Alarms blared. They always did, nowadays. Sarai pushed away the weariness, an annoyance clamoring for attention in the back of her mind. She couldn’t be tired; that was a luxury war didn’t afford. She jumped out of bed and swept a hand over her bodysuit. In an instant, it morphed into a perfectly tailored gray… Continue reading A Child’s War
The world was nothing more than a child’s play set. Cars were toys, people little action figures. Skyscrapers were made from building blocks. Is this the view that birds have? I wondered, pressing my face against the old, discolored glass. Yes, I could imagine that I was a bird, singing, flying high above, feeling the… Continue reading Small World
Vaughn was pretty sure he’d gotten his coordinates wrong. One moment, he’d been keying in the location of the space station hanging above his home planet Infyllus as he’d done a thousand times before. Sure, Kiefer had thrown a boot at his head as he’d been typing, but his little brother’s antics had never posed… Continue reading First Winter
“Wake up! It’s fall!” Rylie groaned. It should be illegal for someone to be so excited this early in the morning. “I know you’re awake.” Footsteps padded closer to Rylie’s bed. She rolled over, turning her back to the perpetrator. “Come on!” Piper continued. “It’s actually cold outside, and the leaves are falling. See?” Something… Continue reading A House of Fallen Leaves
It looks like a monster. I’ve never seen something so fearsome, so sharp, so loud. Every line is pointed and jagged, without a hint of softness. I get the sense it’s ready to devour me as soon as I make a single wrong step. And it’s not forgiving, either. It will make sure I’m consumed.… Continue reading Silver Starling
Ishmael paused on the boundary of everything there had ever been. His ship slowed to a standstill. Through the viewport, thousands, millions, hundreds of millions of stars crowded together as if vying for room on the dark canvas of space. Goosebumps ran up Ishmael’s arms. He could be the first being to ever lay eyes… Continue reading Nowhere
It’s always advancing. I’m always running. I know I’m not fast enough, but it’s the last thing I can do. Across the centuries, every mortal has run from this. I can almost see them as whole galaxies zip past my viewport. They plead and beg and trade, all for one thing: more. More life. More… Continue reading Time
My car’s interface warned me about the hitchhiker when I was still a mile away. I could picture it right then: some young student dressed in flashy clothes who had wandered just a little too far from the city in a drunken stupor, maybe stepped into a stranger’s car and was offloaded here on the… Continue reading An Unusual Sort of Hitchhiker
In a single moment, Sariah’s life went to ruin. Morning light tried vainly to filter through closed blinds in the dusty, cramped room, but Sariah didn’t need illumination to know something was missing. She stared dumbly at the empty space in the nook that held her most prized possessions, not comprehending and yet fully understanding… Continue reading Old Friends
Something is clawing at the back door. Even after months of living on my own, I still jump at any unexpected noises. It’s stupid, but there’s no one to see me do it, so I guess it doesn’t really matter. It only takes a second for my brain to rationalise the noise: it’s Pepper, wanting… Continue reading An Unexpected Gift
Frabjous Day Press 