Issue 26: 2nd Quarter 2008

"Whoever battles monsters should take care not to become a monster too, for if you stare long enough into the Abyss, the Abyss stares also into you."
—Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, chapter 4, no. 146

Announcements:

Editorial:

Real Life, by Jude-Marie Green, Associate Editor

Short Fiction

One Wicker Day
by Andrew S. Fuller
      The hallway grows and stretches, pulling the door farther, taunting her; and she lifts her chin and walks it, swallowing thickness of tears, expecting more thunder on the heavy oak, a rattling of the brass handle — even splinters off the sticking bites of an ax head; the entire door to fall in, crushing her toes, opening her sanctuary to the changed world, the dark clouds reaching down, and a terrible giant white suit, the smile with teeth too bright.

Wolfling
by Laura Anne Gilman
     "She"s my sister, Josh. I sang to her, every night before she was born. I promised her I"d teach her how to climb trees, and ride a bicycle." He swallowed hard. "I wish my folks had agreed to the amnio scan. I wish we"d known, from the very beginning."

Xenosomnambulism
by Lawrence M. Schoen
     Dreams, he knew, were messages from the subconscious. The number must mean something to him, else why would it show up in his dream? And the name wasn't exactly a common one; surely it represented something too. Who had his subconscious mind cast in the role of Agent Yampell?

Ghosts of Cretaceous Park
by Larry Hodges
     The Ashton cigar dropped to the ground.
     The giant head and jaws floated rapidly toward him, with the neck disappearing into the ground below. The neck moved through the soil and rocks as if they were no more than smoke.

Disarm
by Vylar Kaftan
     The doctor nods. His eyes are sympathetic. "Just remember, it's why he survived. They saved him. They watched the others die, and they healed him."
     "Just him?"
     "They always heal one, in every encounter. But they leave them marked."

Flash Fiction

Flash Fiction will return in our next issue.

Poetry

Poetry will return in our next issue.

Our chapbook is still on sale. Please click on the cover image at right to learn more.

Awards

Colophon and Affiliations