In the den at my Oma’s house, I found Aunt Olivia smoking grandpa’s meerschaum pipe. She was allergic to smoke, yet here she was, taking deep drags, a small light glowing from the bowl. The smoke eased out of her nostrils, and she sighed.“I see him,” she said, pointing to the old woven chair in […]
My husband writes the names of his nine demons on post-it notes and burns them in the kitchen sink. He eats only apples.An apple a day will keep them away.That’s the doctor, I remind him.It’s all the same.A priest sent us incense and holy water and clippings from his own beard. This priest had good […]
I tell myself Miranda would have wanted this.I know as I stand in the ship’s blood-splattered control booth, that Lilith sees me. Her Pilot processors whir, approximating my height and weight. My muscle mass. My age. Miranda programmed her to assess potential threats, after all, and my wife was nothing if not thorough, but Lilith […]
Jaya picked up the girl two miles past the burning car, that Buick Cutlass with the carbonized skeletons in the front seats, fire crews already working on it. The girl wore a calico dress, muddy rain boots, cradled a blanket-wrapped bundle to her chest, and hopped in as soon as Jaya pulled the truck cab […]
I achieved sleep paralysis on the third day of looking into the topic. One could say that I’m far too susceptible to suggestions to attempt this kind of research. But I did, and so there I lay, locked but wakeful, a scream trapped in my lungs.Sleep paralysis is when you are awake and conscious, but […]