There is a place in the New Forest where a festival is held. Once a year, celebrations bloom, banners unfurl, music drifts, and the scent of roasting sugar thickens the air. No one can tell you where The Gathering is… Continue Reading
Jenna didn’t believe in the product. But she believed in metrics, and GlowSkin’s launch video had already hit 1.6 million in under three hours. Her contract included a bonus if she crossed two. And anyway, disbelief didn’t pay rent. She… Continue Reading
It started with a whisper in the rear-view mirror. Not the kind you hear, exactly — more the kind that curls under your skin and waits. Dean adjusted the mirror. Empty backseat. Just trees blurring past. Just the heat. He… Continue Reading
“They say He lives in Tibet,” she told me. She was still digging in the tan, dusty ground with her hands, even though we hadn’t found another turnip in almost an hour. “Where’s that?” I asked. The shaded tree bark… Continue Reading
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
Grief is an anchor, I think. It traps you in one moment, weighing you down interminably. I think about this constantly. I am thinking of it now, when the phone rings. Mila Gurevic, it says. The number is a jumble… Continue Reading
Buckley Harrison wished his baby sister had never been born. This was on his eighth birthday. Little Bella, a mere six months at the time, had ruined his party with her constant crying and screaming, and she then threw up… Continue Reading
A blinding blood red sun marked the break of dawn as it peered over distant crags, its warmth providing relief from the crisp air as they raced onwards. John had already journeyed to the Sacred Grounds before, though the vast… Continue Reading
My wife and I select two seats at random. The underground bunker’s gray walls surround us, with spots of sloppy plaster on the ceiling. After processing, we’ve been led to a colossal room through an endless hallway with a throng… Continue Reading
After the funeral, everyone left in pairs or groups, shoes crunching over the gravel drive, voices low and careful, as if they were afraid of waking something. I stood on the porch and watched them go, accepting hugs I didn’t… Continue Reading