Topic
Modern Fantasy
Welcome to today. But wait, it's different.
The Message Behind the Words is the Voice of the Heart
Fortune found inside Gil Knowland's cookie at the end of the combination special for which he stopped on the way home from his wife's funeral: A loved one from the past will affect you in the near future. Soon they will all know what you've done. Graffiti spray-painted on the…
The Chosen One
"Are you sure this is the one?" asked Drummer, eyeing the spilt level brick ranch. It looked exactly the same as every other house on the street. "The Oracle said the hero will be found here. The records indicate that five boys live here and three of them are in the right age…
Future Tense
Mom starts haranguing me about the fight before I even start breakfast. "How is your first day of high school, John?" she says as she pushes a glass of water and some aspirin in my direction. I take the pills and rub bleary eyes. Breakfast complete. "Fine." "Nothing exciting or…
Paw and Prejudice
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single human in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a cat. However little known the feelings of views of such a human may be on their first entering a neighborhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the feline…
What We Know and What You Can Do about the Troubling Rise of Werepandaism
Darkness and uncertainty obscure the origin of the werepanda phenomenon. Another layer of confusion stems from the existence of certain trademarked gamer-world characters--the bi-pedal, flesh-eating, Chaucer-reciting monsters that first person shooters must defend the planet…
When It Pours
Kelly ventured out of her apartment only because the day's luck rating was extraordinarily high. The weatherman's baritone voice played in her head: "Folks, we're looking at record luck levels today, with a high of 92 and a low of 89. If you're feeling lucky, there's a reason!"…
Smile More
Margaret Vine could make anyone do anything if she just looked into their eyes. The fear of her own power made her sick, so she only practiced in mirrors. It began with silly things that she thought couldn’t matter to anyone but her. Perhaps, Margaret believed, she could shape…
Cavesong
The sound echoed through the cavern. Lisa stood in the entrance, hearing it. Entrance. Entranced. Not the same word, but in some ways they might as well be. Because she was going in and she wasn't. She couldn't. But the music called to her, it called to her and even when she…
Ali Knows the Future
Their four-year-old daughter came home from school saying, "Ali knows the future." Her father, Bruce Palimani, busy forming meatballs for dinner, said, "No one knows the future, my heart." The next day, or a few days later, Sandy let her hands drop to her lap while practicing…
Shadows on a brick wall
"They are very new, you know," he said. "Like those butterflies that sat on black trees. Because of the coaldust and smoke. Moths. Whatever. So they turned dark themselves." He was trying to charm me, calling me "love" and touching my elbow at every third word. He was also…
Magical Companion Applicant #2251, or "Maggie"
"Sir, is this place a joke to you?" The young man was not chuckling. The corgi tucked under his arm looked even less amused than Magical Animal Control Officer Adelaide Wilson felt. "I'm just trying to get my magical companion registered," said the man. Adelaide looked at the…
Visitation Rites
She pretended to brush the doll's hair. What once had a synthetic blonde luster was now wiry and faded. The girl, by contrast, did not even look all of her seven years. She was small for her age. She always would be. "I could get you a new one," he suggested, sitting…
Black Snow
Black snow, the same black as the night sky. Lilly shivers, not because of the cold, not because dagger blades are seeking shelter inside her bare feet. It is just the drug withdrawal, much less poetic. "Not to worry," she thinks. "He will provide." Father Christmas will deliver…
Naughty List 4 Lyfe
The first time I caught Santa, I was ten years old. The trap was simple--you'd think someone with Santa's reputation would have seen it coming a mile away, but nope. Hook, line, and sinker; or should I say, milk, cookies, and an unsophisticated small game snare. It was never…
Necronomiromcom
The Necronomiromcom: the book of dead romances, is, of course, a myth. It doesn't exist and, even if it did, you certainly wouldn't find the ancient tome buried three feet below a locked filing cabinet in the basement of a Soho antiquarian. If you did happen to stumble across…
By the Power of My Swipe
Rain battered the walls of the castle above the ancient lake, and its pointed towers shot into the night sky aiming to pierce the heavy, bulging clouds. The stronghold stood quiet and dark, except for one window, high up in the northern turret, burning with pale amber light.…
All Our Secrets Thus Revealed
He phased into view in the middle of the stage, punctiliously dressed in a top hat and tails, his translucence diminishing nothing of his inscrutability. When I asked for his name, he gave only the Magnificent Benvolio, but after I untethered him from that tumbledown theatre,…
After the Monster
This is a story where all the crazies live. The strange, edge of town crazies, they all live. The friend who is dark and down all the time and not sure if she wants to go on, she thinks about it hard and she does dangerous things and she flirts with lines farther than pain, but…
The Dragon Queen of the Suffix County Public Library
Dara the Library Director sprouted the first scale during our weekly staff meeting, after I suggested a change to the Staff Favorites book display. We all tried not to notice, the way you try not to notice a pimple on the tip of someone's nose--you force your gaze away, but the…
Addison and Julia Tell the Truth to Pemaquid Beach
Addison was wearing a tiger-striped turquoise rashguard and surf shorts. She wrote in the sand with a stick: "Addison + Julia = Truth Tellers. Reasonable Rates." Julia was wearing a hot pink bandeau top and black bikini bottoms. Her mom had picked them out. "When you're my age,…
Within These Walls
My husband visits a week after I am admitted to the lunatic asylum. He doesn't bring the baby. "I can't trust you with her," he says. "The things you read in the newspapers these days." I have never hurt her. I have not hurt him, either. I only hurt myself. "Is she well?" I ask.…
Glimmers
Children are so frequently told they have wonderful imaginations that she never took the signs seriously. She'd always noticed the shadows at the corner of her eye, the glimmers of light that didn't belong. It was her favorite game to pretend she was the focus of some Otherness,…
The Magic Chooses Us
The curtain rose. The band played. And the legend we'd all come to see shuffled his old bones up to the microphone. When the spotlight lit up the figure in the white leather jumpsuit, Tim wasn't the only person in the audience who squealed like a schoolgirl. But he was the…
Once More With Feeling
An empath wasn't Connor's first thought when he saw the woman. Instead, he noticed her hands as they slipped into his view, all stiff muscles and veins, like a Michelangelo carving, trembling as they reached for a drink. Looking up, he saw a young woman with straight slate hair…
A Plague of Santas
It starts innocently enough in November. A shortage of cookies and milk at the grocery store, a faint jingling at night, the lingering scent of peppermint. To the children, this means a flood of presents is right around the corner, but the adults know there's much more to it…
In the Walls
He was awake and not from a dream. Unless the dream was forgotten, which wasn't like him. Either way, his brain was still mostly asleep, full of slow, knotted up thoughts... but the ears were fully engaged. Listening. And hearing nothing. Not rain, which was sad. He enjoyed the…
Jeremiah was a Bullfrog
Ms. Evelyn watched as kindergartener Angelica Poplavov stepped into the spotlight and grabbed the microphone. She wore a floor length, pink chiffon dress and her blonde sausage curls bobbed at every step. The audience watched with the mixture of joy and annoyance of people…
Her Face from Memory
Imogene was supposed to vanish before my fifth birthday. At 11:30 on what we thought was her last night, we sat together, cross-legged on my standard issue pink unicorn quilt, knees almost touching, waiting for her to pop like a soap bubble or dissolve like cotton candy in a…
Carpools & Coworkers
I clear my throat. "It's 7:43 on a Monday. You're due at the office by 8. Clive is driving, Jordan is riding shotgun, Janet and Nigel are in the back. You have twelve miles to go. You've been making good time, but suddenly a blue minivan starts to merge into your lane right next…
Carpools & Coworkers
I clear my throat. "It's 7:43 on a Monday. You're due at the office by 8. Clive is driving, Jordan is riding shotgun, Janet and Nigel are in the back. You have twelve miles to go. You've been making good time, but suddenly a blue minivan starts to merge into your lane right next…
Of Jinns, Jellybeans and Kmart Underwear
I was searching through the clearance underwear bin at Kmart when I first met the Jinn. I knew what she was by the oil-slick gloss to her skin that simmered like a heat wave in the distance, and I wondered how it would feel to run my fingers across it. Would they come away…
When Jimmy Hendermann Wore a Dress to School
The first time Jimmy Hendermann wore a dress to school it wasn't really a dress at all. It was a bright pink tutu, a stiff, bristly skirt. He wore it with a wide smile and strutted down the hall. The girls snickered behind his back, pointed fingers, and passed around notes about…
Dahlia
"I love you," she said, took one step backward, and disappeared. That was the ending, I think. I suppose I should start at the beginning. I was watching the sun creep down toward the horizon from an unnamed overlook thirty miles north of Damascus, Virginia. My eyes were…
Broken Home
Paula arched her back almost to the point of falling over, turning her face to the sky. The hood of her puffy coat slipped back onto her shoulders as she dodged awkwardly left and right, opening her mouth wide and sticking out her tongue to chase the snowflakes fluttering around…
Broken Yesterdays
I'm really hoping for the Chinese shop from Gremlins, but his room looks pretty much like a normal doctor's surgery, except for the floor to ceiling shelves full of empty jars. And although he's of Chinese origin, he's really not the Gizmo-selling kind of guy: middle-aged,…
Autumn Woman
I didn't need my policewoman training to see what would soon cause this footage to cut out. A woman, dressed for the late fall while everyone else was dressed for the summer heat. Parents and children swam by, some giving her a second glance. Even the summer breeze seemed to…
Midnight at the Fountains of Bellagio
It's nearly midnight, and the evening is blistering hot with desert air so dry it makes me wish I was doing a third show with Cirque de Soleil tonight, sore muscles be damned. At least that way I'd be in the pool. But I promised Dad I'd meet him after work, and it's only a short…
The Treehouse Circle
"You must be able to do something special, Sarah," said double-jointed Madison. "Or have something special," said Bree, who had shown us her boobs. To be fair, they were enormous. The others sitting in the circle in the treehouse stayed quiet: Lesley, who could draw people that…
To the editor: Monsters belong in schools
Dear Editor, I am writing in response to this publication's ludicrous attack on the age-old practice of housing monsters in school dungeons ("Monsters in our schools: Enough is enough," Mar. 2018). While I'm sure it is well-intentioned, Miss Tickal's argument that the best way…
The Friendly Beasts
Every year at the Shifter Solstice Party, I get my heart broken, and sometimes my tail. Not this year! My apartment mate and best friend, Chester Cheetah--he doesn't actually turn into a cheetah; he's more like a coyote on steroids, but it's his game name--and I got to the Dream…
You Can Summon the Ancient One for Fifteen Dollars
As the circus packed up for the night, Elo bought T'kaarmarekch a drink. They sat near her trailer with cans of cold beer and listened wistfully to the lack of elephants. "I know it was cruel to keep elephants in a circus," T'kaarmarekch signed, their many-petaled mouth rippling…
Masterclass
"Even Jesus had a mother." Mei Yin smiled, expression reptilian. A thin laugh broke across the group. There were twelve women that evening, all Chinese, although the varied tonality of their complexions suggested that some had more complicated ancestries than others--a drip of…
The Ivory Hummingbird
My mother stored her magic in expensive trinkets, and she brought them out to flaunt her power whenever I came to visit. Her newest acquisition was a hummingbird, carved out of ivory, with a red ruby embedded in its throat. It was a beautiful work of art, but all I could think…
Dragonheart
Scans revealed two small dragons: one on the right lung and the other curled tight around his heart. It didn't look good. Ten to twelve weeks at the most, the doctors said. "You're going to fight this," Ella told him when they got home from the hospital, tucking the kitchen…
The long wait
"It depends on what you feel is right for her," the lady said. "Social security can buy something short and painless. Of course you need to make all the necessary arrangements...." "What about long and painless?" The words came out sharper than Eva intended. It still stung to…
Good Little Girls
My mommy tells me a story. She says there can't be a monster in my closet, because monsters only hide in the closet of bad little girls. They can smell the bad things you do or think of doing or want to do, and it draws them in. Good little girls whose mommies and daddies love…
Bubbled
On Monday, Avalonia Joia stormed into my office, shut the door behind herself, and sat in the chair across from my desk, all without saying a word. She crossed her arms and sighed. Her hair was long and golden, her eyes were opalescent and her skin was as clear as day. She had…
Weaponized Ghosts of the 96th Infantry
"Until now, vengeful ghosts have been documented in history but never seen by science," said General Kilborne as he led the Secretary of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff into the forward bunker. "The army has known about them for years. We've studied the types of persons and…
Believe Me
Just one more hill and I would be home. As I topped the rise, the county sheriff's car filled my vision, parked in my driveway. My 14-year-old was babysitting his sister for the first time. What happened? I pulled onto the grass, jumped out of the car, and sprinted toward the…
Escaping Reality
My grandmother disappeared one hot summer afternoon into the movie screen at the Alhambra Theater. She was watching the Shirley Temple movie, Bright Eyes, and connected with the movie so deeply, just had to up and join in all its wholesome fun. Casting off her winter coat, she…
What Wags the World
They have him mislabeled as "mixed-breed" at the shelter, but you recognize him for what he is. More importantly, he recognizes you. The other dogs are doing tricks and throwing themselves at the people walking past. They're begging for attention. He hangs back, waiting, but…
Crystal
Every year, I get two letters from Nainai, my grandmother: one for my birthday, one for Christmas. A disk-shaped crystal sits on my desk: about an inch in diameter, a quarter of an inch thick, heavier than it looks. In the four o'clock sun on this New England winter afternoon,…
Anatomy of an Arrow
"So, uh, I've been meaning to ask. What's that?" He pointed at the fletching that poked out of a hole in her blouse, a few inches from her chest. It almost dipped in her bowl every time she bent to take a spoonful of soup. She shrugged and looked away. "An arrow." "An arrow." He…
Experience Arcade
***Editor's Note: Adult story. Mature themes. Not for the wee ones*** The Japanese do the cool stuff and worst stuff first. They're the fad makers: video games, reality TV, bizarre game shows, weirdness in fashion, hentai, must-own electronics--they do it first. So, Experience…
Homecoming
Night air rushed through hard-fingered trees. Branches tap-tap-tapped at Jenny's window almost as Jack used to, before the war. Melancholy, she raised the sash as she had back then, half expecting him to clamber over the sill, laughing, defying her sisters. Instead, the breeze…
Pandora's Subdivision
I asked Tommy again about the zombies in his basement. He snorted so hard I thought boogers would fly out of his short, ugly, freckled nose. "They ain't so bad," he sneered, "Mostly they just shuffle around in circles, but sometimes Ma has 'em doing laundry." He wiped at his…
I Call it Love
"How's work, Bill?" Jessa asked leaning onto the bar top. "It's work," I mumbled, slumping down into my usual stool. Every day it's the same tedious job, same stuck up boss, and same dull lunch. And every night it's the same bar, same stool, and same usual people. I stared past…
The Hospice
The banshee is wailing. There's going to be a death tonight. We never know for sure who it's going to be, but my money's on Mrs. Johnson. Over the last few days something's felt different about her. She's already elsewhere, no longer present in her crumbling body. Some of the…
A Conspiracy of Vegetables
The vegetable woman at the Saturday farmer's market is completely mad. She laughs for no reason at all, and her dirty fingernails and Brillo hair make her look like a street person; but her romaine, her leeks and peas, are the largest and sweetest in the entire market. So we buy…
Hellhound, Free to Good Home
She's not afraid of him--he can smell it on her, the lack of fear. He's bigger than a regular dog, his fur matted in places, his eyes too bright and teeth too sharp. He is, in a word, a huge ugly dog. But she doesn't care. He is used to being feared: people scream when he comes…
Housewarming
"You snagged this place for 250k? In the city?" Selma runs her index finger along my sleek granite countertops, then practically fondles the pullout sprayer in my farmhouse sink. "It's got everything!" "You're gonna die when you see my walk-in closet." I swallow the smug smile…
Yours, Not Mine
Demons have been coming to our home for some time now. At first it was terrifying, but now it's just a nuisance--like squat and scarified Jehovah's Witnesses. Charles was pretty rattled by it. He demanded an explanation and having no one else to turn to, directed this demand at…
The Matchmaker
Ben sat at the bar, eyes drifting drunkenly across couples sitting at darkened booths. Odds flicked through his head, some more rapidly than others, and numbers practically overlaid the couples he watched. He took another sip of bourbon, hoping to burn them away. The bartender…
The Cubicle Witch
The cubicle witch lives on the thirteenth floor of my office building deep within the accounting section. I think she may have been an accountant once, but those days are long behind her. Her 10x10 gray-carpeted workspace is filled with owl beaks, bat ears, dodo eggs, and…
The Cubicle Witch
The cubicle witch lives on the thirteenth floor of my office building deep within the accounting section. I think she may have been an accountant once, but those days are long behind her. Her 10x10 gray-carpeted workspace is filled with owl beaks, bat ears, dodo eggs, and…
Gallery
I bring back photos of my dreams--a crumbling well, a four-winged bird, a city made of glass. I find them in my phone the next morning. It's always been this way. You were the only person I told. I remember that Sunday afternoon, when you scrolled through your pictures and…
Unconventional Advice for the Discerning Reader
Dear Ena, I've just learned that my father has been embezzling money from our business for the past three years. I found out when my own paycheck bounced, and now I can't pay my rent. The business is in the hole almost $20,000. Any ideas on how I can make a quick buck? And how…
The Kindness of Bones
My parents adopted the skeleton when I was ten. It was normal to have a skeleton by then, resurrected from an animal, or a combo, that were dead for at least fifteen years. Don't even try to resurrect something that still had skin. That's why the guy who invented the process was…
Where There is Treasure
Felix bumps into me and I drop my rock. An embarrassing sound caws from my stupid throat. Over a rock. But I can't help it. I need my rock. Mom calls it a worry stone. I have a bunch of them--different worries, different shapes. Different colors. The one Felix knocked from my…
Care and Feeding
"Most people can't even see this place." The alley librarian leaned against a five-foot-high stack of wooden pallets like a makeshift counter. He wore a lumpy no-color knit cap pulled low on his forehead, and he had the sallow skin of a meth addict and bloodshot eyes the color…
Clasp Hands
The smallest witch hung over the banister, her whole body forming an arc of yearning, as the first of her mother's friends arrived for their annual feast. "Bella!" It was Aunt Calliope, bursting into the house in a cloud of snow, wrapped up in a six-foot scarf. She was already…
Water Lilies
Prints made Monet's work look flat. Inside the museum, the thick paint shimmered with roundness and ripples. Inside the painting, I was drowning. I floundered, spluttering, but I couldn't find the picture frame, let alone the dry museum floor. A single-span bridge of greenish…
The Folds of War
Hasagawa pressed the paper against the table with a delicate precision, creating a clean diagonal fold. The square of paper seemed to morph in front of him as he carefully turned, folded and crimped it between his dexterous fingers. Beside him his grandson, Taro, gazed on with…
Surprise Me
Yan patted down the coffee and slotted it into the machine. He put his hand on the emotional filter plate and tried to think gentle thoughts through the hiss of steam. The customer had asked for soothing, normally one of Yan's specialties, but it was hard to keep calm with the…
Rob Lithim Used to Be Two People
***Editor's Note: Adult language and adult story*** He stood momentarily lost in the heavy beat of the club, lights and bass line pulsing together. On stage longhaired boys screamed and writhed and clutched their guitars, while a mass of bodies bounced before them. Nearer Rob,…
Spellsketching
I figured the new boy would have trouble making friends. He sat alone on a swing, holding his open sketchbook and chewing on a yellow pencil. Around him, other children played tag, climbed on the jungle gym, or scrambled aboard the school's pride--an elaborate wooden fort with…
Totality
My first total eclipse, Munich International Airport. A fortunate layover on a hectic business trip to Europe. The moon has already carved an enormous black bite from the disc of the sun, leaving a thin, white crescent that slowly shrinks as I watch. Just before the crescent…
Unicorns, and Other Birthday Hazards
Greta sat cross-legged on the attic floor, the pink balloon tugging upward at her wrist as she stared slit-eyed at the age-grayed wooden door. Per the regulations, it was barred from the outside by a beam no less than three inches thick, held in place with a shiny gray…
The Witch's Cat
We knew the witch was dead when her cat showed up on our doorstep. Mom found him sitting patiently beside the morning's milk delivery, like he was waiting for his share of the cream. She only called to Dad, but the tone of her voice got us both up from the breakfast table until…
Apology Accepted
"I'm so sorry." As the words slipped from Jane's mouth, another blue Line of Apology on her arm disappeared in a searing--but brief--slice of pain. She only had ten Apology Lines left. Most people her age had blue streaks marking their arms all the way to shoulder. As the pain…
Breaking Orbit
The platform beneath my shoes vibrates with the approach of a train, though none is scheduled for the next three minutes. Curious, I lean forward to look down the track; the other occupants of the platform are too absorbed in their cell phones to notice. A cold breeze stirs the…
Breaking Orbit
The platform beneath my shoes vibrates with the approach of a train, though none is scheduled for the next three minutes. Curious, I lean forward to look down the track; the other occupants of the platform are too absorbed in their cell phones to notice. A cold breeze stirs the…
Memories like Bread, Words like Little White Stones
The first time you got lost, I thought you were just light-headed with the heat. We laughed it off as I drove you home. When you forgot our neighbor's name, I just shrugged. Wasn't it hard for a man your age to keep track of the names of everyone he knew? When you forgot our…
Melancholia in Bloom
Every family has a secret magic tucked away in a dusty attic or hidden between the words of a handed-down story. This box is ours. It doesn't look like much, but it's been in our family for a long time. After my mother's death, I found it in her attic with a notebook inside. Now…
City of Chrysanthemum
Bobby is the first off the school bus. He always sits in the front seat on the right; first, because the driver can offer some protection, and second, because he can get out quickly. He does not look behind him. He can feel their gazes. It's still fifteen minutes until homeroom,…
Jumping Into The Sky
Simon regarded the present his Gran had sent him for his fifteenth birthday. The little jar was filled with a sticky-looking grayish paste. He twisted the lid hard to get it off, and took a tentative sniff. The stuff smelled of old-person, although running underneath that was…
Ghosts in the Walls
***Editor's Note: Mature themes lie within these walls*** The baby in the north-side wall of Laura's apartment never cries during the earthquakes. Other times it will scream and wail loud enough to keep her up at night, even with a pillow over her ears--but when the shaking…
Chasing Unicorns
***Editor's Warning: Not for the faint of heart*** The unicorn hunters looked like addicts. Like Shay's brother Eddie and Eddie's friends. Not the way Eddie and his friends looked when they were high, but sketchy and haggard, the way they looked when Eddie's hook-up fell through…
The Sandman's Dreams
When the Sandman returns, Susan knows it. On Tuesday night, after she puts Liam to bed and slips under the duvet beside Neil (already snoring, bless him), she dreams of a swan. The bird's feathers are silver-bright, and it glides down a current of crystal-clear water, and in the…
Rubies and Tangled Webs
Anthony Nance glares at me like my hair is on fire and I've got worms coming out of my ears. I toss him a smug grin, then stir my finger around the stale ice cube melting in my glass of Bombay Sapphire and Diet Orange Shasta. "That's an abomination," he says. I suck my finger…
Spirit Gum
Before he was The Great Bellini he was just plain old Malcolm Bell. He had a knack for magic tricks--illusions, he called them--and what had been a hobby became a profession. He met Patricia when he selected her from the audience to assist with a trick, married her within a…
Tiny Lives
I twist the tiny cog into place, my old-too-soon fingers gnarled, golden brown, and cracked, but true. Complete, I turn the miniature dog over in my hands, the brass and copper of its construction shining in the late afternoon sun. I lift it to my lips, breathe softly into its…
This Is Your Problem, Right Here
"This is your problem, right here." The plumber's deep voice resounded from beneath the maintenance hatch by the main pool at Cascade Reef waterpark. "You've only got one troll left. For a pool this big, you need fifty minimum, seventy-five if you want everything to run…
Just Today
***Editor's Note: One incident of mature language in the following tale*** My best friend, Ben, is dead. We still hang. Not too many other people can see or hear him--just little kids and animals, and an occasional weirdo, so Ben is kind of stuck with me, which works for me. We…
My Mother's Shadow
My hand is in the firm clutch of my mother's, my steps timid alongside her sure stride. I am almost as tall as her shoulders. "Caroline, keep your head up," my mother reminds me. A fat man in front of a deli spits toward us to show his contempt. After we have passed him, I feel…
Scraps
Kelly signs for possession of the fireproof box and wonders what her mother had felt the need to protect. No jewelry, that all would have been hocked years ago--cigarette money. Back when they still talked, Kelly always told her mom the cigarettes would kill her. She hadn't…
The Power of the Cocoon
The living room had the usual appearance of Christmas aftermath, as though a herd of many-trunked elephants had rushed through, grabbed anything wrapped in paper, ripped the paper off, tossed it on the floor, then stomped on it. The multi-colored twinkly lights on the Christmas…
Suburban Pixies
***Editor's Warning: Mature language and situations in the story that follows*** "Look sideways to see 'em, Ben. You can't catch 'em straight on. Like this," India lowered her head, eyes drifting groundward. And they were there--Ben could see them finally, like a Magic-Eye…
The Midnight Knock Again
This is what everybody knows about the Midnight Knock: It doesn't always come at midnight. We call it the Midnight Knock out of tradition. Or laziness, which amounts to the same thing. Happy people never hear it. And oh, how happy people love to point this out. Especially in…
The Magician of Words
Public Alley 434 hides secrets. Boxes full of former lives guard the entrance, cloaking magic in the mundane. It is here the Magician of Words plies his trade, hidden between the back walls of the old brownstones, behind the facades of things that are what they seem to be. You…
Fantasies
Her eleventh birthday came and went, with no sign of a Hogwarts letter. But that was okay. Hogwarts was in the UK, so why would they send her a letter? There must be another magical school in America, and they probably took older students. So she waited. And waited. Her twelfth…
The Call
I sat on the green bench watching the kids at the playground. Not mine. Never mine. But my niece and my two nephews ran up slides and jumped down stairs and raced across bridges and climbed up the outside of equipment that had surely never been meant for that. "I don't know how…
Dancing in the Dark
I have three uncles, but one of them is dead. He's the funny one. The afternoon that Mom and Dad didn't come home, Uncle Rom was the one who took care of all the details. He stood as solid as an oak in the kitchen of our house, making phone calls all through the evening. There…
A Special Day
I looked up from my bio notes to see some blonde girl grinning at me. "Yo, Moria!" she said. "Fancy meeting you here." She had long, straight hair and just the right amount of blue eye shadow. A ski pass dangled off the zipper of her winter coat. I pegged her as a snow bunny who…
Offering Solace
She sits in a dusty corner of the glass and chrome spaceport, offering solace to everyone. Beings of all shapes and sizes bustle past. Most are tired, lonely. All have need of what she offers. She holds solace in a delicate porcelain bowl, fine and fragile between her palms. The…
Painted Haven
***Editor's Note: Adult Language appears in this story. You've been warned.*** Alyssa held out her hand and watched the sunlight leak through her fingers. Not ordinary sunlight; certainly not like anything she had ever gleaned from a Physics textbook. It looked like faintly…
Genie Electric
I unscrewed the bulb from the lamp. It rattled. "It's dead." "What's dead?" my daughter asked. I held the base between my thumb and forefinger, lightly shaking it to let her hear the tiny, metallic sound within. The glass was singed and clouded, obscuring the shriveled object…
Gifted and Talented
Charlie picked up a pencil and drew a tree. The tree spread wide over a desert and Charlie sensed that animals off the edge of the page craved that shade. So he made them. Not just sketched their shapes but created them. He reached down to that part of him that tweaked each time…
Ten Seconds
Max had the worst malady any middle school kid could have: he was different. Not different in a visible way; teachers at least tried to quash that kind of teasing. They were less proactive about protecting students that could see into the future, even a mere ten seconds. Ten…
The Bicycle Rebellion
It started with a sudden surge of emergency-room visits: broken collarbones, severe abrasions to faces, knees, and elbows. Media attention became acute when the Prime Minister of Australia, a man both fit and environmentally aware, was flung to the bike path after his pants cuff…
Dark Swans
For Halloween, Josefa's mother puts her in a pair of wings and the same white dress she wore to her First Communion ceremony, two years earlier. Sadly, it still fits. She has hardly grown. Taller, a little (not even a full inch), but she's lost seventeen pounds. She's a bird on…
Totemkill
Grant drove. Mel had the back seat and Hart took shotgun. Mel snorted. "Sign looks like a coat-of-arms." "What's that?" Grant asked. "That road sign. Stag Rampant, Sable on Or." Grant had a smile in his voice, if rebuke in his words. "I'm pretty sure that means deer crossing."…
Values, Vision and Mission
Across the tracks from the train platform, a dog barked into a cell phone lying on the sidewalk, a small brown dog that might have had some Cocker Spaniel in its lineage, but was otherwise undistinguished. My briefcase hung heavily, and I was afraid to shift it to the other…
This Life
Hope grabbed at the railing as the surge of people pushed her off-balance. She hung on as she made her way down the rain-slick subway stairs, exhaling with relief at the bottom. The crowd carried her into the station, where she stuck her token in the turnstile and headed toward…
Written Out
He twitches when she sets the tip of her pen against his naked flesh, almost as if he knows what she's about to do to him. But of course that's impossible. She has never told anyone about this. About how she looks at a person, looks at him, and all she can see are words. Right…
Words on a Page
He flinches at the touch of sharp, cool metal against his shoulder. Only once and then he stills, holding himself motionless for her. She begins slowly, dragging the nib over his skin, leaving tracks that chill him as the ink dries. He shuts his eyes and focuses on the movement…
Iron Oxide Red
I was working on a still-life when I discovered the paint in my veins. I had gotten down the pale wood background of the butcher-block, the slick sheen of spilled juice, two half-spheres of a bisected orange, and the folded husks of its spent sisters. The suggestion of a white…
The Cloud Dragon Ate Red Balloons
The cloud dragon ate red balloons and was angry. That a beast of his stature should have to rend paltry rubber when soccer fields everywhere rolled with earnest boys... the dragon itself roiled in anguish. His very substance was forever buoyed above the morsel heads he craved,…
Swallowing Ghosts
Grandma always said, "Don't yawn with your mouth open, a ghost will fly in." I didn't believe her until it happened. I yawned. Something rushed through the air, stuffed itself between my jaws, like slimy pop rocks in my mouth. I yelped. I stuck my fingers in my mouth. Like…
The Uncharted Isle
As I was sailing the Wine-Faced Sea, I found myself passing an island which appeared on no charts. I asked a woman who sat on the beach where I was. "This is the Isle of the Ones that Got Away," she told me. "Whenever anyone thinks of an old flame, and wonders what that old…
The Junk Artist
There were two sea stars in the rubbish that morning. They lay on the ground alongside an opened tin of pickled gherkins, two paperback books with the covers torn off, a bunched-up newspaper with last week's headlines, an empty box of tampons, and a chair missing two of its…
Variety
Natasha needed new things to grow on, like the fertilizer she spread in her garden. She and Curtis had an old place in a hip and trendy neighborhood, being hip and trendy themselves; Curtis needed a big house for his studio and to accommodate his band. Natasha thought of herself…
Outside the Box
I work for God, but the cheap bastard won't even spring for a subway pass. You're right--I should have just dodged the fare. Unlike everything else in Los Angeles, the subway still operates on the honor system. I could have breezed down to the platform and been on my way, no…
Memory Boxes
Sara sat on the floor, surrounded by boxes of shiny-grained wood, one ear attuned, as always, to Darrell's breathing, holding her own breath each time his stuttered--waiting, waiting for his next breath so she, too could breathe again. He lay on the bed, curled into a near-fetal…
Losses: A Game
The game of Losses is played by yourself. Nearly every town has a court. If the sky is clear, you can probably find one just by looking up, where they often hang suspended from slow moving gaming satellites in our stratosphere. Or, if it is overcast, you might only need to look…