Sadie sat down on the edge of her bed. Not the dogwood. Its petals already bore the bloodstain of death. Mostly, the thick oaks and redwoods found themselves defined by evil.
Read MoreDogwood Stories
The land around the shore had started splitting. Soon, Sawan’s home would split too. She had nowhere to go.
Read MoreI Call Upon the Night as Witness
If Hank were sluggish, or in need of a major repair; if we regularly missed deadlines, or broke down while underway, I might understand. There are dozens of things that can put a train out of commission for good, and I’ve been afraid of many of them in the years since I was given the chance to be Hank’s conductor. I just never thought corporate indifference would be one of them.
Read MoreHank in the South Dakota Sun
It occurred to Tanager I that the humans were not dead, by their hopeful definition, but rather in stasis.
Read MoreWhose Mortal Taste
Jennifer held Rance’s hand until he had to leave for the stage. He met with Susan Hickens, a girl a year below them, and they swapped faces. When Rance came back to Jennifer, he was taller. Susan held her face in her hands as she was embraced by her family. For just a moment, Jennifer saw her look back at her, the black holes of her eyes an implacable enigma. She was always known to be shy.
Read MoreIn Haskins
Cassie pulls her hood low over her forehead, keeps her eyes on the ground ahead of her. She wears face paint meant to fool facial recognition algorithms, though the cops think she’s dead. Her friends are. She should be.
Read MoreThis Shattered Vessel, Which Holds Only Grief
The lady possessed all her fingers. Even the useless fifths wiggled in obscure movements as she stroked the vines drooping from the terrariums and grazing the aquariums below. With curiosity bordering on the obscene, Keba sank the viper’s coils that made up his neck that he might gander at the lady’s feet, but they were tucked away neatly inside laced boots. If she’d traded a toe away, it had not been for something larger.
Read MoreTo Seek Himself Again
We were gonna be stars. That’s what you got to understand. Big fucking stars. Like Jack and Rose or Mr. and Mrs. Carter, like our faces on every screen, dominating every media feed. Everyone already loved us, wanted to be us, wanted to fuck us.
Read MoreA Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy
Images pried their way into fuzzy thoughts. Red flesh coated with a rime of frost. Screaming, toothless faces. Vahla shook the thoughts free and continued forward in his newborn deer stride. It wasn’t a skin-thieving alien horror. It was just rats. He repeated this litany to himself over and over as he picked up speed, finally breaking into a mad run as he rounded the corner into the hallway leading to his bunk. The last thing the lawman expected was for a person to be standing dead in his path.
Read MoreAn Incident at Hellpoint Prime