And, suddenly, it came. The sky fell upon him like one great weight. The clouds splintered his joints and the sunrise itself pierced through him like a great spear. His hair fell over his eyes, matted and graying as the acute agony in his chest numbed to an empty dullness. Atlas could see the stars themselves falling. They nearly seemed to dance, twirling feverishly about their leader, Earendil Hu...

“Pull off your skin,” the letter suggested innocuously, as if the task were as simple as tying my shoes.

It started innocently enough, I suppose. A quick memo to start wearing jeans more frequently because our boss was “chill like that,” a brief note telling me to be more assertive and ask for that raise I’ve been wanting. But then, things began to change. “Show more cleavage,” one of them read ...

Daisies bloom from his eyes. I feel them stare at me. Coquette and coy, their siren call lures me in like a pale light from a distant pier. His fingers weave through his hair, creating and destroying the quasi-wave patterns that swirl through it. He’s always on the move, flitting gently between groups of adoring friends and skateboarding in the halls. I wish I could be like him, even just for an i...

“And your new novel, Mr. Mallon. Well, I think the whole world would be interested in hearing your inspiration, what with the growing presence of artificial intelligence in all our lives. What motivated this intriguing romance?” The interviewer smiled widely at me, running one hand over his stiff blond coif and handing me the microphone. I cleared my throat and looked straight into the camera.

“A...

Once upon a moonlit eve, I lay awake in bed, bereaved

For the death of my beloved work, a treasured lore

A story once created to settle a score but whose nature was to remain so simple nevermore

But soon there came a whisper and a sort of rapping

An insistent tapping upon my chamber door

“Someone must have come” I murmured, rising to stand upon the floor

I stood, of course as I mentioned and be...

And it all felt a bit like spun sugar

The dulcet threads of lives twisting and intertwining in that city

They bobbed and weaved round the shining skyscrapers and past the blaring displays

Streets muddied by the drudgery of the underlings

But the rest of us flew high

In airships which hung down from the sky

Yet I yearned to go home

For it all felt a bit too much like spun sugar...

“Excuse my interruption Professor, I was just a little unclear on something we discussed last week.”

I looked up from my desk to see a wiry boy with tousled hair and loose-fitting clothes walking toward me down the steps of the lecture hall. I recognized his face, like all my students of course, but he was especially distinct. The boy had a strange look about him, a certain weariness in the scru...

I must return to the woods again, to the tranquil dells and thicket

And all I ask is to be the girl I once was if I really dared to wish it

And numbing cold and the fragrant pine

And crunching snow beneath boots of mine

I must return to the woods again, to the quiet trail and the peaceful glen

And the whistling wind and the skipping stones

And the looking glass, it was Leone’s

I must return, on...

The change happened while I sat down to supper. Suddenly, it would seem that my surroundings underwent a sort of metamorphosis. As the cruel gleam of headlights leaked through the windows, a dread chill blew through the room. The comfort of my home was no longer, tainted by the coming intruder.

Footsteps sounded on the walkway outside. My coat on the wall became a leering obelisk and the dark co...

The paint in my room is peeling, flaking and drooping to form incomprehensible maps along the wall. All I have here is a bare mattress and the dress they gave me of some abrasive fabric that gnaws at my skin. And the television, I suppose. We all get one, old models that work well enough for us to see what we need to. A bit of light infiltrates from the window above. Not much, but just enough to r...