Author: Jae Miles, Staff Writer A savannah night is interrupted by the snarls of attacking lions. I hear screams, see flashes of weapons as wielders fall. They keep popping in. I’ve become adept at…

PodCastle 539: Godfall

Author : Rebecca L. Brown They hop-scotched their way to work, jumping between the numbered squares and collecting coloured stones as they went. The inner child told them they had to. On arrival, t…

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

Author : Bob Newbell It’s rotating. It doesn’t look like it, but instruments show that it is. Right now it takes around 24 hours to complete one rotation. Since it’s just over two…

PodCastle 541: Andromache and the Dragon

Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer Shore leave at last! Ensign Pull Crimson was wide-eyed as he made his way through the dirty bustling streets of Port Tidaria. Thousands of aliens, both humanoid …

PodCastle 542: Waters of Versailles — Part 1

Author: Mark Joseph Kevlock No one ever supposes they’ll witness a miracle. Mary Ann McBlake witnessed one when she was ten years old. And then she had to live with it for the rest of her lif…

PodCastle 543: Waters of Versailles — Part 2

My hands are sweating something fierce, even though they shouldn’t be. Just nerves, I guess since I’m here under false pretenses. Got arrested on my birthday for violating societal acts of moral turpitude. Federal law stipulates you can’t stay a vir…

PodCastle 544: Waters of Versailles — Part 3

Max had started the day with anti-anxiety medication, some painkillers and a mild sedative. He was so relaxed that the nurse had to practically pour him into a wheelchair to get him down to the transfer station for the procedure. via Pocket

PodCastle 545: The Aunties Return the Ocean

Henry became suddenly aware. Aware that he was sitting upright in a comfortable chair, wearing comfortable clothes made from warm white fabric that he did not recognize. All around him was whiteness, save for a wide bay window across the room that l…

Captain Dean returned home late. The welcome party had already made coffee and spilled through the halls and rooms to talk in bursts of stories. There was the initial buzz of salutations and welcoming home. Cups were raised and health was toasted. v…

PodCastle 625: Salt and Iron Salt and Iron By Gem Isherwood There’s a gash across her cheekbone, glass in her arm and her lower lip is twice the size it should be, but Dagna Müller is hardly a stranger to pain. She slumps on the steps outside th… There’s a gash across her cheekbone, glass in her arm and her lower lip is twice the size it should be, but Dagna Müller is hardly a stranger to pain. She slumps on the steps outside the tavern, feeling her nose to check if it’s broken again. via Po… PodCastle 625 Salt and Iron - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2SE4QFu

Anywhere else in the fleet she would be an impossible escort. Her dull-black skinsuit was topped with a spiked leather jacket, her hair gelled into liberty spikes, her face painted like a skull. She still showed her rank and rate, but the only name …

PodCastle 626: DOUBLE FEATURE! A Sharp Breath of Birds; A Guide to Birds by Song (After Death) Authors : Tina Connolly and A.C. Wise Narrators : Tina Connolly and Dani Daly Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums … PodCastle 626 DOUBLE FEATURE! A Sharp Breath of Birds; A Guide to Birds by Song (After Death) - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2WptETR You are two on the day you see your first personal bird. It is the sort of thing you barely remember later, at six, seven, twenty. via Pocket

Author: Alex Z. Salinas Something nobody says anymore. So when a guy behind me at the café whispered that in my ear, I turned around and shushed him. Put my hand over his mouth. I told him we could get killed if somebody heard that. via Pocket

PodCastle 627: We Are the Flower Author : Claire Humphrey Narrator : Jen R. Albert Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 627: We Are the Flower is a PodCastle original. Rated PG-13. Includes copious F… I didn’t clue in until I saw the ghost bike chained to a signpost on Adelaide, near a corner. I was stopped up close, and I looked down and the angles of the frame were familiar. A Cannondale CAAD 5, just like mine. via Pocket

The Sergeant sat down across the table from me. “Hello Mr Ambrose, I am the Legal Resolutions App for ExcellentWear,” she said. “You used one of our copyrighted words three times without permission. Would you like to pay the fine now? There’s a ten …

PodCastle 628: Vincent’s Penny Author : Chris Barnham Narrator : Matt Dovey Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums Dimension6, Issue 16 (April 2019). Rated PG. Vincent’s Penny By Chris Barnham  May 1941 I’m … I’m a child this time. Five or six years old. Fully clothed under a bed, on a wooden floor. I touch a hand to my throat, but there is nothing there. I examine my hands and arms, astonished by the smoothness of the skin. At last, I crawl out from ben…

How did everyone miss a cabin in this Protected Nature Zone for so long? The windows are covered in ivy and the veranda is thick with brambles. via Pocket

PodCastle 629: Though She Be But Little Author : C.S.E. Cooney Narrator : Julia Rios Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums Originally published in Uncanny Magazine. Previously published in Jonathan Strahan’s The… PodCastle 629 Though She Be But Little - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2MmVoCH Though She Be But Little By C.S.E. Cooney Emma Anne had a tin can attached by a string to her belt. via Pocket

A gust of wind found us while we were walking in the park. She opened her arms, skipped backwards, pretending to be a kite. Like you used to do. Before you got sick. Before you helped them create her, your dying gift to me. via Pocket

PodCastle 615: Field Reports from the Department of Monster Resettlement Author : L. Chan Narrator : Curtis C. Chen Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published by Future Fire in the Making Monster… Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: two ghosts, a pontianak and a manananggal are sitting around the third floor of a community centre after dark. The trick isn’t getting them to come to the support group, the trick is getting them to agree to …

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer “I don’t give a damn,” bellowed Senator Orcus as he slammed his fist onto the conference table. via Pocket

PodCastle 616: DOUBLE FEATURE! Telomerase; Mycelium Authors : Ian Muneshwar and Eleanor Wood Narrators : Sienna Tristen and Jen R. Albert Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 616: DOUBLE FEATURE! Telo… You lost your first word when I began to lose my hair. You brought a wicker basket to the hospital and opened it in the waiting room, taking out a blue-checkered blanket that you spread out over our laps. via Pocket

“What a strange way for an Arkansas farm boy to die”, he thought. He could imagine Gramps shaking his head and saying, “Son, you are a caution”. via Pocket