The forest wrapped itself around me, the trees reaching up to almost touch each other in the canopy. Light filtered down in patches, speckling all around me in shimmering warmth. There was the odd waft of cut pine, a spider… Continue Reading
Alice May greeted her friends on the porch of Castle Rock, a sprawling Virginia estate. Zoe, the taller of the two, held a pizza box, and Anna clutched a paper bag that clinked when the girls unloaded onto the kitchen… Continue Reading
At the Health and Human Services office, we stand in a long, narrow hallway waiting for our chance to make our cases, get our food stamps straightened out or turn in paperwork to keep them. We are strangers, but the… Continue Reading
My body is decomposing. It starts to peel away like an onion losing its skin, only to reveal a shriveled core beneath. I must not let him witness this transformation. Since I assumed the role of Madame Wang, I have… Continue Reading
Courtney swore she heard the hiss of ten thousand shrubs and grasses stung by the electric shock shooting through the mycelial network connecting them. She looked up at Professor Schechter, who calmly tapped on her tablet. “We’ll take another sample… Continue Reading
I didn’t plan on wanting to be kissed. It was simple. Twenty-four contestants wear MAK brand Belladonna’s Bliss, a bright red number that was perfectly safe on application, but lethal on the transfer. The contestants go on dates and complete… Continue Reading
The water’s cloudy. The countless blue tiles of the center lane markers — I did the math walking the outside of the pool last Saturday — disappear into a murky haze. Even where I stand in the shallow end. My… Continue Reading
When we opened Jamal up, the parasite was gone. An alarming discovery that left our surgical team dumbfounded. The ramifications hit us concurrently. From the limited information the military had shared, we knew it required a warm-blooded host. As we… Continue Reading
The crash had crumpled the carbon fiber frame, shredding the car’s chassis. Fire, extinguished now, had melted glass, scorched titanium intakes, and bubbled the smartpaint into a gooey ooze that still flickered in spots with colorful video images of cool… Continue Reading
“I thought she’d dozed off.” It was the excuse I’d been making all week. Tim was standing next to me, gazing at the body in the coffin. Above the fragrance of hothouse flowers rose a faint scent of mothballs, an… Continue Reading