“We weren’t entirely truthful last weekend when we told you that Davey couldn’t remember what had happened during the months he was gone,” Carson said. “Davey told us where he’d been and what he’d done, but... until a few days ago, we didn’t believe him, because we didn’t have evidence, and his story seemed pretty far-fetched.”

Indian Red
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

“So, there is family history?” he said. He was playing with my pubic hair.

“Pay attention,” I scolded him. “I will read you some of the early passages from the journal.” I had the copy with me, beside the bed. The original had become too fragile with age. “Now, remember, this was the Battle of Adobe Walls in November 1864, when my grandmother was only 18, and serving in the New Mexico Volunteer Cavalry, which was really just cowboys and gunslingers under army command.”

An Altered Fates Story
A second look at the 1967 film, The Graduate
and the 1963 novella of the same name by Charles Webb.
By Iolanthe Portmanteaux
 

“What are you doing, Jenny?” Ben asked.

In answer, Jenny took his glass and brought it to his lips, forcing him to take a generous sip.
“What do you think I’m doing? I’m getting you drunk, so you can take advantage of me.”

A cryogenic experiment, A brave volunteer starts to dream about being the opposite sex. Is it malfunctioning equipment or intentional or something entirely different all together.

“This is going to be Sashtun’s first-ever movie, kids. It needs to be something special. Not whatever new movie you’re burning to see. Everyone, what’s the best movie you’ve ever seen?”

"Hey Bob, I mean Bobbi, I've meant to ask, you were a fitness nut before you became a girl, do you still work out?"

"Oh yes, I want to keep my figure. But I learned the value of a sports bra after I tried jumping jacks."

It had been three weeks since that night, so far the confirmed number of those who have changed have stablized around seven hundred and forty thousand plus or minus a few.

“We can sell it as a retirement package,” Carson said. “An eighty-year-old man might think it’s worth the... inconvenience of becoming a woman if he can be forty again.”

Tales of the angel pandemic.
Chapter one.

 I was having a peaceful dream about a night I had when I was still in college.

I don't remember this girls name but I remember her, we were dancing and just about to kiss when the alarm went off.

I opened my groggy eyes and looked at the clock, it wasn't my alarm but my phone, looking at the clock and mentally groaning as it showed 3:16 am.

I answered my phone, "Doctor Peters, who is this"? 

"Pete, sorry but my phone died and i ha....

“Mom,” I called downstairs, “I don’t have any underwear!”

A few moments later my mom was standing in my doorway looking at me. I was late for breakfast having ignored my sister the first time she told me to get up and now my sisters were downstairs eating while I was still wearing my pajamas.

“What’s all over your floor,” my mom said while she glared at me.

“Dirty clothes,” I said.

“So,” she said sternly, “you do have underwear - only they are all dirty as you haven’t put them in the hamper like I’ve told you to do a hundred times.”

After supper, when she returned to her hotel, she felt so lonely that she broke down and decided to call Carson or Amanda, even at the risk of annoying them. Perhaps she could ask them to let her speak with Davey? But when she got out her phone and tried to use it, nothing happened.

Kim felt the universe shifting around him, the barriers of reality dissolving like mist before the sun. More than that, he felt his body melt and run inside its skin. Long blond hair swept down past his shoulders, unrolling like a platinum curtain. He was changing, altering. His clothes faded from his limbs as the transformation took effect. Looking down, he had a blurred image of naked flesh morphing between genders...

He didn’t dare go through it himself. He’d seen how Devi grew into a ten-year-old boy and Sashtun aged into a woman into her forties; if he went through, he could be well over a hundred, too feeble to walk back through under his — or her — own power, and prone to dying of old age at any moment.

“And even if his story is untrue, it’s not necessarily a sign of mental illness in children his age to make up strange stories. So I’ll refer you to a child psychiatrist, but I suggest you keep an open mind and check that mural in Davey’s bedroom from time to time to see if it exhibits any... strange behavior.”

Family Jewels
By Ellie Dauber (c) 2007

Here's a gargoyle inspired by the recent release of files from the Central Intelligence Agency. I hope you enjoy it.

* * * * *

“Do you want to tell me what happened?”

 

“I don’t know,” Davey said. “Are you going to believe me? Mom and Dad didn’t.”

 

“I promise I’ll listen,” Dr. Menendez said.

Dana’s Story, Part 8

Dana and Kathy prepare for the upcoming birth of their twins. Dana has a few challenges to be able to take over feeding the twins after they are born.

“But why would Davey back up her story? Or why would she back up his, if it’s not true? I’m having a hard time believing it, but I’m having an even harder time figuring out why they would both tell such a far-fetched lie.”

She jumped out of the bath, hastily threw on a robe, and rushed to the room where the portal-cabinet was stored, carrying a towel. She was overjoyed to see the portal still open as she entered the room.

By Jasmine Monica Chapter 20

The Prophet
Serinina takes on Italy and makes final preparations for her landing on the Golden Isles. Patinea finds herself more frustrated with her sisters success and events in her personal life.

It's been awhile! For the last few years, life's journey has been taking absolutely everything I have to give it. However, I have cranked out this modern take on the theme of the Fates messing with your life, thrusting you into the kind of situation that makes you feel trapped and teaching you the harsh lesson that control is an illusion. Writing about that metaphorically was a great exercise that I thoroughly enjoyed. I hope you enjoy this story!