Hope: A Perspective from the Forest

by Tadayoshi Kohno in Issue Three, March 2022

Dad, I thought to my father. The smoke is too thick. I can’t breathe. I looked up at him, and he looked down at me. His soft amber eyes glistened with tears and sorrow.

I know, Dad thought to me as he laid his snout on mine. My body glowed with the knowledge that he would protect me.

He lifted his head and scanned the rest of our pack. We had stopped on a hill to survey the forest. My litter mates and I needed the rest.

We looked at the fire—fires—blazing in the distance. We heard the distant crackle. Our old home: gone. Our friends with... Continue →

For the Remnants

by Belicia Rhea in Issue Three, March 2022

Every night we wait for the drones overhead to spill our allotted water rations. I’ve never gotten used to the whirring sound—and that smell, nearly sour, the way it coats the air. Turns it artificial. For most of who’s left, it’s all they’ve known.

The kids are already racing outside with their mouths open, waiting for the pour. I remember as a boy, before the machines, playing in puddles that lasted all night, floods rushing the ground till morning. It rained for days, dragging cars away, the water reflecting our nervous faces back at us when we looked over the porch.

We’d... Continue →

Chrysanthemum

by Erin Keating in Issue Three, March 2022

Mama didn’t weep when the world Dried Up. When the smoke choked the sun. When the sky turned orange. When the birds died mid-flight. Mama didn’t weep when the world Dried Up.

But she’s weeping now.

Her parched eyes can’t spare the tears as she howls curses to the sky, her bloody fingers clawing at the roots around my legs.

“Don’t cry,” I whisper.

Mama does not stop weeping, but she gives me her leathery cheek. I kiss it. I taste salt but remember honey and juice and ice.

“Not you,” Mama cries. Her fingers are in my hair. “Not you, baby girl. The whole... Continue →

We Are the Moor

by Sylvia Heike in Issue Two, January 2022

First published in Flash Fiction Online, February 2020

We are one and we are many. We are shrubby willow and cotton-grass; we are moss and heather. All we need is this peaceful state of being. Enjoy the sun, listen to the birds, drink the mist. But there’s a new voice among us, and she won’t let us rest.

Night and day, she whispers about a man in town.

An image flickers in the dark. Brown eyes, strong arms, warm tanned skin. The glow of red-hot iron. No matter what we tell her, she won’t let go of him, the young... Continue →

Touched

by Emmie Christie in Issue Two, January 2022

Rayla discovered the jacket in the back of a Salvation Army sale. Its camo green had faded to a dingy brown. Good enough for 50 cents. She tried it on, shoving her gloved hands into the pockets.

She touched someone’s fingers.

“Oh!” A few yards away, a woman jerked her hand from her coat pocket. Blue eyeshadow smeared her eyelids and a ‘let me speak to your manager’ haircut puffed the back of her head. She swiveled her gaze around and landed on Rayla, suspicion curling around her lips.

Rayla twirled, acting the cutesy kid playing dress up. Not the streeter, not the... Continue →

My Sparkle Alone Can't Cull Your Demons

by Eric Farrell in Issue Two, January 2022

Ainsley Miller flips the vanity mirror open in her pristine, bulbous vehicle. She’s been parked out front of a nondescript apartment in a rundown Westside neighborhood, trying to psych herself up for what’s to come. A thin mist coats her windshield, each raindrop a sphere of flaring purple sunset in the distance.

It’s just a job, she tells herself, staring out at the world, the tension so thick it buzzes throughout the entire dusty suburban beach town.

Two cops are waiting outside of the arched entrance leading into the apartment complex. They’re waiting on her, the... Continue →

Lovey

by Christi Nogle in Issue Two, January 2022

Harmony wouldn't have trusted herself to maneuver her Lectra-Van up to the camp toilet without autopilot, but it was as though the van saw the toilet and, realizing that the driver was stopping for the night, wiggled in on its own. The hatch dropped and unsealed the sphincter gasket, and just like that, they were connected to the camp’s plumbing.

The patio cover went out on its own if it sensed rain or heat or snow, not that she’d been anywhere with snow. The van’s solar panels were said to work in colder climates, but she didn't trust they would.

Harmony stayed where it was... Continue →

Carolina

by Michael Haynes in Issue Two, January 2022

Randy Joe Eastman popped a few aspirin in his mouth and swallowed them with a mouthful of last night's coffee. Two in the afternoon and he still wasn't dressed for the day. But, hell, that'd been most of the last twenty-nine years, driving from city to city, playing a night or two at whatever club or bar or honkytonk would pay him enough to keep him going. There'd been those two years—nineteen and a half months, actually—back before grunge broke out of Seattle when an actual label had carried him and he'd been on something vaguely other than his own. Those days were so far gone that he... Continue →

The Spot

by A. T. Sayre in Issue One, November 2021

You were never sure if the first time you noticed the spot was in a dream or not. It could have been a dream.

It was early one morning, an hour or two before dawn. You had long since kicked the sheets down to the bottom of the bed in the muggy night, only to feel chilled now in the cooler morning. You rolled onto your back and absently rubbed your palm against the soft hairs on your stomach, staring lazily down at your hand by your waist. On your wrist just below the first knuckle of your thumb was a faint white glow, no more than a centimeter around with soft edges.

You... Continue →

The Shell Game

by Dawn Vogel in Issue One, November 2021

Severina planned to wear her replica Top Diva tiara for her performance at the Galactic Gala, but my augmented vision indicated we'd already diverged from that. The diva, whom her team often referred to as the Princess, was wearing the real deal as we prepped her wardrobe in a locker room that was generally devoted to an entire team of athletes. The large open space had been transformed with bright lighting, a makeup chair, and a rolling wardrobe with Severina's dresses, plus the collection of custom portable cases for her jewelry, makeup, and other sundries. The facility staff for the... Continue →