Flash Fiction

Fantasy

Anti-Capitalism vs. the Man of Flowers

One time at a convention I ran across the Man of Flowers, the Superman of Daffodils, a long-haired guy, indestructible (of course), who slept in his car and drank a lot of cough syrup and didn’t really fight crime, unless the crimes were happening pretty close by. He was old by then, maybe fifty years old, but with stubble and green eyes and that ageless Tom Petty So-Cal face, and we’d gotten used to the idea that this particular ubermensch was more super-hero vibe than actuality.

In Aug. 2025 (Issue 183)

Science Fiction

The Dream Tourists

by Sarah Langan

Defense Attorney John Yurasov: Earlier you referred to this trial as a circus. Can you explain what you meant? Defendant Michaela Xiao: I don’t mean it was corrupt. Though that’s very possible. I just mean that the conclusion was always foregone.

In Aug. 2025 (Issue 183)

Fantasy

Dad Went Out to Get the Milk

by Osahon Ize-Iyamu

Dad went out to get the milk and came back with two scars on his upper chin and a brand from the Druid King on his right thigh. He stumbled through the door like it was nothing; face scarred; eyes full of light.

Mum and Tega and I were eating dinner. We didn’t notice when he stepped through the door.

“Milk’s cold,” Mum said, not taking her eyes away from the TV. These days, she hardly seemed to care.

In Aug. 2025 (Issue 183)

Science Fiction

Five Dispatches from Conflict Zone W-924/B Regarding Post-Battle Deployment of A. Thanatensis

by David Anaxagoras

Dispatch #1. [INAUDIBLE] . . . but hopefully I’ve got the recorder working now. This is Dr. Nathaniel Letheford, Director, Alliance for Military Neutralization and Eradication of Sensitive Incidents and Atrocities. I have been inserted into conflict zone W-924/B for sample collection.

In Aug. 2025 (Issue 183)

Science Fiction

Finding Love in a Time Loop: A How-To Guide

by Leah Cypess

We all know, by now, how common time loops are. In less than a decade, they’ve moved from the realm of SF movies into the slightly less-realistic realm of self-help books—most famously, Moving On: How to Keep Going When Time Literally Stops.

In July 2025 (Issue 182)

Fantasy

Un-Pragmagic: A Tyler Moore Retrospective

by Spencer Nitkey

Tyler Moore’s spells strive to exist in and of themselves. They make no excuse or justification for their existence: no promise to speak to the dead, predict next year’s grain or gold prices, or read the mind of lawyers during a hostile takeover. They are simply beautiful, challenging, and awe-inducing.

In July 2025 (Issue 182)

Science Fiction

How to Win Against the Robots

by Katherine Crighton

Mom lives in a little place off the old meat-packing district, the streets full of cobblestones peeking through asphalt as hipsters turn the bones of slaughterhouses into bespoke gin bars. It’s expensive.

In July 2025 (Issue 182)

Fantasy

What Else, What Else, in the Joyous City?

by Sadoeuphemist

In Salemo, virtually the entire populace is kept in drudgery and toil. There are no public parks, nor libraries, nor song, nor wine, nor holidays. People slave away in seventy-two -hour workweeks, sustained by unnourishing meals of corn meal and grease, returning home to their miserable hovels at the end of each day to collapse on their stinking cots.

In July 2025 (Issue 182)

Fantasy

My Mother, the Supervillain

by Benjamin Blattberg

Mom still has good days, some days. Those days, when I visit her at Alpine Rest, she knows who I am and asks how her grandson Jack is. On her not-so-good days, she tries to summon the Fire Cosmic and screams that I’m in league with Professor Incalculable.

In June 2025 (Issue 181)

Science Fiction

See Now the Misfortune of the Thinking Tenax

by Lowry Poletti

See now the misfortune of the thinking tenax. It is alone. The other tenaces have been chased away. Their gore stains the thinking tenax’s mandibles, and its roar drives them further back. Their flickering eyes peer out from behind feldspathic spires.

In June 2025 (Issue 181)