“Is there really cake?” I asked.

Chapter 3.5

It had been three weeks since Rashda had gone downstairs to see what happened to Belinda. He had never confirmed what I thought occurred to her, but his statement referencing The Godfather made it seem likely.

I had spoken to John about it, and he agreed with me. We had watched the movie a few times, but now I felt like removing it from the ship’s archives. I didn’t think I could ever watch it again.

Spring! What a beautiful time of year! Everything is green. The grass, the new buds on plants. Even the Tamarack trees are producing green needles again.

So it was with buoyant hearts that the couple planned their wedding.

Raquiel

by Erisian

Light flickers across the café table's turquoise checkerboard and the cigarette's smoke curls upward, mixing with the scent of coffee and the coming rain. Voices bubble all around to fill the evening air with bursts of laughter and camaraderie, but to them I do not listen.

Instead I stare.

My gaze is fixed upon the plain white envelope resting upon the fake marble tabletop where it sits next to an ignored saucer and cup. Yet my eyes see past it to a place so very far away, beyond the reaches of this world. To a place whose name could best be translated as the Edge.

The Edge of all things.