Joe Evans, age seventy-eight, rests in his genuine Naugahyde recliner. His eyes are closed, and the creased footrest extends. He appears to be comfortable. Kneeling by his side, his teen granddaughter drizzles cool water onto the green vines trailing up…
The radio barely finished announcing the tornado warnings when the man in the ratty blazer stepped off the sidewalk – or was it more of a hop, just a bit too gleeful? – in front of Carl’s pickup. Carl slammed…
That’s not your reflection. It can’t be. She looks like you, there in the bathroom mirror. Only ever in the bathroom mirror. A perfect simulacrum. Golden curls, a dark cloud hovering around the eye, even the bandages around her wrist…
[Transmission begins 07:34GMT; Professor Robert Cushnel, PhD. speaking:] Hey, Cap’n Bob here, inside the ExoDeep 21, bringing you our latest live stream from the S. S. Amphitrite expedition as we explore the mysteries of Ato Oti, or “the dead atoll”…
Tina’s ears were still ringing when Ashley introduced her to Jesse after the Pearl Jam concert. He looked way older than the both of them, but then again, they were only fifteen. Anyone with a driver’s license was way older.…
“Yellow slow, green go, stop on red, And watch out for the lady with the backwards head. Stay in your lane or you’ll be dead If you see the lady with the backwards head!” — Children’s Playground Rhyme, 20th c.…
For centuries, ghostly howls emanated from the old castle on Fir Street. Roughhewn brown stone formed its walls and a circular stained-glass mural dominated the front like the face of a cathedral. A mighty tower jutted above the sidewalk. From…
Butter-soft skin sloughed beneath the pressing knife’s edge, its shining blade keen as starlight. Lyceae sliced with practiced movements, every stroke precisely measured, right down to the wrist flick that separated meat from hide. “Lovely, lovely, lovely,” she purred, lapping…
I wake up to the feeling of something tugging on my hand, which is dangling off the bed. That might normally be the start of a crummy spook story, but I assure you this is no crummy spook story and…
Forum becomes forest under fingertips. Here is where the girls walk through underbrush and cyberspace, where they go to debate and upend the rules of nature: the eating and the being eaten. There are tunnels to fall down, if you…
