In the quiet village of Eldham, ninety-year-old Sonje Rapp holds a secret more enduring than time: her cow, Anabelle, whose milk carries the power to heal, preserve… and perhaps, reverse fate itself.When Sonje's estranged grandson Herrick returns, desperate and debt-ridden, he sets his sights on her most precious companion.But Anabelle is no ordinary cow, and Sonje is no ordinary old woman. What begins as a quiet standoff between generations spirals into a ...

Previously published as 'Undoing Cycles' by Noct Moll.Ignorance is bliss, knowledge is suffering......until you remember your past.Seventeen-year-old Lisa manages the laundry at the hotel between worlds.Has always managed, in the eternity stretching backward.Will always manage, in the eternity stretching forward.In other words, forever. Because that's what the worker-residents of the hotel do for the re...

In a world where touch brings oblivion, a girl with hands that make things vanish must decide if her power is a curse—or salvation.Nine-year-old Laika has spent her entire life within the walls of a secretive hospital run by religious fanatics, where her deadly touch is contained by milk cartons tied around her hands.When a burned boy named Helio arrives and discovers that Laika's touch reveals his inner light instead of destroying him, their unusual powers...

Nothing beats watching cat videos.Especially in a world where cats don't exist anymore.Flora loves nothing more than cats.And Firmament, an advanced algorithm, shows her exactly the kinds of videos she loves.So, with a practically infinite reservoir of cat videos, Flora is fairly content--even while living in a coffin-like metal booth. All human survivors live in one of these booths in a pit, after all.Everything stays splendid, until...

When a simple airport delay becomes a fight for humanity's future, technician Aria Rush discovers that some connections run deeper than code.Aria thought she was just helping an elderly man and his malfunctioning aidbot navigate airport security. But Antonius Wang isn't just any old man—he is the reclusive genius who revolutionized the bot industry. And his "broken" bot isn't broken at all.Now Aria is running through a world where the line between human and...

"Band 1" is a chronological collection of previously published short stories by Ithaka O.- - -List of stories in this collectionMoonlight Through the ManholeTo Me Who Is UselessBecause They Don't Bleed RedSilver LiningReplaceablesMuseum of Earth Art

Arthur Schopenhauer. Frida Kahlo. Helen of Troy.Bazz is the proud designer of the unique, noble, and memorable faces given to these icons.Art. Craft. Life itself. That is what face design is, for Bazz.He does whatever it takes to design faces that make a human's life worth living: spending long shifts at his workstation at the Face Design Department, dealing with his uninspiring boss, and limiting his existential rumination to the briefest of moments so that he does...

Three stories, each based on three random words.1) marsh, month, birdNothing beats a peaceful walk through the marsh, K told herself. Whistling a cheerful tune, she followed the winding path around a pond of elegantly floating ducks....2) eye, exploration, morselWhen X learned that one of her eyes had gone blind, she didn't cry....3) obstacle, sculpture, assessmentNot anybody and e...

Everybody and their neighbor's dog thinks they can handle the truth.But the truth is, they can't.Three years ago, Madame Polonaise's Palm Reading Salon went by a different name: the Scientific Palm Studies Institute.Decorated more like a dentist's office than a fortunetelling shop, the Institute suffered from misbranding. Only when Madame Polonaise gave up much of her self-respect (and abandoned words like "objective," "logical," an...

In a world where immortality is the ultimate secret, one moment of truth unleashes decades of deadly consequences.When college freshman Henry Ward asks Celeste a seemingly innocent question—"Are you a vampire?"—she makes the fatal mistake of answering honestly.What begins as an intoxicating romance between a curious human and a lonely immortal spirals into a dangerous game of manipulation spanning twenty years. After suddenly disappearing with a vial of her...

Survivor's guilt. It comes in all shapes and forms.Even as a funeral guest.Kevin Ralter blames himself for his wife's death. Little does he know that she met someone up there in the clouds before drawing her last breath. Can Kevin handle an unexpected meeting with this mysterious figure?

The closet swallowed his little sister. It really did. And yet, a year later, after it spat her back out, Elmer Warde must lie: I imagined it. I am insane.This, after people suspected him of kidnapping his own sister.And after they accused him of trying to murder her.This is the ironic aftermath of a horror story that gets "solved": the loved ones of the missing person (now missing no more) face a fallout. Elmer's only hope of staying in touch with...