Super Duper Fly – Apex Magazine
4,000 Words Author Introduction THE MAGICAL NEGRO—It’s easy to believe that this trope came from a good place or at least rose out of benign neglect. After all, a white writer is “writing what they…
Zayinim – Apex Magazine
8,000 Words :1: Jonie stole one of Daniel’s books. ‘Borrowed’, we might say; but she knew what stealing was, and she knew what she was doing. On the other hand, her mother was always pressing her t…
Every Winter – Apex Magazine
5,300 Words Every winter, Halla rents the Villa Couloir on the banks of the Ruisseau de Rieu Ferré for its quiet, its darkness. Near the arch of the old stone bridge, it has a view of little else —…
When She Comes – Apex Magazine
800 words “I have been expecting you,” the man says. He watches the fluid form solidify — teeth first, then hair, wide jigida-clad hips and soft-soft skin gleaming reddish-brown from uli — inside h…
The Island in the Attic – Apex Magazine
1700 words Where this story begins is not where it ends. The ending is neither a natural conclusion to the events leading up to it, nor a product of necessity. If you see things in the beginning th…
Shadow – Apex Magazine
I met a man with no shadow today. He crossed into the village limits near dusk, furtive in movements but resolute in expression. He wanted to find the Mamman. He did not understand my descri…
During the Pause – Apex Magazine
Listen. This message is being transmitted to every member of your species, and to the individuals of the several other intelligent species, observed and unobserved, that share your world with you. …
War Dog – Apex Magazine
4,600 Words He slowed for a feathered corpse in the middle of the road. Up above, the local troop of macaques shrieked at a flock of gene-crafted micro-raptors. He rounded the blind curve and jerke…
The Prince Who Gave Up Her Empire – Apex Magazine
7,200 Words Terasadh arrived in the world with a force so abrupt that the resin womb holding her split in two, cracking as she took her first breath and cried out from the shock of being alive. Her…
The Old Man and the Phoenix – Apex Magazine
1,235 Words The old man stared out the window at the sky streaked with burnt oranges and sizzling yellows. A few white stars winked. Magentas hung suspended in the mist. Sherbet, he thought. I bet …
Damnatio Ad Beastias – Apex Magazine
7,000 Words The blue pills came first. Robin’s egg blue and smelling faintly chemical when Madeline opened the bottle. Then yellow, and a green the color of scum that grew on the pond her landlord …
Pagpag – Apex Magazine
5,200 Words The Night Watch was scheduled for 10 that evening, but Jay started his patrol at sundown. With a newly sharpened gulok resting on his shoulder, he ambled down the scabrous road that wou…
The Warrior Boy Who Would Not Suffer – Apex Magazine
4,300 Words There is a lot of blood in this world. A lot of blood. Even if you don’t include insects. Which you should. Why not? Their blood might be paler, bluer, insignificant. But it is still th…
Paskutinis Iliuzija (The Last Illusion) – Apex Magazine
Andrius Kavalauskas, the last magician of Lithuania, closed the door and rested his head against the wood as the nurse’s footsteps faded away. He smelled cabbage and pork cooking from the apartment…
I Remember Your Face – Apex Magazine
7,000 Words She scrabbled in the dirt, sifting through dust piles, raising turrets and smashing castles. Her hands were coated with grime, the mud dark in the lines of her palms. Pushing her skirt …
Fall to Her – Apex Magazine
1,341 Words You want to fall. You want to fall up, sideways, diagonal — towards the sun, or the moons, or the asteroid field. Out here in the vast pin-pricked black, it all feels like falling down.…
Actaeon – Apex Magazine
900 Words I am running. I am running and it is good, I am running in the dawn–dappled forest and the new air of the day is sharp and good in my lungs. Listen; the hounds are baying. But not all of …
Lazarus and the Amazing Kid Phoenix – Apex Magazine
7,500 Words The first thing the Old Man told me was this: “Sometimes folks just don’t die right.” So I’m gonna tell you a story about what that that means, and I want you to listen real carefully. …
Starpower – Apex Magazine
5,900 Words For now, you can still watch Marty’s creation online. It begins with this disclaimer: WARNING: IF YOU VOTED FOR GOVERNOR YVETTE POLSON, DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO. IT CONTAINS POWERFUL SUB…
The Big Bah-Ha – Apex Magazine
For Bea LaMonica and Gillian Hastings 16,100 Words Beatrice did not wake up in Heaven. She lay flat on her back. The surface beneath her was hard as concrete, maybe bouncier, like those playgrounds…
The Gentleman of Chaos – Apex Magazine
4,100 Words People call him the Gentleman of Chaos, but he is not gentle. By popular count, he’s assassinated thirteen kings, seventy-two princes, one thousand nobles, and five queens. By popular l…
The Drowned Celestial – Apex Magazine
10,200 Words 1. Colt was playing cards when trouble crawled in through the door, in the shape of a dead man who didn’t yet know he was dead. This was on old Venus, ancient and most decadent of plan…
Folk Hero – Apex Magazine
5,200 Words Corporal Carlisle Beckett had known from the beginning that teasing the truth out of forty-six (at last count) verses about the Ardua County Sniper would permanently engrave the lyrics …
Cuckoo Girls – Apex Magazine
5,900 Words “You never wait to see if it’s really dead,” says Samantha, leaning over the small arsenal configured in pristine rows on the linoleum. “Because, you know, it isn’t. You just put it dow…
Memorials – Apex Magazine
9,100 words Cam finds Pham Thi Thanh Ha in her house, as she expected. By now, she doesn’t question the aunts’ knowledge or how they came by it. She does what she’s told to, an obedient daughter be…
The Quidnunx | Apex Magazine
14,400 words One: Bird Aptrick’s Word Bird Aptrick said an awful word. There are big curse words and little curse words in anybody’s language. A little cursing isn’t hardly cursing at all. A child …
1957 – Apex Magazine
5,000 Words It was a bright day in May, and the clocks were striking twelve. I had no idea why I’d been summoned to the Head’s study. Dr. Treadwell had four clocks there, each a present from a grat…
Cottage Country – Apex Magazine
5,800 words I had come into some money and with it, purchased four hundred acres of land. I signed the lease in early fall, when the forest was a patchwork quilt of color. It was old-growth outside…
The Behemoth Beaches – Apex Magazine
2,100 Words It was even larger than we realized, half-buried in the cove’s sandy beach. Scales the size of cars covered its sides; the smokestacks running from nose to dorsal fin towered above the …
The Faery Handbag – Apex Magazine
8,000 Words I used to go to thrift stores with my friends. We’d take the train into Boston, and go to The Garment District, which is this huge vintage clothing warehouse. Everything is arranged by …