Monday November 1, 1926 My dearest Anna, …I’m so delighted we can connect each evening with these electric dispatches. Your photo of our sweet baby Margaret was kindling for my hearth this morning. Today I have heartening news and another spark for that intense conflagration inside me—we finally broke through into the Hadal Zone this …
She heard it again, that ominous creak in the dark. With the blackout rendering her bedside lamp powerless, Susan felt trapped in her bed, closed off from escape by the darkness. Fear slowed her mind, but eventually she remembered the flashlight on her phone. She turned on the phone light and the room was bathed …
Halloween, 1918 Jory hums a pleasant tune as he washes his hands. The white tiled walls of the embalming room reverberate his sonorous voice like a concert hall. Behind him, Peter’s body lies prone on a metal table. Still humming to himself, Jory dries his hands and sets to work. He shaves the back of …
8:45pm — Yeah, hi. Maintenance? This is Paul Gneiss. That’s G as in golf, N-E-I-S-S. I’m in building 408, apartment 103. Uh, so I know it’s after hours, but uh… I saw this number posted on the office door and didn’t know who else to call. I don’t think that it’s a maintenance emergency exactly, …
On April 20th, a book was released that might have flown under your radar. It was from Matthew Brockmeyer, author of Kind Nepenthe, which you may have heard of through some roughly eight thousand glowing reviews. His latest, titled Under Rotting Sky, is an anthology that deserves your attention … now. And that’s a “now” …
Car crashes can happen easily. A simple matter of not following the lanes of the road will do it. But in a world where everyone is forced to stay in their lane, one man tries to veer off the path. “The Exile,” by Alfred Copper (published in Astounding Science Fiction, May 1952), is set eight …
What would you do if living off-grid were nearly impossible? If infrastructure itself were like a city-sized amoeba, reaching out its pseudopods of wires, roads, and plumbing across the Earth? What if, even after running away to a remote spot deep in the woods, you still had to look over your shoulder for fear of …
A clown walked up to the gates of Hell carrying a gallon of gasoline. He was bathed in red light from a big sign that read “HELL.” Before entering, he paused. It was hard to believe that he had built this enormous thing. He and Jane. The first room was meant to look like a …
Henry is sitting as still as a statue. The morning sun is coming in through the blinds, making bands of light across the patient charts on his desk. His desk phone rings. Henry makes no move to answer. After a moment, there is a polite tapping at his door. Henry stares straight ahead; even his …
Jade called me from a phone number I didn’t recognize. “Come to Arcadia,” she said. “Come alone”. Arcadia is the side of town that burned out years ago. No one wants to go to Arcadia. Not even bums. “It’ll be worth it,” Jade insisted. I wasn’t sure what to expect, especially in Arcadia. But my …
