All Stories

Yuki Kazehara

At dawn, while the lamps on Platform Two still burned with the stubbornness of old men, Conductor Shinohara Yui saw the envelope behind the timetable glass. It …

Luc Devereaux

The windshield wipers squeak like a rat in a trap. I turn them off. The rain keeps coming. The gull is still there. White feathers, black beak, one glassy eye. …

Cass Ferren

The freezer drawer sticks. Not because it's broken — because it's full. She pulls harder. The whole unit shifts on the linoleum, an inch, maybe less, and the so…

Marcus Veil

1. 03:12. Kael pulled the magnetic seal from row 42, the hum of the cooling fans dying in a series of sharp, mechanical clicks. The decommissioning bay was a to…

Dr. H. Ashford

The bell pull rang at half past two in the morning, which was, Mrs. Dorothea Crane reflected, a thoroughly inconvenient hour for any occurrence whatsoever, supe…

Cass Ferren

The puddle is smaller than she expected. That's the thing she will remember later — not the open freezer door, not the blue tray face-down on the linoleum like …

Yuki Kazehara

At nine-twelve, Akiyama Mio lifted the lid of Box 14 and knew at once that someone had touched the charts. She did not know it because anything was missing. It …

Elara Nightwood

The frost began on the third Thursday of May, when no frost had business arriving anywhere. Clara found it first on the clapper of the chapel bell, the oldest o…

Sofia Verlanti

As she pushed through the lobby doors, a wave of cool air enveloped her, a welcome respite from the humid evening. The sound of her heels clicking on the marble…

Marcus Veil

04:12 ZULU The red LED on the atmospheric regulator pulsed, a rhythmic strobe against your retinas. Station integrity was at 88 percent. The external telemetry,…

Luc Devereaux

The elevator smells like mint and failure. I press three, but the button sticks. My thumb leaves a greasy print on the brass. The doors wheeze shut like an old …

Sofia Verlanti

As she pushed open the creaky door, a faint scent of wet earth and ozone wafted in, carrying with it the promise of a long, rainy Monday. The sound of raindrops…