The first sign of Lasar Falls was the felled water tower. Ten years ago, according to an article Callan read in the Falls Bulletin archives, the town had enough money to rip the old one down and build a new one, but ran out of resources before they could move the body of the old. The article showed an unfocused picture of the water tower halfway through its descent, surrounded by onlookers from the town waving their arms behind roped-off areas. Continue reading Fiction | The Water Tower by Graham Marema

Five gazed across the lab table at Kenneth. She recorded every detail: the way his hair fell across his forehead as he hunched over the schematics, the crease in his brow that meant he was lost in a world inside his head. How long had she loved him? It had developed so slowly over their three years together that she couldn’t say when it had begun. She just knew that it was real. Continue reading Flash Fiction | The Series Fives Are Due for an Upgrade by Eva Schultz

There are cathedrals buried in the hillside. He swears it on his life, on the sea rushing in, on the stars and all their planets shining. Not so far beneath the swaying ferns and paper birches, behind a thin veil of rich soil, there is another world. But when he reaches out to touch it, it crumbles into untransfigured earth every time. Continue reading Fiction | Burrower’s Prayer by Brianna Cunliffe

Eyes. To see the roads that have yet to be taken, or the ones that should be left alone. To remember the space your body takes up walking those roads in cracked shoes, feeling the breeze on your little toe. To believe in the possibility of survivors in the general store with its blown-out glass front and tipped over shelves, searching for supplies in the dark. Continue reading Flash Fiction | In the Case of an Emergency, You Must Have by Katherine Yeh

The hunter went away to a dark wood to get food for his family. The sky was hard and bright when he left, but soon it became dark. When he came to the woods, he was afraid. Bushes here did not grow berries. There were no apple trees. It was told that great wild pigs were known to roam the forest though, and that is why the hunter went, even when no one else did. People from the town and people from the mountain and people from the country said that it was not safe. Continue reading Flash Fiction | Hunter from the Stars by Evan Rodenhausen