From Modern Mythcraft to Magical Surrealism

Advertisement

Fiction

Flash Fiction

This Blue World

by Samantha Murray

You leave while it is still dark. Your lover sleeps on his stomach, the sheet draped only to his waist. You don’t want to go. You want to slide back into bed and listen to him breathing. And for him to make you coffee later, dark and sweet. But you’ve never let anyone haunt you. And you’re not about to start now.

In September 2022 (Issue 83)

Fiction

The Weight of It All

by Jennifer Hudak

Author spotlight

Elizabeth is the first person to notice I’m inside her. “Tell me how to do it,” she whispers. It’s a shock. No one has spoken to me directly in ages. I’m nothing more than a whisper when I slip beneath her skin. I’m less than a breath. I should be undetectable, but somehow, I’m not. It might have been a relief—to be acknowledged, to be known—except that Elizabeth clings to me with her bony fingers and won’t let me go. I struggle to escape her, but no matter how hard I push, she’s got me trapped inside her body.

In September 2022 (Issue 83)

Flash Fiction

The Probability of One

by Jen Brown

Chained doulas pull a child from the womb in low-gravity orbit; a babe of the Many Mouthed Empire, unencumbered by duty. Defiant, I face the birthing altar—jaw, clamped; gaze, glassy. (I mustn’t. Look.) I dreamt of children, once. Now it’s as if Mama Caarine gazes through the newborn’s eyes; as though my brother, Zjor-Anu, thumbed […]

In September 2022 (Issue 83)

Fiction

A True and Certain Proof of the Messianic Age, With Two Lemmas

by P H Lee

Author spotlight

Once upon a time, in the dark ages before the singularity, there was a fox who, while walking its way along a riverbank, saw a great big bevy of catfish fleeing in a panic this way and that. Curious, the fox called out to the fishes, saying, “Good fishes of the stream, I see you fleeing in a panic this way and that. I do not wish to interrupt your suffering, but I am curious and as a fox I must follow my curiosity: Surely, there must be some great evil from which you are fleeing?”

In August 2022 (Issue 82)

Flash Fiction

Girlfriend Material

by M. H. Ayinde

The label said, Grow your own girlfriend! Cultivate the perfect partner! Just add water! Sam pulled the packet off the shelf.

In August 2022 (Issue 82)

Fiction

The Tails That Make You

by Eliza Chan

Author spotlight

Ninth – It is a few days before your suspicions are confirmed. Perhaps it is the baggy trousers your daughter has started to wear, or that she picks at her food. She will lie if you ask her outright, this you know. You throw her bedroom door open without warning, the damp towel clutched around her chest after the shower the only barrier between you. Her mouth hangs open, shrieking like brakes in protest.

In August 2022 (Issue 82)

Flash Fiction

Introduction to Couture 101

by Mary Soon Lee

Before we delve into the difficulties of designing doublets for dragons or flame-resistant undergarments for would-be dragonslayers, let us consider six instructive examples. Firstly, Cinderella. Set aside the matter of her ballgown. Any fairy godmother can conjure a fabulous confection of chiffon or taffeta. Focus instead on the shoes.

In August 2022 (Issue 82)

Fiction

Odd Peas in a Pod

by B.S

Author spotlight

The year was 1999. Tupac’s Brenda’s Got a Baby was the anthem in Old Creek ghetto. Yes, I wasn’t born. But the first time, in a beat-up, metal-scrunched blue taxi, on her way back home, when the song came on, Mother felt my first kick coincide with the blistering bass beat. It’s a wonder how I knew that feet were made for dancing.

In July 2022 (Issue 81)

Flash Fiction

A Star is Born

by Lindsey Godfrey Eccles

It begins with an explosion: his mother. He isn’t born yet, but he’ll be made from the bits and pieces she leaves behind. Star-stuff. She’s also left some heavier elements, extra dusts and gasses he’ll have to figure out what to do with later.

In July 2022 (Issue 81)

Fiction

The Memory of Chemistry

by Sabrina Vourvoulias

Author spotlight

We hunt for the structure of the universe in its ghosts. – Dr. Michelle Francl / In the beginning / In the beginning was the trigger warning: / Prepare for insects. Prepare for words in Latin and Spanish. Prepare for science and other species of the supernatural. Prepare for losses that rewire the chemistry of the brain. Prepare for aging and the way it flays you back to the first cell. Prepare for ghosts.

In July 2022 (Issue 81)