Elle saw out the window a balloon floating past and up. It was shiny blue, with some characters that she couldn’t make out. Three floors below, on the sidewalk, a small girl in a loose hospital gown watched it get… Continue Reading
78 days ago. That morning, I had burned my tongue on my coffee which already had too much cream in it. I remember this because the pain was something that I could focus on. Something besides his leaving. Usually, when… Continue Reading
The feathered serpent faltered as it dropped below the smog line. Thousands of vehicles covered its former hunting grounds, covering the land in metal rivers and choking clouds. As it passed over the plateau’s heart, its iridescent scales faded to… Continue Reading
I straightened from the telescope and looked at the night sky with naked eyes. A silver blaze streaked across the firmament as the Perseids meteor shower played out above me. Twenty years, I’d never missed it. Some years I’d had… Continue Reading
The crunchy lettuce in her sandwich resounds in her head as she chews, so it’s not until she swallows that Maggie hears the song threading its way through the fug of damp clothes and coffee steam. The melancholic voice conjures… Continue Reading
The imperial mage let himself into the menagerie long after closing. Merdesac hurried to the bear enclosure and called through the wrought iron fence, “Prince Adrian. It’s time.” A large brown bear trundled over to him. Behind the mage, a… Continue Reading
He always calls me on my birthday. My brother. Even though he’s been dead ten years. I wait, every year, not knowing what time of day he might call, or from what number. It’s always a different number. I imagine… Continue Reading
We’ve been scattered by the wind to all the corners, we four. Time has made us half-strangers, and we all feel it, looking at each other, seeing where the new lines have formed, the touches of grey, the softening around… Continue Reading
“Mommy’s not gonna leave him, is she?” “No,” I said. Lina frowned, shifting the perfect geometry of her face. Mark wasn’t even our stepfather. One word described what he was. He was acrid. Lina’s sharp. You don’t notice at first; she… Continue Reading
Trey looked out the windshield and saw a deserted boat ramp. He was confused as to why his mother had driven them here instead of to swim class. Trey wouldn’t have minded really, Violet was the one who loved to… Continue Reading