Stories Archive - Page 3 of 27

Latest Stories

The Blue Hour

Em Harriett

Do not go hunting in the blue hour. That is the creed Reid learned from childhood to their teenaged years, following the footsteps of their parents, treading lightly when winter falls and shuttering windows against the twilight. Blue covers the forest in all its density when the sun goes down, enough to turn snow and […]

The Guild of Lady Protectors: A Novel Excerpt

Matt Tighe

Chapter 1 It was hard to look at the view with one eye swelling shut, but Sania was used to difficulties, both small and large. It would be her last time on the balcony, soaking up the beautiful, chaotic view, and at least now she could pretend her tears were from the thumping she’d received. […]

Escape from Krow: A Novel Excerpt

Robyn Dabney

Chapter One The first person I tried to kill with a shadow was my sister. I had removed my only pair of stockings and left them to dry by the fire while I relieved myself. Remil had taken the socks, unraveled them into two useless piles of thread, and then laughed when she’d seen my […]

Hollow Whispers of the Wind, Chapter One

Florence Chien

One An island. Such is my existence within the stale breath of my house, my house against the undying neon of the Bund, and the Bund beneath the fires that scorch the sky. Mine is an island of solitude and silence. Not even the stifling August heat can begin to thaw the ice that entombs […]

Problem Is

Christopher O'Halloran

I’m in love with Melissa Lee. Problem is, so is my brother. Problem is, he got the looks. The charisma. The height. He’s older, so maybe I’ll catch up in the next couple of years, but by then, it’ll be too late. Problem is, he’ll win her hand. Problem is how that hand transforms from […]

Mary by Another Name

Ra'Niqua Lee

Muddy footprints trailed Lottie on her way back to the porch. All that morning, rain fell, and wind played rough in the trees. Only now did glimmers of sunlight spill through crosshatches of oak branches. The air was sweet with damp grass as Lottie settled onto her front steps. Thin elbows propped behind, she watched […]

The Last Summer

Crystal Castro

Gen had fourteen freckles on her nose. Nora knew this because she counted them. In fact, Nora could’ve charted a map from Gen’s hairline to her neck and identified the exact location of every landmark on the way. She knew the crooked angles of Gen’s nose, the exact curve of her lips, and the shape […]

Be The Optimal You

Irene Jiang

It feels like fate when Lucy sees the billboard flash neon against night as she stumbles out of the reunion trashed on vodka and self-loathing. Lucy has seen the name floating around the news: Optime, pronounced “opti-me”, is the pet project of some tech mogul with a biohacking obsession. She’d dismissed it as some woo-woo […]

Conscripted Flesh

C.H. Irons

The cigarette smoke feels like fire, searing holes into Cal’s brand new lungs. Lungs that are still fresh from the culture vats, that have barely tasted their first breath, and he just flooded them with nicotine. It feels good. Like he’s making the loaner his own. “Use of addictive substances is illegal in government-issued organics,” […]

Mercy Kill

Kristina Atkins

My daddy saw great horrors during the Brothers’ War. Soldiers with their heads blown off. Men crawling on their bellies, on account of their missing legs. Horses dragging dead riders across battlefields. Rows of bodies with no linen to cover them. But the war’s greatest horror, no one saw for years. I’m watching it now […]

Safe Harbor

Amy L. Bernstein

In a future where water has colonized land, a team of crack scientists race to prevent a catastrophic breach in a major sea wall beyond the B-Harbor of Baltimore—but the effort will come at a cost. Vera rotates her silent-running, fuel-cell powered skiff until she’s facing B-Harbor Sector 1. She comes to a full stop. […]

#83: Kimberly Frank Is a Skank

Sharon Inkpen

“#83: Kimberly Frank Is a Skank” by Sharon Inkpen is the winner of the Through the Looking Glass Challenge hosted by Voyage YA by Uncharted. Page 1 It’s 1989. You are thirteen-year-old Colleen Paxton. Puberty is hell. High school is hell. Your life is hell. The lunch bell just rang. You’re supposed to be in […]

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