Posts Tagged ‘Short Fiction’
DESCENT INTO THE ARCHIVES
“We require the Tirani correspondence from the archives. Do not open it. Do not read it. Bring it to us.” The instruction came from the fax machine line by line, accompanied by toneless buzzing. M. watched the paper, searching for a way to escape this assignment, but there was none. The instruction was in writing,…
WeiterlesenTHREE EXPEDITIONS
“The Mountains of Oblivion grew higher at the horizon with every passing hour, and ironically, they might have been the only thing that one couldn’t forget in this desert made of snow. / The leaves and branches slapped him, scratching his skin with raw nails and, where he was covered with oiled leather or rusting…
WeiterlesenTHE CARNIVAL OF HUMAN NATURE
“Welcome to the carnival city, most extraordinary of visitors, our highly distinguished patrons.” The words reverberated from the house walls in a chorus of echoes, emanating from the gills of somber gargoyles and from murmuring water pipes. The city was a maze of fog and bridges, gondolas drifting over canals, their punting poles stirring up…
WeiterlesenTHE MELODIC TRAVELS OF A MAN SELLING LIVES
“Marcus smiled when he was happy and also when he was sad–he smiled when he made people laugh and when he made them cry. Every day at work, he changed people’s lives with a smile: when he sold them new costumes to slip into, consisting not of seams and fabric but of intangible concepts, of…
WeiterlesenDESCENT INTO THE ARCHIVES
“We require the Tirani correspondence from the archives. Do not open it. Do not read it. Bring it to us.” The instruction came from the fax machine line by line, accompanied by toneless buzzing. M. watched the paper, searching for a way to escape this assignment, but there was none. The instruction was in writing,…
WeiterlesenTHE GARBAGE MANDALA
“Irakov’s breath condensed in the air, barely visible in the traces of brightness that trickled down from the streetlights. The hours before dawn always seemed to be the coldest, perhaps because they were furthest from the sun, perhaps because the men themselves were still at their most vulnerable. “It’s some kind of mechanical device, like…
WeiterlesenPHOBOSTEUS
“The curtain rose, and the first act began. Falb stood in one of the claustrophobic hallways of the cruiser, surrounded by other soldiers. The projection screens in the walls had come alive and commanded everyone’s attention. Falb took a deep breath and clenched his teeth. Until a moment ago, the screens had only shown star-speckled…
WeiterlesenTHE DUST BATHYNAUT
“The rift divides the land in two halves, but neither of them is interesting. It is the rift itself that calls to people, entices them with its siren’s call from worlds away: only a dozen meters wide, with steep cliffs of grey rock and a bottom that can never be seen. Shine a light into…
WeiterlesenTHE MOON-SEALED MUREX
“The moon-sealed murex had been right in front of Lokala, so close she felt its radiation ripple over her skin, transforming it in gentle waves.
WeiterlesenTHROUGH TILED SPACES
“Their work done, Phalendra and her people gathered for the trek home, to their old lives and waiting families. None of them had seen the sky unfiltered for a long time, only through glass ceilings or high windows, and they longed for fresh air, without the stench of chlorine and disinfectants. They had stayed in…
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