short fiction

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ByUrsula Vernon

a white mask with the words apex magazine on it.

The Dark Birds

My mother had daughters year after year, and one by one, my father devoured us.

ByIori Kusano

You didn’t mean to do it but the rumble of the train stretched around your shoulders like an arm, spiraled deliciously down your spine. You were alone in the car and your reflection flickered in the window across the aisle. The city lights on the other side of the glass sparkled like stray glitter dusted over your face.

ByLia Swope Mitchell

a couple of mice that are inside of a piece of bread.

Mag, the Habitat and We

It starts with a bang. Those of us awake scurry for cover; those sleeping jump wide-eyed. Five peep out of shoebox nests. Only Mag remains halfway, still part-drowning in dreams.

ByMichael A. Burstein

I Remember the Future

The future was glorious once. It was filled with sleek silver spaceships, lunar colonies, and galactic empires. The horizon seemed within reach; we could almost grasp the stars if we would but try.

ByLavie Tidhar

Red Christmas

In another time and place, Shomer still has Fanya and the children. He watches his wife as she lights the Hannukah candles on the windowsill. A hush has settled over the ghetto, and the children, Avrom and Bina, watch the weak, flickering lights of the candle stubs. Shomer watches them too, how they struggle to survive, to hold this flickering flame. He knows that soon, no matter what he’d do, these lights will burn out and die.

ByKT Bryski

The Love It Bears Fair Maidens

Then—suddenly, silently—the creature steps from between two birch trees. The noble unicorn slips into our glade. Dark eyes blink; its dainty hooves don’t even bend the grass. White fur shines like spun moonlight. It’s the pony we all wanted growing up.

ByHelen Stubbs

a shelf with many jars on it next to a tree.

Uncontainable

The girl threads her arms and legs through her window, like snakes. She’s a spectacle, naked up there, and screaming every profane word she should never have heard.

ByErica L Satifka

After We Walked Away

The regret sets in when they hit Iowa.

ByTade Thompson

Shadow

I met a man with no shadow today.