Flash Fiction

Reading Time: 3 minutesThe oldest mask shop in Venice has a mask for everything, and the owner will take whatever you have to offer.

Reading Time: 4 minutesShe flails her arms and legs against the straps that bind her to a wooden chair in the middle of the boutique.

Reading Time: 4 minutesWhen I mentioned the Kintoc spring tale of relocating entire lakes using braided ropes, a herd of elk and sub-zero temperatures, I didn’t consider that I might soon be living all of it.

Reading Time: 3 minutesA century ago, a question blossomed in our awareness that has tormented each subsequent generation’s brightest scientific minds. Since other intelligent life must be out there in a universe so vast, why haven’t they found us yet?

Reading Time: 4 minutes“My name is Calder Freeman. I am the head arcanist at GraveSecure.” He said it casually, like someone offhandedly mentioning they were a garbageman or an accountant, not an honest-to-God necromancer.

Reading Time: 4 minutesAs William ambles into the kitchen to retrieve his morning coffee, he slips on a patch of melted ice. When he falls on his back, the dishwasher swings its door open and smacks him on the head.

Reading Time: 2 minutesWe live in an old red schoolhouse in the forest. The forest is thick and woolly, and at night you can hear the wolves sing. It is safe here.

Reading Time: 4 minutesBrother Gregor bent close to his work, his hands trembling as he lifted the taper. Candlelight flickered in the gloom; incense sticks pierced the fetid air. A drab grey light trickled through the tiny windows, illuminating the chalk circle drawn across the floorboards.

Reading Time: 3 minutesI found it in the usual place, where I always find them. Under the rock. “Hello,” I said.  “What’s your name, little feller?” No answer. But I expected that. 

Reading Time: 3 minutesInspired by both the art of Louise Bourgeois and a news story about a sex-bot repairman, “Spiral Woman” gives a kind of agency to a member of the already-marginalized servant class of the future.

Reading Time: 4 minutesYou can change your appearance with the touch of a button. But should you?

Reading Time: 4 minutesA video game eventually progresses from virtuality to reality.

Reading Time: 3 minutesI haven’t seen what the world is running from, and my father won’t tell me. But I have heard what they say in the village. The monsters came from the sky to live in our oceans.

Reading Time: 4 minutesTwo cyborgs, a woman, and a parrot, are outmatched by their deep space competitors.

Reading Time: 3 minutesWhen Maria wakes up covered in Marigolds she knows she’s dead.

Reading Time: 4 minutesA hayride with an old friend from the past unveils uncomfortable truths for Max and his family.

Reading Time: 4 minutesLizzie Williams kept the head in a burlap sack. We’d pay to look at it, pay even more to hear its secrets. We hated that head.

Reading Time: 3 minutes“I feel like I left my mind on Mars. Even now, I can still hear the wind.” Rosie reaches over from where she sits on her rocking chair and winds her fingers around mine. She hasn’t changed a bit, despite the years I was gone. Her face is still every bit as bright and optimistic

Reading Time: 2 minutesA band of faeries endeavors to help a worthy little girl by doggedly placing wish opportunities in her path.

Reading Time: 4 minutesA scientist ponders the mysteries of dark matter — though it, and he, may not be what they seem…