There’s an armless maiden in the woods beyond the house.
She doesn’t wail or weep the way you’d think a ghost or a grieving girl would. Her footsteps are heavy—sometimes she loses her balance—but that’s the only way to hear her coming.
Genevieve Valentine
Genevieve Valentine’s first novel, Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, won the 2012 IAFA Crawford Award. Her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Journal of Mythic Arts, Fantasy Magazine, and Lightspeed, and the anthologies Federations, After, The Living Dead 2, Running with the Pack, Teeth, and more.
Wondrous Days
“We should make a map,” she says. “Just to keep track of things.”
I keep my mouth shut, try not to look at her.