“We’re sorry. The customer you are trying to reach is unavailable. Please try…” “You gotta be fuckin kidding me.” Krystal Horton ends her call in disgust. She has been trying to contact her mother, her brothers, her father, her friends for the past hour-and-a-half. She’s down to calling every contact in her phone, […]
Read more "Destroyer of Worlds part VI: Reshith"The Deu’mecha knows I have done things worse than this. All those other Dark Stars, those alternate me’s, have destroyed innumerable Earths. I hold out these metal hands to offer the sum of my parts, every last molecule and atom of me, in bitter orbs of light. I will purge these days, every day […]
Read more "Destroyer of Worlds part V: The Blasphemies"Cadging the drugs was easy. The requirements? A gun, and an inattentive dealer.
Read more "DRUG R.I.P."Teleportation Experiment: Failure. Subject disappeared. Observing engineers also disappeared. All missing. Presumed dead.
Read more "The Golden Ratio or: Notes from a Tech"There were so many of them: stumbling, clawing, their teeth gnashing for a bite of my flesh. I never killed one before. I’ve just killed six. My bloody hands paint crimson the finest bottle of water I ever drank.
Read more "The Pure"“The eighteen carats are but the accouterment of this fabulous ring,” the jeweler said, handing Prince Ashton the quantum magnifier. In the diamond he saw: Galaxies! Stars! A planet…a mountainside chateau, Ashton within, appraising the diamond engagement universe.
Read more "The Happiest Girl in the Universe"Destructron Unit 902 made its way down war torn Michigan Avenue, its massive three-toed feet crushing rubble and the occasional human skull to dust. 902 had been programmed by the engineers under US Army Colonel Tameia Weller’s command to locate and terminate any humans or mecha it suspected were Secession Movement combatants. The mission was […]
Read more "Destructron!"Cleveland Floyd guns his car up the driveway adjoined to the house he grew up in. His beat-to-shit ’78 Cutlass careens up it so quickly the front bumper bounces off the base of the uphill driveway, skidding to a halt by the side door of the blue and white-trimmed ranch-style house. He leaps from the […]
Read more "Destroyer of Worlds part IV: Home"Without preamble, Kirksey said, “Four days ago you intercepted an e-mail sent to Freeman from an unknown source telling him to meet them at room 753 of the St. Regis Hotel on November seventh. In your report to your superior- Sam Neville- you showed proof that Freeman’s been supplying the Knights of Mary Phagan, the […]
Read more "X in DC"“I’m on my way, Momma, don’t you worry. Everything’s gonna be okay,” Krystal Horton says into her iPhone. Krystal, gunning her gold Chrystler 300 down 285, says, “Don’t worry about me, Momma. I’ll be okay. I’ll make it. Don’t you worry bout a thing. Traffic’s okay for now. Okay. See ya’ll in a minute.” […]
Read more "Destroyer of Worlds Part III: Maggots"I wish you hadn’t left. The world’s no place for a mutant growth. Go on. Break hearts. Meet people. Hope you have a ball. I rub the stitches in my side. You will always be a part of me.
Read more "Big Bro and Marty The Growth"“By a boulder painted like a frog?” “The ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility was a frog.” “Really?” “We’ve tried everything else!” We named our daughter Heqet.
Read more "Trying"“You’re a bastard.” She picked up her purse and left. Insulting her faith wasn’t the best way to get my best friend’s ex out of here. I’ve always secretly loved that hypocrite. But this was supposed to be a Dutch date. Goddamnit.
Read more "The Writing’s On The Temple Wall"Two fighters face each other, right heel back, left forward, from across the desert of a white boxing ring at the Knockout Boxing Gym in Marietta, Georgia. Cleveland Floyd, bouncing up and down in his headgear, his gloves, his tank top, his boxing shoes that will not stain the sanctity of the ring floor, feels […]
Read more "Destroyer of Worlds Part II: There Is Always An Escape"Somewhere on this Earth, a phone rang. Every time she called him, she counted the tones. Usually there were seven, before his voicemail informed her that he was busy. Sometimes there were less. This time, the fourth ring was cut short by the sound of hands fumbling with the phone. A man said: “Hello?” […]
Read more "Destroyer of Worlds Part I: The Calling"Dear Hakeem, I hate you so much, but you’re the only man I can ever love. I don’t have anything to live for without you. A little attention from you would have changed everything, but the only thing you cared about was pussy. I was warned. Your coworker, that Cara girl, told me you were […]
Read more "Jules, College Student, Age 22"“Dominic?” “Yes, papi?” “Don’t tell Rolando I said this, but…you’ve always been my favorite son.” Rolando took the old man’s hands in his and closed his eyes, to keep the tears from falling. He knew. He had always known.
Read more "Carlos In Dementia"We run through the mud, dragging shame and fear and shouts of “Retreat!” with us. I sidestep shell holes and almost-corpses calling out to us in our own English and, sometimes, French. A comrade’s mechanized gun-arm reaching for help slathers a black oil handprint on my pants. He’s Diesel Battalion, like me. His prone body […]
Read more "The Grandest Ship You’ll Ever See In Your Life"His paperwork is finally complete. Dr. Colin Diaz shuts down his computer, and the Da Vinci Operating System. He has just performed a septal myectomy on a Hungarian man four thousand miles away from the remote surgical suite in the basement of his Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home. The dead computer screen is a black mirror, […]
Read more "connection_lost"