They
looked like regular people. No antlers, no gills, no claws,
no fins, no tails, no horns, no scales, no hooves, cloven
or otherwise. They dressed conservatively. They blended in.
They weren’t notable. They weren’t even noticeable,
and if I hadn’t gotten so enthusiastic at the damn conference,
I wouldn’t be aware of them at all. Maybe it would be
better that way.
From Regular People by Neil Naft
“There was
happiness in your soul once, I can see it, buried under the
sorrow.” After a pause, he snapped his fingers. “I
have just the thing!”
From Love Potion by Leigh Clements
In the sky a brilliant
light hovered. Bigger than the sun, but a fella could look
at it without hurting his eyes. It was a different kind of
light, though. Milky and silver. Spread a hazy glow on things
and enveloped them, but it didn’t cast any shadows.
It scared the hell out of everyone.
From Astray by Richard Sarles
“Do you believe
in Heaven, Mom? Dad? I think you do. I think you always have,
but do you really believe in Heaven?”His father nodded,
a minimalist gesture.
His mother whispered, “yes.”
“Yes,” Harry confirmed. “Good. I do, too.
I truly do, and if Matty is going tonight, I’m going
with him.”
From Faith by Robert Scott
Holding his breath
he let his body fall from the branch, swinging forward as
his hands tightly held the rope. Then, a shock as he crashed
into something solid, yet soft and warm. A wail of fear escaped
him upon realisation that he was sharing the rope with a hanged
man, a dead man’s rope. From A long Walk Home
by Chris Jeacock
From there, the
children’s spirits would arise to perform their macabre
dance, to the beating pulse of the black night; a caliginous
pulse real as a living heart, to this they would move in a
whirling circle above the ground, the dance of death, holding
hands, spinning faster and faster to the insidious throb of
the earthly hell that was theirs.
From The Vision of Sarah Lyle by Leonard Varasano
Clutching the potion
tightly in hand, she sprinted towards the dragon, which immediately
began crashing towards her, easily knocking abandoned homes
and shops out of the way. As the distance between them decreased,
Jaclyn felt the courage building up inside her like a wall,
but threatening to give way to the fear at any moment. She
kept her head ducked down and kept running, swerving off in
an attempt to get behind the dragon.
From Dragoneye by Gabbi Bernard
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