Kara S

Sunny Anomaly

Sean King

Erin Malody

KW Taylor

Harmonie Winters

Tracie+L Mauriello

Lauryn Zimmerman

Sam Becker

Or so I think my father thought. I wouldn't know exactly because that was the last time we all saw him. He knew he was risking his life out there, but when he promised me that he'd be back, he looked like he really meant it. Or maybe it's because I believed him that I broke down.

I’d never known a life without my father, and I didn’t want to learn how to. That was how my grief slowly evolved into something much worse. My coping mechanism became a very real hallucination of him. No one could tell me it wasn’t real at the time, that’s how bad it was.

I had long conversations with Dad every day, we were inseparable. Sometimes we’d argue, but we always worked it out. Neighbors learned to leave me alone when I talked with my deceased dad.

I told Dad about my ambitions and goals. Where I wanted to go to college. What I was going to major in. The type of job I’d apply for. 
Those were the sorts of things he’d want to know. The things that would have made him proud.

When I was finished, I stood up and touched the headstone. “Thanks for the talk, Dad,” I said. I kissed my palm and pressed it to the inscription of his first name, then turned and made my way back to the car.

I felt a little uneasy as I entered the vehicle, as if a thousand eyes were piercing me. Slowly, I let out a shaky breath, tightening my hands on the wheel.

My fears were confirmed when I heard a deep, grotesque sneeze from the backseat.

I was afraid to look back to see who was back there, but as i wrestled with my fear, i heard a familiar voice call my name, he said.....

“Orazia! Orazia Venezuela!” 

I caught my breath. Everyone knew we weren’t supposed to use our real names here. I had to leave quickly. 

I filled my pockets with breath mints, put my glass on the bar, and headed for the door.

I bolted out with my heart racing and my adrenaline running wild. My mind raced nonstop and anxiety caused me to break out in a sweat. I had to stop once my body finally began to give out on me as the adrenaline wore off. I can’t believe I said my real name.

English

In my haste, I hadn’t noticed which direction I’d run, but I felt the eyes upon me. Then I saw them. Large black eyes set into the rocks and natural structures. As I watched, figures stepped from the surfaces, the natural tones shifting. The now silvery figures whispered my name.

..memories of the life he had, the family and friends. Knowing that they will miss him and he will miss them as well. Most of all knowing that the mission he embarks on starting a new colony on Mars will start a new chapter not only for him, but for humanity.

Dreams Wash Away

Dreams Wash Away: Part II

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Avery B

Dawn Rasmussen

Hannah Call

Josh Crawford

Fortune cookies. I've been making them for eons, directing entire Chinese restaurants in the delicate art and penning the predictions down myself. It was all supposed to be one big hoax, just a fun family thing to do. Never had I thought that I would be judged after death for it.

Death was an unremarkable event, at least in my case. Old age, a brief illness, blackness... Consciousness, of a kind, came to me and with that came beings of light who guided me into a vast hall. "WE ARE DISPLEASED WITH THE FORTUNE COOKIES YOU MADE DURING YOUR LIFE!"

I stared at the light beings. “I’m...sorry?” I said. “I just produced what the fortune cookie company told me to. I didn’t make them up.” Suddenly one being—glowing brighter than the others—floated toward me. “Ah, but you had a magical gift when you were alive,” it said. “All of

the things you wrote would inevitably come true.” I thought back to all the fortune cookies I’d written and frowned. “I wish I had known that were the case,” I said. “I never would have taken that job at the fortune cookie factory.” I wondered how many lives were permanently

ruined by my uncaring pen, scrawling foreboding messages on tiny slips of paper, to be stuffed between the cracks of a dry cookie. "I must make things right," I said to myself. I now had a purpose in life: to

find all the cruel fortunes I had written whilst I had been possessed by that evil demon, and replace them with the most loving of affirmations. Locating all the Chinese restaurants to which they had been distributed would be the most daunting of tasks, but

It was the only way I felt I could possibly redeem what shards of goodness were left in my now blacked soul. I often found myself wondering if I had fought the possession hard enough, while also pondering the ability of those unpossessed to write equally as cruel fortunes as I

can write on my worst days. People wonder how our fortune cookie bakery, Fortunes 500, became a cultural force. That’s my doing.

The secret's out. I was in fact the one responsible. I turned our little company into an international juggernaut overnight by utilizing mass crowd appeal. No one cared about fortune cookies at the time. I changed that in one massive advertising push. Taking us all the way to the

top restaurants. I was the one who’d thought up the numbers and fortunes. Those numbers weren’t lucky. Those fortunes weren’t that profound. Now it was out. My reputation was in jeopardy. So was my job!

Penance in the World Hereafter

Zoe Becker

Jerry glanced down at the photograph in his hand, then back up again at the woman sitting alone at the back of the cafe.

It was her alright. His high school crush. He hadn’t seen Cindy in 10 years. Not since graduation.

All at once a blinding light coursed through the space. Jerry and the woman froze. And then a creature appeared, seemingly from the air itself.

Jerry reached for his sword. The creature wanted to kill them both. He wasn’t about to give up without a fight though. Neither of them were.

Erin Malody
@erinmalody

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