via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man. via Pocket Healing Benjamin - Lightspeed Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2tJ2oR4

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Elaine broke her curse like a mirror, heedless of the shards that scattered across the floor. The guests at the party laughed, applauded, whooped with delight at her reckless abandon. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io This is a love story, the last of a series of moments when we meet. Saki Jones leaned into the viewport window until her nose nearly touched the glass, staring at the colony planet below. New Mars. From this distance, she could pretend that things w… The Archronology of Love - Lightspeed Magazine via Instapaper http://bit.ly/2Kf1zKW The Archronology of Love - Lightspeed Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2uI2lWh

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io En route to visit my girlfriend in Indiana, I pull over at a rest stop in Illinois to wash my face. It is not my first mistake of the day, but it is the biggest. The bathroom is full of people. I see them before I place my glasses on the sink. via P… Blur - Lightspeed Magazine via Instapaper http://bit.ly/2UHJB80

A recon detail brought in another one just after dawn. The soldiers had donned full biohazard suits; nothing could convince them that this wasn’t contagious. They set the body on a gurney. I wheeled it into a quarantine room and inspected it. This t…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io The second portal to Mere had been two feet high and three feet across. Amber knew this because later she returned to that exact spot beside the woods and measured where the portal had been using her wooden school ruler. via Pocket The Portal - Lightspeed Magazine via Instapaper http://bit.ly/2Jahzwi

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io The mountains were beautiful, even though the roads that took you there were broken. Even though the whole world was broken. Tara sat on the side of the pitted road, soaking in the autumnal sun, gazing at the distant snow-capped peaks in awe. via Po… This Way to Paradise - Lightspeed Magazine via Instapaper http://bit.ly/2Jq2A0A

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Truth Is Like the Sun - Lightspeed Magazine via Instapaper http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/truth-is-like-the-sun/ Pop-star uber-sensation Jaim Janan rockets off to promote their third album atop a SpaceX Dragon VII capsule today, where they will stream a live musical performance from orbit, some 350 kilometers above the Earth. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io The Iron Man - Lightspeed Magazine via Instapaper http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-iron-man/ The boy stopped playing after his Mom and Dad chained the iron man to the Kingdom’s heart. The boy used to run alone and brave through the welt within the walls, and even ranged as far as the borders of the wood. via Pocket

The Minor Superhero, at Home after His Series Ends - Lightspeed Magazine via Instapaper http://bit.ly/2M5sN7P He has a superhero name. It’s as stupid as every other superhero name. It’s not something you can comfortably call another person in casual conversation. Just try to have a normal-sounding talk with some of the guys in the Liberty Force. “So, hello,… via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io The Convexity of Our Youth - Lightspeed Magazine via Instapaper http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-convexity-of-our-youth/ The children of Burke’s Point Elementary can’t be blamed. When the orange ball rolled onto their playground, they couldn’t have known what it was. We didn’t discuss the orange ball with them, didn’t explain to them its importance, its danger. via Po…

Once there was a prince of Ruyastan who was born in secret and hidden behind a false wall with a nurse to hush her and soothe and give suck. The prince and her nurse lived in narrowness for ten years, reading and watching the world through a crack n… via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io