thundered like drums, drawing closer despite her desperate strides. via Pocket Ghost Marriage | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2EJJ8Le

It had metastasized, and my mother’s belly was swollen with tumors. I took care of her because she needed me and I needed her, and also because Father was always at work or visiting his friends or Aunt Diane. I tried to feed my mother. via Pocket Talking to Cancer | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2OVmJM3

Monday. “Pisces. You started showing your hidden skills and people are noticing! Accept the changes that are coming.” The metro train was jerking right and left, accelerating and decelerating, without any kind of recognizable rhythm. via Pocket The Barnum Effect | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2NqPlfe

River Street’s never hard to find; in fact, you’re likely to stumble into it while looking for somewhere else entirely. Once you’re in, though, it’ll seem like a good idea to stay. It’s so easy to keep walking down this pleasant lane, with your face… River Street | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2oVDQlr

I don’t really know why they called me, except that Auntie claims I “speak haole” better than the rest of the family. The guy’s not even in our ‘aumakua—hell, he’s not even in our pantheon. via Pocket Coyote Now Wears a Suit | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2OzcQDw

Every night, the devil sits himself on the lip of her bed and every night, she sighs and whispers the same word over and again. Yes, she murmurs. Yes, yes, of course. via Pocket Bargains by the Slant-Light | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2ybmplV

It’s like poking at an open wound. Every time I read about it, every time I return to it, over and over and over again, I can feel that pain well up. Emotional pain so strong it’s almost physical, you know? And it’s gotten worse since I’ve had kids.… Boy A, Girl A, Slender Man | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2FeKMoS

When he learn he couldn’t have one, he did find a child in the water. You figure this part goes without saying, ent? That a girl found gasping on the beach would be taken in by a kindly white couple once the husband learn how he infertile. via Pocket Gasping | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2w2Z6cN

I watched my love die in the claw of a Scorpion Man. I watched him sever her in half; watched as her long hair dripped down to the ground; watched as her hand let go of her spear; as her long legs folded under her; as the Scorpion Man’s tail rose in… Jewel of the Vashwa | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2PxwII8

My brothers imagined themselves the first to speak without mouths—their fingers blood-pricked from learning how to pass a needle through lace—but it was only my mother and I who could understand the heaviness of the things we could not say. via Pock…

Rose is ten when the blacksmith’s son pushes her into the river. She lands badly, rocks scraping her knees, tearing her palms. Her dress is cold and wet against her skin as she drags herself out of the water.  Her anger forms a hard lump in her thro… The Sharp Edges of Anger | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2EzMBXX

In our village, they say evil waits in the uterus like the night cranes before dawn, like a wound in the earth, lying broad between thighs, dropping things made of sunset, as phrased by my poetic sister, who wholly agrees with this. “Mara, this is s… Murders Fell from Our Wombs | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2J1V4pb

Current cuts like sunlight. Electrons leap across nanometer gaps. Switches flip and circuits close, triggering a cascade of motors, sensors and other subsystems. Auditory inputs pick up random background noise consistent with the synthetics boutique… Cold Blue Sky | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2JZlo3G

If I dream I dream of being electrocuted. You wouldn’t believe how gently it begins. via Pocket

Have you lost me yet? The trick question, as if I am something to be found and kept, locked in your chest of bones. Yes, I implicate you. But you realize, eventually, that I am but an ellipsis in your running narrative. An unspoken thought. Niño, yo…

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. via Pocket Symphony to a city under the stars | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2mAJeJa

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. Are you there?” Nothing. All three milking devons watch me from their p… Work, and Ye Shall Eat | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2sw9zyk