It was Sunday morning when the letter arrived. I remember because there isn’t usually any mail delivery on Sundays. I always loved Sundays. I never really cared about religion and thought it was silly for an entire allegedly “secular” country to get a day off to worship a Christian god that I knew was not really there. But at least it was one less day that people had to work.

Everything else abo...

Late one Tuesday night, while nursing a cup of hot green tea, Marnie found themselves staring at the robot. Its smooth, dark, metal surface seemed cold and lifeless, but looking at it still made Marnie feel warm inside. Or maybe that was just the tea. They had been working on the robot now for nearly a decade, perfecting every detail, but this was the first time Marnie had really taken the time to...

Charlie was beginning to feel like it would never stop raining. Thick, oily pools of water gathered in the potholes outside her small, dark studio apartment. The air smelled like wet leaves and the wind seemed to blow her toward the front door. She couldn’t seem to avoid leaving muddy footprints on the linoleum floor just inside the front entrance no matter how many times she wiped her feet.

Fuck...

The clock sat incongruously on the mantle, its gold-finished bronze surface covered with the warm patina of age. With its elaborate cut-bronze floral decoration and delicate white enamel face, the clock felt out of place amongst the rest of the cheap, utilitarian particle board furniture in the house. It rested there confidently with a sturdy handle projecting from its top, leaving one with the im...