Stories

Happy Birthday Girl | 365tomorrows via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2CWmdvM

Divine Mass | 365tomorrows via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2MAKdE2

Strange Horizons - Tamales in Space, and Other Phrases For the Beginning Speaker By Gabriela Santiago, Art by Kali Gregan via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2PGIoYj

A Little Revolution | 365tomorrows via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2MBFDFE

On the Way Home | 365tomorrows via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2QyPRK5

Plenty | 365tomorrows via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2Nhg8Pf

PodCastle 540: Flash Fiction Extravaganza! The Three Phases of Equinox

PodCastle 539: Godfall

There’s a fish on my desk and it’s weirding me out. It’s just sitting there. via Pocket

It started when Walt’s wife, Eve, left him. After she moved out, there was nobody around to push it back under the desk. Walt had never understood the importance of pushing it back under the desk. via Pocket

I read through the company-wide email and my hands tremble. Although I recognize the entire middle section as my work, I read it through four more times to be sure. My work has Reginald Douchebag O’Donald’s name on the by-line. Then, I remembered. O…

Man walks by carrying a box wrapped in tin foil. It’s impossible to see what’s inside. S: What if he’s carrying a human head in there? via Pocket

Lunar Base Commander Raines reporting to Houston. I’m not sure what you witnessed on your end, but we’ve got a bit of an issue up here. I’m fairly certain that Command Module Pilot Aikman is a werewolf. via Pocket

Yellow caution tape around the crucifix says: DO NOT CROSS. The irony’s not lost on me. Neither is the stench—a nauseous mix of worn hymnals, wooden pews, and the dried blood of a slain deacon. via Pocket

Author: Lance J. Mushung I tightened my grip on my black mini tote and stepped out of the elevator on the top floor of Parasol Corporation’s headquarters. The CEO, Kal Shakti, used the entire floor for his office. via Pocket

Jodie climbed into the passenger seat of the big sedan, the door closing itself with enough force to remind her never to leave anything in its way too long. via Pocket

The bulb swings in lazy figure eights on its long cable. Somewhere in the darkness above, there must be a breeze. The shifting light is doing more to soften me up than the ministrations of the knuckledragger dancing round my chair like he’s fighting…

Hi CCHS parents! It’s Sheila Rasmusen, new PTA president. The Varsity Football fundraiser is this Saturday! 1PM – 6PM Car wash, bake sale, raffle & FUN!! Support our varsity boys! GO TIGER FOOTBALL!! via Pocket

Author: Leanne A. Styles The day the parade came to town was the best day of my life. I remember jostling through the crowd to reach the front, before begging my mother to lift me onto her shoulders to get a better look. My idols were even more beau…

The bullet that didn’t kill my distant ancestor struck him just above the peak brim of his steel helmet. Our histories are boxed and sent and folded for us so neatly. I received my past on my ninth birthday, no surprise everyone does. via Pocket

Verity was broken, fractured in a way that Hester alone could never hope to mend. Dissatisfied with her appearance, Verity would disappear for months on end, only to return bruised and bleeding from yet another endeavor in the name of obsessive self…

The game’s not played to win but to see how long you can last. The Wit MacMahajan taught Morholt that, after his accident, while he was in Rexhame’s hospital and she was growing him a new arm from sculptwood. Only he didn’t realize the truth of her …

The sky was a thick nuclear gray over the parkade where Bo and Violet were scanning the streets for Bo’s othermother. Violet sat on the hood of a battered white Nissan, while Bo watched from the edge with his elbows hooked over the railing. via Pock…

In the cool of the morning, I walk between my rows of peppers, brushing my fingers against the glossy leaves of Anaheims, Brazilian Starfishes, and Carolina Reapers. I grow peppers the way my mother and grandmother before me did—I grow them for the …

He climbs the spiraling stairs. Bowtie dangling from his fist, he climbs and sits atop the castle wall, where the torch-dotted city folds to dark shapes. Below, vastness, empty, as he feels sitting here. His feet are heavy, pulling downward. He does…

A beautiful woman robed all in white, lips red as rubies, followed the young, pale-skinned priest as he walked though the forest. The priest knew she was a yakshi, a demon that tore men’s throats out and drank their blood to quench her thirst. She w…

Six months pregnant, and I should have been happy. Six words to fire me, and I should have been angry. Instead, I drifted in a fugue. Spring faded, summer swelled, and our lives were falling apart. So we went for ice cream. June heat, dirty pavement…

There is a silent war that is waging on every surface of the planet, in every droplet of water, and on the skin and within the bodies of everyone you know. It’s hypothesized by some that this war began near the dawn of life on Earth. via Pocket

Little fists, clenching: one of the cameras, set to motion-cap, zoomed on them automatically. Two others watched the adults, mother, father on opposite sides of the room. The machines watched the players: half a world away, Stavros watched the machi…

Earth began to rise over the lunar hills as the Mighty Slinger and the Rovers readied the Tycho stage for their performance. via Pocket