Plugs

Ken Brady’s latest story, “Walkers of the Deep Blue Sea and Sky” appears in the Exquisite Corpuscle anthology, edited by Jay Lake and Frank Wu.

Sara Genge’s story “Godtouched” may be found in Strange Horizons.

Jason Fischer has a story appearing in Jack Dann’s new anthology Dreaming Again.

Susannah Mandel’s short story “The Monkey and the Butterfly” is in Shimmer #11. She also has poems in the current issues of Sybil’s Garage, Goblin Fruit, and Peter Parasol.

Silver Box

by Luc Reid

Carlo kissed Becca on the forehead and squeezed her hand as the bus pulled up. She smiled at him, and he smiled back so brightly, the light seemed to shine out of his whole face. As he climbed onto the bus, he waved, and then the doors closed and it pulled away.

Becca practically danced as she made her way down the sidewalk toward work. She had never imagined it could be possible to give her heart so freely, so easily, but she trusted Carlo, and Carlo trusted her.

Seeing Carlo off had made her a few minutes late, and she decided to cut through an alley that came out right across the street from where she worked.  Stepping from the May sunlight into the dirty shadows of the alley she shivered, but the aftereffects of Carlo’s kiss still radiated through her body, and she kept up her elated pace. Then someone grabbed her.

She didn’t even see him at first: the man just grabbed her from behind and jerked her down onto the grimy pavement behind a trash bin. A minute later he was on top of her, a knife held out in warning, pushing up her dress.

She should have been frightened, but instead she was furious. How dare he! Carlo would rip his eyeballs out if he were here. Her attacker lifted his body off her dress for a moment, and Becca took the opportunity to drive one knee up with all the anger and power she could muster into his crotch.  He jolted as though he’d been shocked, and his knife hand jerked reflexively and plunged into her chest, just to the right of her sternum. She gasped. He whimpered, pulled himself up, and stumbled away as fast as he could, still clutching his injured privates.

Becca pulled the knife out of her chest and threw it away as she sat up. Her dress, nearly new and worn specially to impress Carlo, was ruined–ripped and filthy, with a slightly bloody hole over the right breast. She picked up her purse and opened it nervously, taking out the silver box she kept there and lifting the lid. Carlo’s heart undamaged, beating steadily in its silken padding. She breathed a sigh of relief.

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