Daily Gratitudes
What if we all just took a few minutes of every day to be grateful?
Like an Itch You Scratch
The playground’s got this tunnel we figured we could hotbox. This was right at the start of everything, so it was shut down, caution taped, and Jen figured we might as well use it if no one else was gonna.
The Ledge
The best spot on the ledge is still just a spot on a ledge.
Where the Babies Come From
Danny wouldn’t stop asking where the babies come from, so finally Jon got tired of it and took him to the loading dock at the end of the city so he could see.
Cherry-Blossom Droid
A common proverb is that time heals all wounds. That is true only for humans. For them, memories fade into dull generalizations. For us droids, memories are always reproducible with uncanny sharpness, and they stay with us for as long as we live: forever.
Impurity
Bill has spent a lifetime surviving in a desolate world by whatever violent means each day necessitates. Now he seeks a new life beyond the walls of the enigmatic Colony—but he wonders: What will it cost him?
Traces of Us, Hot Enough for Dinner
On the anniversary of her fiancee’s death, our protagonist finds herself in a time loop where demons flood in every night and tear everyone to shreds.
Escalation
Two women – one old, one young – seated at a table inside a small room, playing a game. Overhead a black drone equipped with two cameras buzzes quietly. The women talk to each other in a friendly way and touch the game pieces tentatively, as though they are still learning the rules. The older one is dressed in all-black; the younger wears white. On each of their necks is a small red mark – perhaps an insect bite, or a wound that’s halfway to healing.
Outside the room the rest of the world watches, seized by terror but unable to look away.
The Rediscovery of Plants
PS takes not only motion and sound; it takes everything. Every nerve, muscle, and neuron. Every thought, idea, and sentiment. By the time sufferers reach puberty, they are not human.
The Skull in the Sky
A beautiful, lyrical, dark creation myth.