“You’d think, once you’d hit twenty-eight, you’d stop being a pain in the ass…”
You're reading Fiction Feature
Sacrifice
“Kosmoa will be pleased with your sacrifices,” Orlan, a priest of Kosmoa, announced as he strolled down the silver ramp. The ship stood like a sore thumb against the deep brown rock of the desert wastelands around them. Soft puffs of steam rolled from the ventilation systems along the side of the ship. The glass viewing ports along the top were tinted black.
The Deliverer
In the first years after the Imperial war, Yasef’s father had given him to the magistrate—to Bryden the Great. The old man had said god told him to. But not before Yasef’s birthday, the one where they pronounced him a man. What was it that the prophet had spoken of him? “You will be the arm of Donumdonair…”
The Magic Quilt
He bought it on a dark street corner, just like in the movies. Rain poured, cars splashed in puddles as they drove by, and it was all cast in a dim glow from the sign at Archie’s Insurance. A man leaned against the brick building. He carried a wrapped bundle in his arms. Another man, tall and lanky, appeared further down the street. As he walked to the man with the bundle, he shook rainwater out of his eyes…
The Beast
In “The Beast” by Noah J. Matthews, homeschool teen Melinda meets a cute guy on the beach near her home in Michigan. The problem is, Melinda is a werewolf, thanks to a bad decision she made when she was a small child, and everyone knows werewolves can’t fall in love. Let alone homeschooled werewolves.
Miles Is Drowning
So this is what drowning feels like. The rainclouds had opened above me, pouring down cold sheets as I jogged the two miles to Green’s Pizza. The rain thumped against my black raincoat like the last beats of a dying heart. I’d never felt more smothered, so completely drowning in everything. It was as if nature itself had bent its powers to fit the mood of my soul…
I Saw Bigfoot Today, Darling
I saw Bigfoot today, darling. I was in the woods behind your grandpa’s house and going on that trail that leads slowly up the mountain, listening to the wind in the pine trees and thinking “What if we could fly?” And if so, I’d like to fly away on that wind, climb on and ride it like a dragon (that’s something you would think up, darling).