Stories

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

The water runs lukewarm with that familiar chemical sting that all recyc water has. It cuts off after exactly one minute, making the pipes knock. It echoes deep inside the station walls. It’s exactly 06.00 hours, Earth-time adjusted. via Pocket Irregularity | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2I5oGCF

Intrigue is our game. We play it well. It is all we have. She steps out of the pub with smoke on her lips, heels in her hands. A flicker of gin hides behind her eyes. Her interest meter is low, except for a seed of fear. She has not posted anything … We Are New(s) | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2G8ZuNf

Five knew two things about Brother Ted Gunderson: The man loved Jesus, and hated his own son. Five was never allowed to call him Father or Pa. via Pocket Clap Your Hands | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2GuNFCd

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 caused him to bolt upright, breathing heavy and screaming his thro… Asylum of Cuckoos | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2qaK8kF

When we gaze up at the heavens, we see exactly what one sees from Mother Earth: the resplendent, teeming stars and beacons of civilization flickering in the darkness. via Pocket The Heaven-Moving Way | Apex Magazine via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2ExNsZf