When Ella Marie first woke up one morning with a rechargeable desk fan for a head, she found it infuriating that nobody noticed the change. Her husband’s calm, breakfast-in-mouth greeting of “You look lovely as always, dear,” made her want… Continue Reading
The Transylvania Express rocked and rattled through the Romanian darkness. Despite the name, it was a slow train running on Soviet-era rails. Anastasia, a twenty-five-year-old hospice nurse, was returning to her compartment at midnight when she bumped into her great-great-grandfather.… Continue Reading
How do you kill a vampire? It was a question Grigore Nicolau first asked when he was 4 years old. He was hardly unique. Many of the boys he knew growing up in his hometown wondered the same. There was… Continue Reading
We left on a Thursday. I remember because I didn’t want to miss Law and Order. Before we left, we watched that show together a lot, mostly on the couch, falling asleep while bodies turned up in alleyways and Ice-T… Continue Reading
“Mages and mercenaries, gamblers and guild masters, welcome to the 83rd mayoral debate of this fine city of Aleshire!” The well-dressed and portly announcer’s voice magically reverberated to the edges of the crowd. Arms raised, the three-foot tall man stood… Continue Reading
“Fouro.” “Yes, Master.” “There’s something we need to talk about.” “I’m listening, Master.” “I don’t know about you, but I feel like things haven’t been working for a while now — with us. Maybe you’ve noticed it too, but—” “I… Continue Reading
Time to get going! My mother was calling from the kitchen. I turned over in bed and watched her stride into my room in her brisk way and pull the curtains open. The morning sun poured in. We have places… Continue Reading
I used to visit Aunty Sash on Saturdays. My mother was glad to have a ten-year-old out of the house for the day. I enjoyed it because Aunt Sash fed me on cake and Corona which was a kind of… Continue Reading
The sun shone bright in the small southern California town’s blue sky. The fall wine festival was in full swing. A local band plucked their guitar strings and happy couples strolled by, holding wine glasses. Families walked together, enjoying their… Continue Reading
There have always been questions. Questions they refuse to answer. All we know is that they are called the elders, and we do as they say. They tell me life in our village was hard. That the jungle took more… Continue Reading