I Don’t See How That’s Any of My Business
Reading Time: 5 minutesWhen a man’s vision changes, he suddenly sees much more about the people around him than he would care to.
Reprint
The Healing Breath of Alpacas
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhen aliens descend on Earth, they request an audience with Karen, the United States’ most statistically average individual to sit judgement.
Turndown Service
Reading Time: 14 minutesA bellhop on one of Jupiter’s moons discovers a body, and murder may be involved.
Retirement
Reading Time: 3 minutesCost-effective retirement for those who work in the human harvesting industry can have unexpected consequences.
Mortal Wounds
Reading Time: 4 minutesAfter a thief is mortally wounded, strange visions of past crimes begin to haunt him. As he tries to make his way out of a dark forest to see the sun once more, he cannot shake the feeling he is being followed.
After Impact
Reading Time: 19 minutesA group of people in a rural town face the outcome of a devastating asteroid impact.
The Shell
Reading Time: 25 minutesA little boy discovers a mysterious seashell that contains more than just “ocean sounds” – a lot more…
If We Can Just Get to the Cabin Before…
Reading Time: 4 minutesMarsha and Frank are driving along a country road on a rainy night, with Frank regaling Marsha about his knowledge of Japanese Samurai films,
when they encounter a ghostly specter in the middle of the road.
The Psychics
Reading Time: 5 minutesPsychic magicians must fight off a enemy who is trying to break the spells protecting their academy. Family and romantic relationships complicate things.
Grim Harvest
Reading Time: 9 minutesWhen their mother dies, a pair of precocious twins are placed in the care of their father, a conservative and stern man with whom their Wiccan practices immediately clash.
Hope of Green
Reading Time: 3 minutesIn the face of a devastated climate, humanity’s last hope is to relocate to another planet, but not everyone sees it that way.
Anonymous Tip
Reading Time: 7 minutesIn a near future of fast-paced social media likes and internet lurking, anonymity has a price…
The Programmed Joy of Protection
Reading Time: 11 minutesRuth is an android robot nanny, designed to protect the two young children in her care. She has come to realize that she loves protecting the children so much, she feels compelled to put the children into danger so as to enjoy saving them.
Honeypot
Reading Time: 5 minutesA derelict spaceship turns out to be a trap for a space pirate and his very unusual copilot.
A Perfect Day
Reading Time: 4 minutesA day at the beach turns into something unexpected for a young couple.
The Snow Hath No Queen
Reading Time: 5 minutesIn a future where the continents are gone, the oceans are dead, and humanity survives atop the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a man goes on a dreamquest to rediscover cold and snow.
Spell to Find Amelia Earhart
Reading Time: 4 minutesMagic circles, incantations—could this be enough to bring back Amelia Earhart?
Body Donor
Reading Time: 4 minutesDavid volunteers for NASA’s Body Donor program, where human corpses are exchanged for advanced knowledge of an alien species.
Taking Care of Our Own
Reading Time: 3 minutesThere’s an aswang on the loose and it’s up to us to deal with it. Don’t forget to bring trash bags…
I Regret Any Future Impact of My Words and Actions
Reading Time: 3 minutesThis piece imagines a future world where apologies are necessary for every step of personal interactions with others.
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How Chaac the Rain God Moved to Venice and Became a Glutton-Free Vegan
Reading Time: 8 minutesWhen ancient Mexican gods visit Venice Beach, America gets a change of dirt.
How Chaac the Rain God Moved to Venice and Became a Glutton-Free Vegan Read More »
The Virgin of Santos de la Tierra
Reading Time: 7 minutesWhen a Virgin is seen in a small Mexican town it’s a miracle – the town is blessed… or is it?
Ties That Bind
Reading Time: 14 minutesA cosmic traveller helps a grieving fisherman to deal with his trauma.
Shadows
Reading Time: 5 minutesJason’s daughter, Sarah, approached him one morning and said, “Daddy, the Shadow Man is back.”
Hands Down
Reading Time: 2 minutesHow will a child react to his father’s unsettling business decisions?
Two Old Friends in the Garden
Reading Time: 5 minutesAn old man’s dedication to his garden goes beyond the grave.
Rod Serling School of Writing
Reading Time: 4 minutesA budding student sci-fi writer applies to the Rod Serling School because of the celebrity’s name attached to the school. When a salesman comes by the house to pitch the school, her father joins the conversation, with unexpected results.
Growth
Reading Time: 3 minutesHe is deeply fascinated by growth. And he’s ready to sacrifice a lot for its sake…
Life Online
Reading Time: 7 minutesIn the environmentally and economically devastated not-so-distant future, best friends Pen and Lissy have fought for years simply to survive. After a lifetime of struggle, Lissy is desperate for escape, and decides uploading her mind onto a computer chip – complete with home-designed software – is her only option.
Classics: The Star
Reading Time: 15 minutesA strange star is spotted in the distant sky. Scientists watch as its near miss brings humanity to its knees.
Once in a Blue Moon
Reading Time: 2 minutesA hungry ghost, pockets full of whatever money he could collect, visits his favorite diner on Halloween
Worm King
Reading Time: 5 minutesWhile his father’s once-famous bait shop struggles to survive against the threat of an impending storm, Dill encounters an unexpected solution.
The Last Day
Reading Time: 3 minutesA story about a society in which a mechanism was invented to increase pleasant dreams. Old men prefer to sleep unawakened rather than live. One man tries to resist.
In Him, We Know Freedom
Reading Time: 5 minutesWhile burning barrels light the state capital’s torn paint and hunger pains ravage his stomach, a man looks into a mirror, seeing what he could become and reliving what he had to do to survive.
Humans and Androids as Societal Partners
Reading Time: 8 minutesDo we need new rules for a society where androids are becoming more and more lifelike?
In My Home
Reading Time: 10 minutesA prisoner with no knowledge of their own identity is kept in solitary confinement, visited daily by human projections designed to prevent mental deterioration. When the opportunity for escape is presented, a dormant instinct resurfaces in the prisoner, and the need to fulfill this drive supplants the desire for freedom.
Here Comes the Sun
Reading Time: 4 minutesJune joined the Memory Keeper team to help her family forge a path to abundance. When it became harder to meet quota, June learned that she was trapped in a business that viewed her as another commodity. And sometimes, the consequences of faith in an idea are greater than we can imagine.
It Shambles Closer in the Dark
Reading Time: 2 minutesIn the dark, something shambles toward you, its squelch squelch squelch sound getting louder, and louder. Is it here for you?
Not Alone in the Universe
Reading Time: 3 minutesSome expected the aliens to solve the problems of humanity, while others were afraid of genocide or enslavement. But it all turned out differently.
Terra Forma
Reading Time: 11 minutesMirabyi has been tapped to join the moon colony to explore the possibility of converting the dusty surface to life sustaining soil. Her experiments have unexpected results and maybe not the good kind.
Demonology
Reading Time: 3 minutesWith his life spiraling out of control, and a desire for revenge taking over his mind, a man takes drastic actions.
I Will Paint the Night
Reading Time: 26 minutesCan Allii come to grips with the pain her family has inflicted on a nation and heal a land wounded by centuries of injustice, hate, and fear. (And find the killer of her beloved stepmother).
The Faster They Eat Her
Reading Time: 26 minutesYoung Daisy must evade the clutches of forest-dwelling witch Madame Sosostris and Malcolm, the town brute, as she tries to solve the mystery of her friend Violet’s disappearance.
The Imaginary Librarian
Reading Time: 2 minutesIn a sparse, orderly imaginary office, a librarian awaits unseen directives, tending to imaginary tomes with quiet diligence. As dawn approaches, she fulfills a final task, providing closure for a life departing.
A Darker World
Reading Time: 6 minutesTechnology allows us to revisit the most cherished moments of our lives. But is that a good thing?
The Fool’s Fiddle
Reading Time: 18 minutesDragons can’t lie, right? That’s what the legends say. So, when Guy finds himself at the wrong end of a failed heist, he puts that knowledge to the test. Compatriots dead. Hope gone. And his last chance at life is convincing a dragon to let him go.
Willow Prentiss
Reading Time: 5 minutesGuilt, melancholy, and the lost soul of a love form the basis of this twist on the paranormal/magical romance.