Authors:
Cody Goodfellow,
Silvia Moreno-Garcia,
Jennifer Brozek,
Ahimsa Kerp,
Carrie Cuinn,
Gabrielle Harbowy,
Don Pizarro,
Madison Woods,
Richard Baron,
Juan Miguel Marin,
Maria Mitchell,
Mae Empson,
Nathan Crowder,
KV Taylor,
Andrew Scearce,
Constella Espj,
Leon J. West,
Travis King,
Steven J. Searce,
Clint Collins,
Matthew Marovich,
Gary Mark Bernstein,
Kirsten Brown,
Kenneth Hite,
Justin Everett
panorama.
Probably, they’d blown the circuit, or even the whole grid. It didn’t matter. It was over, and she was alive. Wasn’t she?
Shirley rolled over on the floor, over and over, laughing and hugging her bloody knees to her chest. He thought twice before he put down the gun, but then he rushed to her and draped her in a bathrobe. “I thought you were – I tried to–”
“You did the right thing,” she said, and kissed him. On the forehead. “Thank you, Marc.”
Shaky, she got up off the floor and deftly shrugged out of the bathrobe, then picked up and stepped into her dress.
“What should we do…?”
“About what?”
“The fucking resonator…”
“You can destroy it now, if you want.” She stepped into her boots and clumped towards the door, as if she’d just finished an appointment with her masseuse.
“But Shirley… you… if you’re… cured, then… what about us?” Marc wrung his hands, only then becoming aware of the oddly bloodless wound in his forearm. “I… I love you…”
She turned and looked at him, and she started to laugh. But then she looked up into the space above his head, and the laughter turned to a jaded gasp. “You’ve got a bad one, Marc.”
She turned and went out, closing the door behind her.
Something stretched to its limit and snapped in his chest. Stupid! He hadn’t even known how he felt until he’d spit it out.
Spinning around, looking for something to break, he found himself staring into a mirror.
He didn’t need the resonator any more, to see the thing that rode him, any more than he needed the device to feel it suckling his pain. Only a vague distortion of the air around his head and heart was visible, yet he could see it with his new organs of sight, his newly awakened mind.
All his life he’d been chasing a dream of a girl, when she was right behind him.
It was nothing like a human, nothing like a female, and yet it looked just like her .
“Hello, beautiful,” he said, and reached for the knife switch.
Madison Woods
DADDY’S GIRL
Whack!
A quick look confirmed what I already knew. Dammit . Angry welts on the back of my thigh reddened while I watched.
“I told you not to do that again! Don’t you remember?” Of course Theo wouldn’t remember. He never remembered. And neither did I. If I had, I would have known better than to stand within slapping distance of his cage.
A cold tentacle reached out tentatively, touched my inner ankle. Finding no reprisal it climbed a little higher, skittering to the back of my knee and slowly inched upward to thigh height. He paused.
“I know what you’re doing. It won’t work, so stop it,” I told him. Reaching down, I lifted the tip of it off my leg and fingered the raised welts from his initial greeting. Saucers underneath his fleshy arm flexed, sought purchase but failed as I stepped backwards and slipped from his grasp.
A wail ruptured from the cave and he pulled his arm back into the shadows.
“I know. Give me a little time and I’ll find someone. Maybe by this afternoon, okay?” He wouldn’t remain manageable much longer if I didn’t allow him a little release soon. Again his tentacle reached out and snaked around my ankle. Tenderly. No grabbing. No slapping. No welts.
My resolve weakened.
“Do you think you can take it easy?” I asked. Compliant rumbles reached my ear. He’d been able to maintain control before, and the results were pleasing for both of us. But that was a long time ago, before his long captivity. Being caged for the last eight months had done something to him, made him unpredictable. He didn’t even have fully formed saucers when we found him. I didn’t know if I could trust him now. Even as the tip of his tentacle crept higher, inching around and up my thigh, closer toward the sensitive flower he sought, his saucers grew more rigid and his grip tighter.
He couldn’t do it.
This time, prying him off was not so easy. He resisted and I had to use both