There was a second sun once, a pale sister who mused quietly over the earth when her older sister sank into her bed. You see the evening star there? It’s about the only one you can see anymore, unless you drive for miles and hike deep into the wilderness that…
I used to open the fortune cookies at Chinese restaurants just like everyone else. You know, you read the fortune, if it even is a fortune anymore and not just some pithy bit of half-wisdom. “You will succeed in business,” you know, that’s how fortunes used to read, and you…
You are alive. You are no longer young, but you are not yet old. You are at the height of your physical power; your mind is sharp, and the flightiness of adolescence has faded. You are working, you are rising, you are investing. Your spouse is beautiful. You love her…
This story was written from a prompt from my daughter Serenity. She drew a picture of Princess Piggob, the half-pig half-goblin princess of Dill Pickleville and asked people to write a story about her. Here’s mine. His name was Galumf, and he was a hunter. He hunted any kind of…
Below, light shimmered and flashed between a thousand panes of glass, coming from nowhere and reflecting from everywhere. Alicia squinted, turning her face upward to the boundless dark that enveloped the space, as if the corridors of brilliance hung suspended in the void. Which, to be honest, they probably did….
Paran walked along the long, dusty road beneath a brutal sun. There was singing in the fields nearby. Men and women were gathering in the wheat, their voices strong beneath the cloudless sky. He knew the songs. His lips twitched to the words one could not quite decipher at this…
It was not much warmer in the hole he had dug for himself than it was outside it, but he eventually managed to control his convulsions. His teeth still chattered if he didn’t force them shut. He was as small as he could make himself, and he was starting to…
“Are you comfortable?” “Yes,” Albert said. “The nurses explained the procedure to your satisfaction? Any questions?” “No, I don’t think so.” “All right. I’m going to lean you back now. If you ever want me to stop, just tell me. You’re in control here.” “This is my first time” Albert…
The princess in the tower was beautiful, which was one of the reasons men made the arduous journey across the sun-scorched ruins to the monolithic stone that entombed her. Those that survived the trials, which were numerous and cunning, arrived in her suite, a colorful and well-furnished space that nevertheless…
It should go without saying that death, in its current form, is undesirable to the human condition in as far as its presence arouses questions of a spiritual nature that are no longer useful to civilization. As we move away from our pagan past and embrace the scientific reality that…
I’d been a month at my new job in the city, and I was done. I wanted to go home. So as soon as I clocked out Friday, I threw some clothes in a bag and started driving. It was a five-hour drive, a bit less if you took the…
Josh double-checked the laces on his shiny new shoes, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and headed out into the night. Mr. Benton was waiting in his beat-up truck at the curb. The old man gave a terse greeting, waited for Josh to buckle up, and started out into the…