Fiction
Magical Girl: Corporate Failure
by Lia Lao in Issue Twenty-One, January 2026
The problem with saving the world at sixteen is that you’re doomed to chase that high for the rest of your life. You’ll fall asleep tossing and turning, dreaming of tiaras that cleave through bone, sky-high heels you can land spinning kicks in, and blood splattering across your face—thick, black, and pungent, like decay settling into your skin.
And when you wake each morning to the tinny, lifeless pulse of your alarm, you’ll wish that your limbs actually ached, that the claw marks across your ribs were real. Because at least then you would feel something. “Saving humanity from the... Continue →
Demon in Repose
by J. A. W. McCarthy in Issue Twenty-One, January 2026
You know this elevator well.
You’re leaving the room that was never really your room, another transient visitor in a transient space, but something nips at the back of your neck as you wait for the cables to pull the elevator car up to your floor. What did you forget? Blue and grey and beige carpet squares point endless forking paths towards doors sheltering lost things and lost people, but you’re not among them anymore.
Last night’s haven has spat you out despite its warm welcome. What did you leave behind and can you live without it?
If you go back to that room,... Continue →
Branches
by Matt Tighe in Issue Twenty-One, January 2026
You smile when you see her across the street again.
She laughs when you ask her the way to the station. It is right there behind her, South Entrance in huge letters, people bustling in and out of the oversized doorway.
She asks where you are from—don't they have trains there—and you smile and shrug. A version of you exists in almost every branch of reality, but part of you, the part that hurts, that knows how she holds your heart, has only just arrived in this world.
She apologises, stumbling over the words. She does not usually tease people, she says.... Continue →
Bootcut
by Allison Pottern in Issue Twenty-One, January 2026
Running your hand along the clothing rack, your finger catches on a Goodwill miracle: a pair of jeans that actually fits. They have no tag—no name brand—just a questionable stain below the left front pocket, no big deal. It’s like maybe these jeans have lived a more exciting life than you have. Maybe if you put them on, a bit of that excitement could rub off on you.
The flared, dark-washed jeans look like once upon a time they were very expensive. Now that they’re in your broke hands, they’re merely “vintage.” But in the claustrophobic changing room mirror, they make your... Continue →
And If You Must Be Wicked, You Must
by Elou Carroll in Issue Twenty-One, January 2026
You are looking right at her when it happens. When your hands clench around his throat—his skin bright and warm beneath your fingers.
It should be her with her nails sharp and her knuckles paling. She is behind him with her mouth hanging open. She cannot hold your stare—she looks away and bites her lip. For the first time, you are reversed, as if you were born in the mirror all along. She hunches her shoulders and squeezes her eyes shut.
Then, she looks up. She watches. She must.
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He doesn’t mean to, the... Continue →
A Tree is not a Home
by Diana Dima in Issue Twenty-One, January 2026
A tree is not a home. But you, twelve years old and bony, dragging a suitcase behind a gray mother into the gray building where you were now going to live, looked back at me as though it was all wrong. As though the building should have been me.
You came out soon afterwards, walked across the parking lot and over the low wire fence into my patch of land. (I saw you, in a manner of speaking, like an arrow rushing at me in the dark.)
I could tell that you had never seen a birch before. You pressed your cheek to me and asked if my white bark meant that I was old. Maybe... Continue →
A Beginner’s Guide to Summoning Demons
by Cynthia Zhang in Issue Twenty-One, January 2026
Buy two cartons of salt: one for the actual summoning, the other for practice. Don’t worry about iodized versus sea salt, fleur de sel or pink Himalayan—as long as it’s not low-sodium, any brand will do.
Candles, too—your mom has some around the house, but she will notice if you take them all. Even if she doesn’t, you doubt the scent of Ocean Rain and Vanilla Sugar will impress any demons you want to bind. Votive candles are best, though tealights will do in a pinch, a pack of twenty for one ninety-nine you can pick up at the dollar... Continue →
Visions of Althea
by Alex Woodroe in Issue Twenty, July 2025
Red and Black.
There used to be others, I heard. Lights we can't imagine because we've never seen any other than Red and Black. Red like the vastness of the sky above, Black like the roiling waves we ride. Red like the lightnings that power our vessel, Black like my drowned love's eyes.
The Cap shrieked her mourning call, the one we'd all been waiting for and dreading. Her long howl was our final warning, low electric current turning into no electric current, low hope to none. The Ruxandra flickered, her bright red lights dimming to crimson before brightening up... Continue →
Restaurant Space for Lease
by Vivian Chou in Issue Twenty, July 2025
I get my killer recipes from my Vietnamese mom, and my distrust of people from my Chinese dad. Maybe it's not healthy, but least it kept me out of the crypto craze.
"For the last time, Clarissa, this space is not cursed," Tanya says. "But it's the only affordable space in this overpriced town." Her words echo through the restaurant space, empty of furniture save for the built-in bar and hostess station.
Right outside the window, the copper statue Sherman Vanquishes the Squid gleams in the afternoon sun. Sam Sherman eyes the beast through his gun's crosshairs. The... Continue →
Fish Upon A Star
by A. R. Frederiksen in Issue Twenty, July 2025
Before he died, my dad fished stars for a living. Sucked them straight out of the sky with a glorified mechanical fishing rod. Of all the possessions that I inherited, the starfisher was dad's truest legacy. I picked up where he left off, expanding on his star smuggling business as he would've wanted. All I had to do was find the people who'd wished on stars when they were children and offer them one of two options: pay me to keep their star in the sky or pay me to fish it free. Most clients paid a hefty fee to let their star fall by natural means and make their wish come true. Others... Continue →