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Folding rose petals goes like this: one, two, inside, outside, twist. On this side is the world Beatrice knows--houses spaced at cozy intervals, eggs that fry into blobby shapes, water that is made from those two common elements (hydrogen and oxygen). On this side, there is walking to work on sidewalks with makers’ markings stamped… Continue reading One, Two, Inside, Outside, Twist by Beth Goder

“The rain isn’t working.” Kamal sighed. He traced the dive a hefty droplet as it swelled from a wispy microcloud high above and landed with a loud splash onto the yellow-tipped leaves of a tea bush. Moments later, a second oversized drop fell—missing the bushes entirely—snuffing out the cloud and leaving behind only the unblemished… Continue reading A Concerning Lack of Rain in Ambawatte Estate by Moh Afdhaal

“If you’re Amber Barrow, you’re too early,” she told me. She opened the wrought iron gate just enough so that the bars framed us. “My last flight had a tailwind,” I said, but my heart sank. I’d flown across the country, gambled hard-won grant money on this trip, and she looked like a bad joke.… Continue reading Waking the Dead Zoo by Lane Robins

Aunt Jackie had warned me to be careful with Trey, the highest ranked male alpaca in her flock. His magical wool is so soft, we tolerate his posturing bullshit. I took the necessary precautions, sending a well worn shirt a week before I would arrive to familiarize the flock with my scent. Two of the… Continue reading That Summer at Aunt Jackie’s Alpaca Farm by Wen Wen Yang

Debut day isn’t easy for anyone, even a god. Newly minted, coin-bright, the god called Hark waits backstage. He’s about to go out to perform his first miracle, and he can hear his fans murmuring in front of the altar. They don’t know they’re the lucky ones that’ll get a visitation to enliven the community… Continue reading Fame Cycles of Pop-Gods by Cressida Roe

There exist places where the walls between worlds grow thin. Places like this one, where two villages press together like lips on opposite sides of a glass: Renna-tal and Renna-ba, both perched on the edge of the lake called Mirror. Built in the same precise spot, but a world apart, the villages are fraternal twins.… Continue reading Duet of Tears and Laughter by Jo Miles

Long after the final attack on the Automatous Abbey, long after the enemy, repugnant and resplendent in their flesh and blood, had fired their array of weapons at the undefended structure, long after the Abbess had sounded the klaxons and evacuation alerts, and long after the remaining wreckage had lost the use of its engines and had begun tumbling through the cloudy tendrils of the nebula, bot CL-451, also known as Seal, kept cleaning the floors of the Abbey as it always had.

Ganz didn’t realize he’d died until he found himself looking down at his own body lit by the early morning light which streamed through his bedroom window. Their bedroom window. As he hovered up by the ceiling where he’d found himself suddenly returned to consciousness, the bed below seemed impossibly far away, and he immediately… Continue reading All the Things He Loved Beyond Him by Scott Edelman

ragg cleared one nostril, then the other, straightened his back with a satisfying clack, and shoveled another load of books, bullets, toys, and a wedding ring or two into the empty heart of existence. The objects glittered briefly in the blackness like stray ashes and were gone,. He grabbed the push-broom with knotty hands and began to sweep in the remnants that had escaped the shovel: mateless socks, family photos, trading cards, pencil nubs, a damp pile of Pogs--dancing for a second like dandelion seeds before winking out in the void.

I was walking my dog when I saw my wife for the first time, dancing on the grass in the park like it was an ancient meadow. There was no music—just the clink of her dangling moon earrings as she spun. I think I fell in love with her then, when all I knew of her was wild rhythm and the way she turned her face up to the sun.