8,700 words It was too early in the season for a plague, but plague never waited on the turn of the seasons. Sarnai knew that as well as anyone. From inside the tram, Sarnai saw wan winter light tr…

By Saladin Ahmed If I die on this piece-of-shit road, Lubna’s chances die with me. Ali leveled his shotgun at the growling tiger. In the name of God, who needs no credit rating, let me live! Even w…

By Forrest Aguirre “A beautiful day,” Langknech giraffe said to friend Tzi-Tzi. And, indeed, it was a beautiful day. The smiling face of the sun shone down from sky blue, and where ther…

5,700 Words “The Button Bin” was originally published by Helix: Speculative Fiction Quarterly in 2007 You know he’s the one who made your beloved niece disappear. He’s come out of his shop now, fus…

By Nick Wolven Weeds rise from the roof. We live beneath an accidental garden. It got worse with the summer rains. The shingles grew moldy, and yellow stalks rooted and sucked at the tar, turnin…

4,000 Words “I fell,” said the cyborg, and for a moment his audience stood astounded, waiting for the larger speech, the longer explanation. None came. “I fell,” he said once, and spoke no further.…

7,400 Words In the flickering amber torchlight, the mummy’s skin was burnished sienna where Jackson peeled the rotting bandages off. When Jackson pressed fore and middle fingers to the slender coll…

5,000 Words We ate all the spiders we could find. It was the easiest way. Once they decided they wanted to be inside you, it was better to choke the damn things down than have them crawl into your …

2017 Locus Recommended Short Story 2,600 Words “Say I’m a nigger bitch.” “I am. A nigger. Bitch.” “Say it right: I am a nigger bitch!” “I am … a nigger bitch.” “Yes. You are.” The man stared. He lo…

3,000 words It’s been a whole month since anyone’s seen Vera, and the circumstances of us finally seeing her this weekend are going to be ultra grody-odd, so I deliberate forever doing my Face. In …

20,000 words prologue: the pattern You never imagined you’d be in a place like this again. Mothers. Fathers. Schoolteachers. Children. All about you, children. To a tiny part of you, this setting i…

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror (Paula Guran) selection, 2013 Locus Awards Best Short Story 4th Place 7,000 Words In a sea of long grass and tiny yellow blueberry flowers some ways off of R…

Michael A. Burstein is a ten-time finalist for the Hugo Award and the winner of the 1996 John W. Campbell Award for best new writer. His fiction frequently appears in Analog Science Fiction & Fact magazine, and much of his short work was recently collected in I Remember the Future, from Apex Publications. “Lifeblood” takes …

5,800 Words Reva’s lungs were burning and her sweaty calves were coated in sand by the time she started up the side of the last dune. She’d snuck away from the camp by starlight, with her breath pl…

3,000 Words The Manila Times predicted March 30th would be a scorcher, the hottest day so far this year. The aswang called it a perfect opportunity to hunt and went to pack the cargo van. As a rule…

Nebula Award nominee for Best Short Story (2011) Million Writers Award nominee for Best Short Story (2011) Locus Award Best Short Story 11th Place The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantas…

250 Words 2017 Valentine’s Flash Fiction Winner She watched him basking in the dawn by the river, the butterfly man. She gave chase, with net and long legs, and he was eagerly captivated. Sh…

250 Words 2017 Valentine’s Flash Fiction Winner The printing nozzles skittered back and forth with eerie grace, laying strands of snow-white tendon over black carbon-fiber bone. Wyatt didn’t …

250 Words 2017 Valentine’s Flash Fiction Winner Tucked in the curtains of her balcony, the girl watches the parade march below, but she cannot feel the scorch of it. The crowds shout with gle…

4,700 Words Trigger Warning: Implied Sexual Assault “She doesn’t taste like anything,” the patron said, setting me down. “Not a damn thing—how remarkable.” Bishop frowned and grabbed me around the …

2017 Locus Recommended Short Story 5,700 Words Brit lowered her wooden sword and sighed. She loved her students. But the girls kept hesitating, getting hung up on the moves, lagging behind. The thr…

5,000 Words They were naked, now, on a dirty mattress. “Neither of you have eaten or drunk anything for twenty-four hours?” Ryan asked, hauling equipment into the room: sloshing plastic buckets, pa…

5,200 Words “No school today,” Melanie’s mother said. “No playing outside. If you have to go into another room, you tell me so I can go with you. Can you do that?” Melanie nodded. “Does Christopher…

RT @apexjason: Nothing worse than a tomato thief. Read Ursula Vernon's Hugo-nominated novelette at @apexmag https://t.co/uWIn2yHRcE

5,300 Words Palmer was standing at the counter in Chichen Itza Coffee at nine in the morning when he spotted the next big thing. He’d pushed open the blue-papered doors minutes ago to find himself …

1,900 Words Today, I remembered soursops for 46 seconds. Well, I say ‘remembered,’ but it was more like I bought myself a few seconds of pain-filled pleasure, plugging into some dead guy’s memory f…

4,900 Words Maggie was sitting on an old packing crate by the docks, having tea with a lobster she had named Miss Snips, when Father O’Grady approached her. She heard the light, smart click of his …

5,800 Words Author’s Note: The story of Rawhead and Bloody Bones originated in Europe but migrated to the American South and underwent a local transformation. The definitive folklore version is lik…

4,700 Words When you ask most psychics why they don’t just learn the lottery numbers and play them ahead of time, they’re going to tell you that’s not how it works. You can’t just get the numbers. …

4,500 words Men wear hats outside. Black for the winter, brown for the summer. Hat brims are three inches wide. Once a man marries, he grows a beard but shaves his upper lip. Unmarried boys must be…