Strange Horizons - First Do No Harm By Jonathan Edelstein
Mutende was amused to see how many other students, high-born though they were, made signs to ward off evil. Less amusing was that he had to stop himself from doing the same.
Strange Horizons - Traveling Mercies By Rachael K. Jones
In the old stories, strangers at the door could be disguised gods, so you had to invite them in. It was a sin to turn away a guest. Atithi devo bhava. Sanskrit: the guest is God.
Strange Horizons - 起狮,行礼 (Rising Lion — The Lion Bows) By Zen Cho
When Coco told her the truth, she found it easy to believe. She demanded no proof. Jia Qi had already known that there was something magical about lion dance.
Strange Horizons - Some Girlfriends Can By Stephanie Burgis
I've read the women's magazine articles. I've listened to Mom's and Amy's advice. Acting snarky to your boyfriend's ex can only make you look bad. Especially when she's a three-thousand-year-old go…
The city of salt is a trap. In the daylight, it reflects the desert sky so brightly it blinds travelers. At night it is worse: at night it reflects travelers back upon themselves.
Strange Horizons - The Glow-in-the-Dark Girls By Senaa Ahmad, Art by Sam Guay
The sticky horror in our throats is not just for what we see, but for ourselves. We long to be there, in the heat of it. It is spiteful to leave us here, wasting away. We feel in ourselves a nuclea…
Strange Horizons - Orphan Tsunami Heathens By Tiera Greene
Klein Kelly’s body fell from the ninth-story window and plummeted into the flooded mega-campus below, puncturing the water’s glasslike surface with a sickening thunk. Foul water grabbed at the weight of her sneakers and her thick denim jacket. She w…
Strange Horizons - As Tender Feet of Cretan Girls Danced Once Around an Altar of Love By Julian K. Jarboe, Art by Sarah Webb
I am undressed but it won’t matter soon enough, and besides, this era has retained its wise and founded fear of nude women appearing beside bodies of water, even ones as ancient and ugly as myself.…
He stood with his back to us in his black trousers and white shirt, washing his hands. Flies crawled over the worktop and flitted into the pot of rice and peas on his stove. Mum and I exchanged a g…
The directives for this were in our/my banks before our/my consciousness was. Simple instinct to unfurl the durable panels, like old sails, we/i always remind ourselves/myself. Simple instinct to g…
Strange Horizons - Strange Waters By Samantha Mills, Art by Julia Griffin
Fisherwoman Mika Sandrigal was lost at sea. She knew where she was in relation to the Candorrean coastline and how to navigate back to her home city, Maelstrom. She knew the time of day. She knew t…
Strange Horizons - The Killing of a Sacred Deer By Maggie Clark
In The Killing of a Sacred Deer, one clockwork universe is instead pitted against another clockwork universe, in the context of a brutally prolonged trolley problem.
After that announcement, she pulled all the government brochures about the teleportation devices out of the mail, leaving the rest for Má and Ba to sort after they came home from work. She spent h…