A Garden in the Winter
Reading Time: 5 minutesOn a farm one winter night in the late 1930s, the children are left at home alone by their parents when a snowstorm descends…
Short Stories
The Crystal Egg
Reading Time: 24 minutesA man becomes obsessed with crystal egg and the mystical town captured inside it.
Where Old Wood Decays
Reading Time: 5 minutesA timeworn witch, the last of her coven, fights her young replacement to cling to the post she’s held for centuries as the steward of the Mother Tree.
Shadowed
Reading Time: 9 minutesA cable network host of the paranormal, Dr. Knute Quinn, ignores his old professor’s warnings about investigating shadow creatures, monstrosities much more aggressive and dangerous compared to the more passive shadow figures, dedicating his premiere second season telecast to the subject . . . with horrific consequences.
Through a Glass Darkly
Reading Time: 5 minutesIn the quiet depths of an Ottawa laboratory, Malcolm Reiner dared to rewrite the very fabric of biology, pursuing the dream of mirror-image life forms—an uncharted path on the edge of human understanding.
The Dark Side of Sweet Corn
Reading Time: 8 minutesThe corn field across the road had always been a part of the landscape, a quiet presence that whispered in the wind and marked the seasons with its growth. This year, though, something was different.
The Curio Shop
Reading Time: 4 minutesA blind man makes a deal with the devil that doesn’t work out as he had hoped.
The Oracle at Delphi
Reading Time: 14 minutesThe salesman of a device that predicts the immediate future finds himself in the pitch meeting of his life when he’s taken hostage by a trio of armed criminals.
Come Back Yesterday
Reading Time: 7 minutesA man learns of his destiny when he discovers the body of the mother he never knew. A letter left at he scene is hard to believe.
Our God is a Jealous God
Reading Time: 12 minutesA woman seeks healing at an isolated ranch in the southwest. It goes as expected until it doesn’t.
car·niv·o·rous
Reading Time: 19 minutesA detective investigating a string of gristly murders comes face to face with an unimaginable horror.
Audit
Reading Time: 8 minutesIn the future, the government conducts regular audits of people’s thoughts in order to root out criminals and to prevent corporate fraud. A young man discovers a hack on the black market that allows him to have his objectionable thoughts overwritten with benevolent thoughts. Naturally, however, there is a catch.
Traveler
Reading Time: 25 minutesVera and Sorrow thought they were going to the Facing Cities to intercept a missive sent by their enemies, the League. What happened next was…unexpected.
At a higher dose, love
Reading Time: 13 minutesIs human photosynthesis the future we need to avert climate change?
This Place Will Be the Death of Us
Reading Time: 14 minutesA group of therapists are attacked by their own building. They must rely on a drug-induced second sight to survive.
The Wager
Reading Time: 17 minutesAfter a supernatural entity kidnaps their unborn child from the womb, a young New Orleans couple seeks help from a Choctaw conjuror to get him back.
Imaginary Children
Reading Time: 24 minutesA lonely, powerful woman takes part in a risky experiment that allows her to see visions of the children she could conceive with certain men—strangers whom she would find deeply attractive. She becomes obsessed with finding a man who is triggering visions of one child in particular.
Company Man
Reading Time: 3 minutesSam was a company man. He was exactly what the company needed and what the company wanted. That is what made him so disturbing.
Tuning
Reading Time: 11 minutesA mother who is frustrated with her teenage daughter comes across a magical object that can repair items. She wonders what effect the object might have if she used it on her daughter.
Mothermind
Reading Time: 12 minutesAmong war’s victims are the soldiers and those who care for them. Nothing in our shared future will change that, though some of the details will be new. What will be the reality for cloned soldiers?
Goodbye, Nathan, Goodbye
Reading Time: 10 minutesIt’s a little boy’s last chance to leave the planet. Can he talk his mom into letting him go?
The Girl Who Was Only Three Quarters Dead
Reading Time: 26 minutesSuki finds herself prematurely awoken from an induced suspension between life and death. With her retinas deactivated and her government persona suspended, it’s up to friend and P.I. Gabe, to recover her identity, before she dies for good.
Alexander the Gray
Reading Time: 15 minutesAlexander, an extraterrestrial botanist whose mission to collect plant samples, is tasked with the emergency abduction of Roger Smith. Alexander has never come into contact with a human being, and when he meets Roger, he wishes wish he never had.
Under the Twinkle of a Fading Star
Reading Time: 26 minutesA veteran soldier in a postwar city, Jackson agrees to search for a friend’s wayward daughter and bring her back to her father. The task will be harder than he expected.
The Candle Wench
Reading Time: 17 minutesOverworked and underpaid, a candle wench finds strange comfort in the warmth of the wax
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.
Turndown Service
Reading Time: 14 minutesA bellhop on one of Jupiter’s moons discovers a body, and murder may be involved.
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…
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.
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.
Spell to Find Amelia Earhart
Reading Time: 4 minutesMagic circles, incantations—could this be enough to bring back Amelia Earhart?
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.”
Two Old Friends in the Garden
Reading Time: 5 minutesAn old man’s dedication to his garden goes beyond the grave.
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.
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.