Lost in Clouds

When he felt lost, he always went to the museum and looked up at the plane. So bright. So bold. So proud. It knew what it was. It knew where it should be. He didn't. Not anymore. The world beneath his feet felt insubstantial and uncertain as cloud. Wherever he looked, there was nothing but...

Set Your Clock

Each day he stands by the window and watches, his eye upon the hands of the watch. The lamps flicker, casting shadows across the street. Footsteps echo on the cobbles. A spider scuttles across the cobweb, long legs dancing on thin threads. Each day, the times are the same. Everything in this world happens on...

The Future is Green

A breeze whistled between the branches. No. Not a breeze. Just the whirring of the fan overhead. He had to remind himself of that. It all seemed so very real. The Garden spread out before him, rows of green, trees lined up like soldiers heading off to war. He found it hard not to think...

Magic and Murmurs

On a farm in the high mountains, a wizard lived alone. He'd had enough of people, enough of their wars and their squabbling. He made a house from stone and wood and set about taming the land with his magic. The fields were plowed by sharpened boulders, drifting gently through the dirt. The fences opened...

The White Wreath

The hall was laid out for the Solstice. Sprigs of mistletoe were hung to ward off evil – "The gods know we need it," the housekeeper muttered – and candles were lit upon long tables. Banners fluttered in drafts that slipped between stones. "What if she comes?" King Sven asked. "She will honour our traditions."...

Voices in the Silence

People used to tell Tim he'd be lonely living up in the shack all by himself. "Yes," he'd politely reply, smiling in the way he only did when he was feeling both furious and witty, "that is rather the point." He'd been up there a week, alone with the winds, the mountains, and the occasional owl,...

The Last Moment

Birds sung in the trees. The leaves were golden, the waters grey. The sun hung low, burning bright in their eyes. He wore black and she wore red. The flags still waved, unaware of gathering clouds. Neither of them would forget a single detail of that day at childhood's end. "Will we still be friends?"...

Statistical Analysis

They met on the balcony, in the patch of artificial grass just out of sight of the cameras. Smoke drifted from the end of Kensa's slim e-cig as she looked down at layer upon layer of cars, down in the smog-flooded lower levels. "The revolution is coming," the analyst said. His face was gaunt and...

The Things Under Bridges

Do not trust the things under bridges, no matter what they promise you. They dwell in the mud, in the shallow reeds, dragging themselves through the long grasses. Their necks are as the trunks of crooked trees, their eyes are serpent slits, their toes are long and grasping, and their faces are the pale white...

Funeral Pyre

Sparks float like butterflies. He watches and remembers. She lay in his arms, blood soaking through her clothes. "Promise me," she croaked. "Promise you won't leave me for the wolves." "I promise," he replied.  Fire plays with golden locks of hair, turning them to ash. "You're mad," the villager said, pulling at his horse's reins....