X – A Short Story by Cambria Hebert His voice brushed over me like a blanket of silk, slipping over my skin, the cool softness leaving chills in its wake. I might not have noticed him in this crowded bar, but his actions made it so he was the only one I saw. I don’t know where he was sitting befo...
She needed to map out the whole house so Bo could memorize the step count. It wasn't a foolproof way, but it would give Bo the freedom and confidence to move around more. Making it halfway down the steps, she heard Clay's deep voice coming from the kitchen and her brain turned to mush. She really...
Wonders and horrors of science thrill and amuse in this sparkling collection. Discover tales of alien love and hate, inspiration and revenge. Visit with ghosts on Mars; wake to unseen new dimensions. Observe other worlds and civilizations far in the future, and wonder with aliens about human ...
Three weeks of smelling like Cup O’ Noodles and dust, over. Three weeks of study groups, flipping through flash cards at lunch, and sleeping on Biology textbooks in the library, finto. With this last exam I completed another semester of college and it felt fucking great. Three semesters down, fiv...
Hell, I didn't really understand it either, until I tried it. Now I'm an account hoarder, but god I'm not the only one. The same nasties upload the same pictures across every site, but I can’t blame them. A person's odds of catching different kinds of fish were better in an ocean than a pond. &nb...
Brad glanced over and smiled at me, almost as though he could read my thoughts, before turning his eyes back to the road. “What’s next, mommy?” I turned in the seat to look behind me—sweet Chris, my little boy who was slowly creeping close to school...
Tattered britches made way to the worn body of a withered man. He exhaled and inhaled rapidly, doing his best to keep going. Frequently, he would look back behind him as if he was checking up on an advancing predator. He was thin, worn and dirty. His filthy hair clung to his sweaty unkempt face. ...
Weathered hands had hammered the narrow stretch of rotting planks together years ago; now they were crisscrossed with newer boards. He ran along the central beams placed on top in presumed reinforcement, despite his pain and limp. His footfalls echoed along the scored wood like a palpated heart. ...
Such an episode took place as late as February 12, 1892, on the smaller island of Lanai. The kahuna anaana or sorcerer could be either male or female. His professional calling included murder, in which he was guided by a familiar demon. “He usually does his victims to deat...
For over a year I had been the Corps’ executive officer; as commandant, I was charged with the responsibility of renovating a captured British airfield near the village of Myatauki, a tiny settlement of Burmese natives on the border of Thailand, about 200 miles southeast of Rangoon. In the openin...
Williams on Christmas night, 1895, in St Louis, Missouri. Versions of a song about the incident were sung by African-Americans long before folklorist John Lomax first published one in 1911. Stag Lee became a legend – either bargaining with the Devil before execution or hanged for the murder, but ...
Four months ago I was considered the top sports-betting analyst outside of Vegas. Now, after a Don from a rival family forced my hand to turn on my boss, I’m just another nobody hiding in the FBI’s witness protection program. My assigned cover includes the glorious job of head groundskeeper for t...
Brian was actually doing homework, and peace still reigned. He had no idea how Adam had pulled it off, but the two kids sat at the kitchen table like any pair of average schoolkids anywhere in the world. No drama. No strained nerves. Just focused work. According to the clo...
Ricky said. He wasn’t the kind for small talk with strangers, but the topic interested him. “The kind of man who coached Little League and attended church regularly. The kind the neighbors said they never would have suspected.” “A creep is what he is. I hope they fry him and send him to hell to f...
"Good afternoon. This is Bob Dunne, NBC News in New Haven, Connecticut. We're standing here in the lobby of the Hotel Taft in New Haven, where the first international racial war has just been declared. In just a few seconds, the two men responsible will be coming out of that elevator. (Can you he...
They went down the shaft, cleaned it-out, drilled another hole, and put in another charge. "Look here! How much fuse are you proposing to waste? Don't you know how to time a fuse?" "No, sir." "You don't! Well, if you don't beat anything 7 ever saw!" He climbed out of the s...
His novels include the international best-seller The Memory Cathedral, about the travels of Leonardo da Vinci outside his native Italy and the changes his fertile mind brings to other countries. Other works include The Man Who Melted, in which three Nebula-nominated novellas about a future societ...
She’s always been one of the nerds; no living, breathing guy with a functioning dick gives a fuck. Lexi chose early on in the sixth grade to alienate herself from the popular kids in school. Back then, we’d called them every infantile name in the book. Nerds. Losers. ...
Well over fifty guests were attending the Christmas Eve ball. Many, available young girls with their hearts set on a holiday romance.Typically, he’d set about giving them their hearts’ desires. Never let it be said that Jack Mayford didn’t spread himself around in order to offer up holiday cheer....
He lay shirtless, sprawled out on the wood of his deck, looking upwards at the night sky. The air smelled of the freshly mowed grass of his yard below and the portable stereo beside him belted out the chorus to Rush's “Working Man". He supposed he should be feeling sleepy as late it was. He g...