Recycle in five…
Tension claws at my shoulders. No matter how often I’ve done this—four times a day, five days a week, for sixteen years, but who’s counting?—I can’t get used to it. I wouldn’t want to.
Four…
Bodies pound on metal. Clang. Clang. Then harder. Clang! Clang! Then faster. Clangclangclang.
How are you doing? Warrick’s text appears on the floating screen next to my head.
Dead inside and out. Same as always. Think-to-text is so exhausting.
I’ve been having a hard time, too.
He’s having a hard time? I’m the one whose mind is hanging out in a computer simulation while my body is who-knows-where
The Main Event: Me versus Sea.
A fight to the finish—probably mine. My opponent is the ocean.
Water’s a liquid? Tell the riptide that. Solid as a giant’s fist, it hauls me farther out every second. To defeat me, the riptide doesn’t drag me under. It doesn’t have to.
We wanted to share a few exciting opportunities for our friends and fans to wrap up our Bingeworthy season. Hurry up and get your binge on! The whole website, and our 400+ story archive, is open for browsing and commenting today until 10pm CDT. If you like what you see, you can get open access
Read it now
Toby toddles from his spot at the foot of my bed and starts licking my three-day old stubble. His sloppy kisses don’t tickle my skin. They’re are not cold, wet, or grainy. I can smell his minty breath—must’ve stolen a mint out of one of my pockets again—but, I can’t feel the warmth
Read it now
The legends warned never to wound a dragon. Those compelled by foolishness or drink to attack such a beast must slay it or perish, for a wound would invoke The Dragon’s Spite. In all their days, the dragon would never tire of hunting the offender. However, none of the legends spoke to my circumstance.
Read it now
We have been in the shelter for an hour, but it feels like a lifetime.
My tongue is thick, cotton-dry from disuse. Though my eyes have adjusted, the light is too dim to see my family’s expressions––just the faint outline of Mum’s slender nose, Finn’s trembling lips. My hair has unraveled from its braid,
The Skyfolk held no ill will toward penguins. Why would they fear such harmless creatures? In Antarctica and elsewhere, penguins could approach the alien settlers without so much as a second glance.
Thus, the U.N. Military devised a cunning plan.
A human—myself, it turned out—would be mind-linked to an Emperor penguin via psionics.
Recent Comments