Outside the International Space Station, I hook my white EMU boots beneath two metal rails and stretch, eliciting a sharp crack from my ribs. This EVA is taking forever. Alone, my partner replaced by ...

I visited the peat bog just before dawn, when the morning fog was still heavy, hovering over the carpet of peat like a damp blanket. Earlier that morning, I’d noticed peat dried and nailed to the wind...

“This,” her father says, the stone a matte black promise in his hand, “is how your ship will travel.” With a bravura flick, he throws it out onto the lake, but all she can focus on is the spike of ten...

I had to look up what lanugo meant, so if nothing else I learned something from this story that I wouldn’t have done otherwise. I don’t know if it’s the fact that pregnancy is not…

If it were anything other than a major hotel, the Kleiner-Hussain Spaceport Hotel would not have existed long enough to be this haunted, and yet. The problem with space travel has always been that gho...

I lose my finger during the private flight back from Japan. It isn’t the whole finger, of course, just the bone. When I drugged myself into oblivion at the start of the flight, it was totally fine. Wh...

I lose my finger during the private flight back from Japan. It isn’t the whole finger, of course, just the bone. When I drugged myself into oblivion at the start of the flight, it was totally fine. Wh...

Cirque stole the elephant’s bridle from its gilded chest. In the lee where midnight loitered on the toes of dawn, Cirque pocketed all they could and fled the Stage for the last time. Weighed down by h...

It came again. That shuf-shuf-shuffle of ragged fabric on bare stone. That tapping; that endless tapping. Blackened bone on cold cement. Not his bare stone, no. Not his cold cement. Not here in his tw...

I visited the peat bog just before dawn, when the morning fog was still heavy, hovering over the carpet of peat like a damp blanket. Earlier that morning, I’d noticed peat dried and nailed to the wind...

“This,” her father says, the stone a matte black promise in his hand, “is how your ship will travel.” With a bravura flick, he throws it out onto the lake, but all she can focus on is the spike of ten...

I lose my finger during the private flight back from Japan. It isn’t the whole finger, of course, just the bone. When I drugged myself into oblivion at the start of the flight, it was totally fine. Wh...

Alembics line the walls, rounded and bulbous glasses blown in bubbly greens and creamy whites and swirling yellow-blues. Their contents shift and churn of their own accord, some in slow dancing waves,...

“This,” her father says, the stone a matte black promise in his hand, “is how your ship will travel.” With a bravura flick, he throws it out onto the lake, but all she can focus on is the spike of ten...

The Hunger haunts me most when I’m nauseous, which feels like it’s all the time these days. Morning sickness, my ass. I throw up at a minimum once per day, and it’s not just in the morning. The nausea...

The tiger didn’t watch anyone, didn’t see their phones being pulled out of back pockets, didn’t see a mother gasp and hold her child back, didn’t even see the car that slammed its brakes to avoid ente...

You leave before the birds can begin to sing. And though the elders rise, stone-faced, to strap a sword to your belt, no one comes with you; this is not their journey, after all, not the way it is you...

ALT: a little girl is making a funny face while wearing a blue shirt with a leopard print .

Welcome to the forum! You have successfully registered and now have full access to the site and all its resources. And congratulations again on the summoning of your own personal spirit-angel. It’s an...

These stories thrilled us with their horrifying characters and premises! Please congratulate these 21 Longlisted stories! We’ll be back soon with our shortlist and then the winner!

These stories thrilled us with their horrifying characters and premises! Please congratulate these 21 Longlisted stories! We’ll be back soon with our shortlist and then the winner!

I lose my finger during the private flight back from Japan. It isn’t the whole finger, of course, just the bone. When I drugged myself into oblivion at the start of the flight, it was totally fine. Wh...

Cirque stole the elephant’s bridle from its gilded chest. In the lee where midnight loitered on the toes of dawn, Cirque pocketed all they could and fled the Stage for the last time. Weighed down by h...

Cirque stole the elephant’s bridle from its gilded chest. In the lee where midnight loitered on the toes of dawn, Cirque pocketed all they could and fled the Stage for the last time. Weighed down by h...

Here are our shortlisted titles of 16 stories we couldn’t let go of! These stories have been sent to guest judge Shelby Van Pelt for her final choices!

Cirque stole the elephant’s bridle from its gilded chest. In the lee where midnight loitered on the toes of dawn, Cirque pocketed all they could and fled the Stage for the last time. Weighed down by h...

We were instructed to point the brush with our lips ––Grace Fryer, a dial-painter for The Radium Luminous Materials Corporation, 1930 1.Glow Twirling the paintbrush in our mouths to sharpen the point ...

Cirque stole the elephant’s bridle from its gilded chest. In the lee where midnight loitered on the toes of dawn, Cirque pocketed all they could and fled the Stage for the last time. Weighed down by h...

These stories thrilled us with their horrifying characters and premises! Please congratulate these 7 Shortlisted stories! We’ll be back soon with our winner!

I lose my finger during the private flight back from Japan. It isn’t the whole finger, of course, just the bone. When I drugged myself into oblivion at the start of the flight, it was totally fine. Wh...

“This,” her father says, the stone a matte black promise in his hand, “is how your ship will travel.” With a bravura flick, he throws it out onto the lake, but all she can focus on is the spike of ten...

The silhouette of the Pharos lighthouse floats on the water in the distance, its peak is like the eye of a god, always monitoring its subjects. I can see why it’s considered one of the seven wonders o...