Psychological
Across The Merderet. Runner-Up in Parallel Lives Challenge.
I sped off to the recruiting post in Galena. Even though my birth certificate at St. Michaels said that Joseph F. Higgins was Born 1927 not 1926 like I told the recruiter, I wasn’t going to let that one year stop me. Hell or high water I was going to be a paratrooper.
By Matthew J. Fromm4 months ago in Fiction
The Quiet that Remembers. Content Warning. AI-Generated.
Where the River Splits... Some nights, Lena dreams she is two women standing in the same rain. One stands at the kitchen sink, wrists submerged in cloudy dishwater, eyes fixed on the window as the sky turns the color of bruised fruit. Her wedding ring glints each time she moves.
By Ana Carter4 months ago in Fiction
The House with Two Kitchens
In one kitchen, she crushed cloves with the flat of a knife, their papery skins drifting to the floor like snow. Steam rose from the pot in a silver ribbon as the storm outside pressed its brow against the windows. She hummed to keep the roux from burning. Her father used to hum that tune, a stubborn little melody that said we are alive in spite of it. The bulb flickered in the ceiling, stabilized, and the soup grew fragrant enough to leave fingerprints on the air.
By Alain SUPPINI4 months ago in Fiction
The Unnumbered Door
When I first walked into the Harrington Apartments, my shoes stuck a little to the hallway floor. The carpet changed color halfway down, as if someone ran out of one kind and just kept going with another. The brass banister was loose in its brackets, wobbling a little when I brushed past. Everything looked clean, but not cared for, like someone kept wiping the same layer of age instead of removing it.
By Tim Carmichael4 months ago in Fiction
The Signal Beneath the Ice
The Signal Beneath the Ice Some things are buried because we’re not ready to hear them. The wind over Halley-7 sounded like a saw through glass. It shaved the surface of Antarctica into shards and ribbons, erased footsteps in seconds, and carried the kind of cold that made bones remember it. Inside the station, the hum of generators pretended to be warmth.
By Alex Mario4 months ago in Fiction
Chimera Couture
“Count backwards for me from 10, Aidan.” “10, 9, 8…” “He’s under now, Dr. J.” Transition surgery is long, complicated, and difficult, but Aidan chose the top doctor in this field, Dr. Sam Jonnalagadda, or Dr. J, as everybody called him for short, of course. Aidan was prepared and ready to become a woman.
By Star Love Grey4 months ago in Fiction
