DOLL • Richard Hulse
I decided what to do with the doll. I’d leave it on a train. Any train would do. I picked the last one that night; the one heading to Greensborough. It would be almost empty. I’d put the doll on… Continue Reading
THE ROOM ACROSS THE HALL • Bhavish
When I moved into the boarding house on Whitaker Street, I was told the room across the hall was empty. It wasn’t. Every night, I heard faint movement: drawers sliding, a chair scraping the floor, a cough. But every morning,… Continue Reading
MY ROMANCE WITH A STORK • Yishay Ishi Ron
I hadn’t been with anyone in three years. Maybe it was the smell. That persistent, sour rot in my breath that no doctor could fix. I tried mouthwash, gum, toothpaste with activated charcoal. Nothing worked. Only garlic helped. So I… Continue Reading
THE FIRE GAP • Natalia Danjon
Everything we had in the Emirates fit into seventeen cardboard boxes. I rifled through them, pulling my bra from the box marked Important Documents, while vintage Rosenthal china clinked inside Toys. On arrival at the top-rated Airbnb in Sharjah, the… Continue Reading
THAG: BURUK-TUK SOLDIER • Anthony L. Abraham
The earliest memory he could hold En-capsule was binding scraps into breathing limbs for Riggers on Skaars Round near Mars. First folds and remnants of the past were more akin to jilted frames in dark hallways far too close. When… Continue Reading
TRAUMA MOMMA • Jack Powers
As an ER nurse, I’ve delivered a few emergency births, but never a male birth and never on the Lunar Shuttle. And never eight-months pregnant myself. But when the new chef — Ricky Valdez — went into labor, a quick… Continue Reading
AND YE SHALL BE AS GODS • K.C. Thomas
Hannah takes a moment to steel herself before opening the door to her office. Evelyn looks up at the noise, smiling. Her face is calm and pleasant, but Hannah never feels quite at ease when the A.I. looks at her.… Continue Reading
SHOPLIFTING FROM NORDSTROM RACK • Kathryn Ward
Poor Cynthia, she didn’t know a thing. She was mad because she spilled her pink coffee all on her shoes, which is why we were at Nordstrom Rack in the first place. Balboa bought her new ones. He was a… Continue Reading
MUDDY MOUND • Reece Howarth
Staring to his right, an endless line of terror-stricken faces gazed up at the cold, muddy mound they’d soon be scaling. Turning to his left was more of the same. The wind had finally subsided, but only to be replaced… Continue Reading
JELLYFISH • Matt Ivy Richardson
We watch the jellyfish, side by side, our shoulders pressed together. We do not speak. We do not move. The jellyfish bob up and down in their tiny tank, so many of them squished together in such a small space.… Continue Reading