Venice, 1474 Even through the mask, the smell of charred flesh lingered. Giovanni Trismegistus wiped the blood from his hands onto his apron and studied the body laid out before him on the table. The corpse’s mouth remained fixed in a silent scream, eyes wide with the final terror of a man who had glimpsed […]
Category: Fiction
Stellar Drones: Chapter 1
“Money is the most important thing,” Siemens said, raising his glass of expensive Macallan single malt whisky, “He who understands it, prospers, those who don’t, suffer.” Alicia Bold nodded in agreement, impressed by the toast. Ned, on the other hand, couldn’t help but wonder if he should correct Siemens’s misquotation of Einstein’s famous phrase about […]
Doc Roach
Dr. Aldo Betta stared at the glass enclosure where the cockroach moved with deliberate precision across a small branch. Delicate circuitry glinted on its carapace under the laboratory lights, a marvel of bioengineering barely the size of an SD card. The device represented years of painstaking work, the culmination of his research into neural interfaces. […]
Summon the Wind
The wizard climbed to the top of the rocky bluff overlooking the seaside village far below. If his calculations were right, this would be the place. He stood straight, raised his arms to either side and brought them together in front of him, holding the mighty staff in both hands. He watched the setting sun […]
CucumberCat
I jumped up on the fence and gave one of my ginger paws a quick lick. Reynolds is a gray Persian that lives next door and we meet up at the fence often to talk and occasionally go on walks together. Usually, Reynolds, who was regrettably named after some hairy 80’s actor, has exciting stories […]
UnicornCat
“That wasn’t catnip,” Dorothy thought, looking again at the strange package her friend had sent by special courier. It looked almost like glitter, but Furmidable, the grey Chartreux cat she was catsitting, and who was normally very calm, dove into it like a starving child into a pool of candy. It was too late to […]
Manner’s Maketh Man
Roger squinted through the dirty windshield of his truck at what appeared to be a person walking down the road. Nobody walked the road this far outside of town, especially this early in the morning, he thought to himself. Squinting harder he realized he didn’t recognize the stranger and pulled up alongside them to make […]
The Blind Seer
The book lay on the stone table, its leather binding cracked with age, golden-edged pages catching what little light filtered through the basement’s single, dust-covered window. I hesitated before approaching it, stories of its power hanging in my mind like cobwebs in the corners of the room. When I finally opened it, the air shifted. […]
Birthday Ticket
George stood motionless in the university hallway, watching avatars blur past him like autumn leaves caught in a digital wind. No one paused. No one noticed. The only acknowledgment of his existence came in brief, rehearsed phrases. “I bought a ticket for your birthday,” they’d say, offering perfunctory smiles before dissolving back into the stream […]