Category: issue 11

Content warning: disordered eating “No offense Iz, but that man would eat you alive.” Shaina’s eyes danced as the new designer disappeared into a frosted conference room. “Why? Because I’m fat and he’s beautiful?” Izzy toyed with the expensive gold bracelet she’d bought recently on the advice of her therapist; a reward for a body… Continue reading The Dinner Party, by Rosamund Lannin

Evie steered her car from the paved road onto the rutted service path that snaked into the heart of the old forest. From the backseat, her offering of a platter of deviled eggs emitted a faintly sulfuric scent.

Princess Carmin could taste the beer in the air. It cascaded off the balustrades from the floor above, into copper troughs that formed artificial rivers and fed gilded gutters that passed between tables filled with half-drunk nobles. A few feet from her table, the gutters fed into a well, flowing further down to the second… Continue reading The Alchemical Miracle of Shamra’s Endless Beer, by Akis Linardos

The silence in the room was unbearable. War Council members looked to one another in agonized expectation. The enemy had launched its missile. No one knew when it would hit, where it would land. Whom it would affect. When it happened, there was hardly any time to acknowledge it before the consequences took effect. General… Continue reading RAW EMIT, by Anthony Regolino

The scalpel made a clean, quick cut, dashing a bloody arc across the tiled floor. Its victim clutched at her throat, choking, spinning a half circle before collapsing, gurgling bloody bubbles. The killer smiled gloomily, raising the scalpel to his mouth to touch the tip with his tongue. “Never thought you’d have this pay—I mean… Continue reading Behind the Scenes, by Anya Ow

The autopsy report confirmed Josh had died in his room on Christmas, all alone, of natural causes, and never having left his last breath. No, he held that one. A little too long. And, in the end, he decided to hide it for someone special in a place where it’d keep glowing, even in his… Continue reading Through the Merry-Go-Round, by Abhishek Sengupta

Annabelle’s heart was a hard nut to crack. He should have known it the moment she stepped into his study and remarked not on the human hearts lining his shelves, but the antique jars he displayed them in.

Grandma warned Jambu about Tavila’s thieves and cutpurses, but didn’t mention its bazaars. By the strange alchemy of roads that all markets wield as weapon, the bazaar had dragged him right to where his heart would beat the fastest. Everywhere he looked, the stalls were loaded with mountains upon mountains of yarn. Must hurry, he… Continue reading The Weaver of Uswalpur, by Abhijeet Sathe

Sure, my heavy metal band, the Desperados, needed the gig, but our 2024 booking agent should have clued us in on how much our cellphones resembled 2483 ID devices. The moment we emerged from the portal, a robot snatched the mobile from my pocket and examined the notification screen. She extended an appendage and tattooed… Continue reading Scam Likely and the Future Desperados, by Allan Dyen-Shapiro

Content warning: racism Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule, 1913 When Takeda opened his tent in the morning, the mountain ridges on this tropical island were covered in snow. The pure whiteness had painted the trails, and the strong wind was whispering to his ears like a woman’s haunting lament. This was the colony in the… Continue reading In the Colonial Mountains, by Lillian Tsay