Every night, when she turned out the lights, the last things Hope saw were the amorphous ghosts of the curly light bulb pulsing against the darkness of her inner eyelids. Then they would fade and shrink and sleep would slip her away to countless bizarre and sometimes Freudian dreams; but not this night. This night the ghosts would not fade. Instead they merged and grew, coalescing into a pale green portal that beckoned he...

Dreidel mine, spin, spin, spin! By Marvin Rabinovitch It was Purim eve, and Meyer-Zalman Glayzel was so drunk that, as the proverb had it, he couldn’t tell Mordechai from Haman. Somehow or other, he found himself outside the shtibl where the other male inhabitants of Verbovsk were making merry over a reading of the megilla, the scroll of Esther. What was he doing here on the porch of the rickety beit midrash? Oh yes, he h...

UnleashedOver the years, since the destruction of Auraea, we had been regarded within our people with awe and envy. Our powers were unique and rare, and many expressed the desire at times to possess it. But, if they knew what having our gifts was truly like, then they might think twice. Fyan’s do not reproduce easily, long-living as we are, as our physiology is changeable and indescribably complex, even to our own doctors...

That sound. I know it’s the same sound. But am I dreaming or is it really there? I don’t really know anymore. Now what? Do I lay here and consider it last night's pizza giving my imagination something to do? Do I get up and let it happen again? I wonder, if I stay here and don’t check it out, will it start again or is that the trigger? It doesn’t matter, I can’t just lie here. I already wish it was over. Maybe it is, I ne...

Disciple The room was just what he was expecting – white, pristine and so perfectly sterile. Just what you would think would be inside the monolithic headquarters of the Ashcroft Foundation. He found the light painful – it felt like it was burning something into his mind. Or burning something out of it. The door to the room opened and a woman entered. He looked at her through creased eyes – he was finding that squinting s...

Strange Goings OnChapter One: Making Sense of it all By Nathan MullinsThere are strange goings on in Ealing. Only, the ordinary is less so, for what is going on, behind the scenes, is a mystery.- David bought the paper for its usual ninety five pence. He paid the shop keeper, who took his money and pocketed it. David was leaving, when the shop keeper called him back. “David, I say… have you read the main article?” he call...

Unique“Are you sure of the transmissions’ origin?” Andreat and I paused when Elder Kael’s voice drifted out from the control room, the concerned, troubled catch causing us to glance at each other. “Yes, Hyash-Ran*, the co-ordinates are very clear. It came from Carzan.” Carzan. The Cyrian’s home galaxy. Andreat’s mind, always open to me, shared her shock and fear with my own. “Then they are on their way here, if not here a...

At the End...The sky was beautiful that day. That is one thing I remember very well, through all the horror and sadness that followed, sometimes it is that one small detail, that one infinitesimal memory of that day, before everything went so wrong, so terrible, that gets me through the day. It was so vivid. The colour, the vast expanse of that bright shade, which unfairly only occurs on this single planet, out of hundred...