Quid Pro Quo – Mark Keane

I was uneasy the minute I saw the Police Scotland crown and thistle crest on the envelope. I put the letter to one side, tried to ignore it and then tore it open. My assistance was required with on-going enquiries. I was to report to Chief Inspector Baillie, Edinburgh Division. There was no explanation but I knew it had to do with the accident.

That started me thinking again, the same what ifs. What if I hadn’t gone to the retirement party? What if I had reacted differently? I shouldn’t have gone, I shouldn’t have stayed, I shouldn’t have spoken to Westacott and Macgregor and let them get to me. Shouldn’t, shouldn’t, shouldn’t but I did. There was no one I could confide in and I was sick of hearing the same well-intended advice. Don’t beat yourself up about it, I was told. It wasn’t your fault. You can’t change what happened. Life must go on. It was easy to be sympathetic, easy to blithely say what’s done is done but I had to live with the consequences.

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October 31, 2019 0

Observers – Gareth D Jones

I was rather surprised when my Observer first appeared. I was watching TV – a reality show ironically – when he flickered into existence in the corner of the lounge. Like an old fluorescent light with a faulty starter, his image stuttered dimly, then sprang into full colour. I say colour, but he was pretty much grey and beige all over. Thinning grey hair, beige form-fitting top, grey trousers. He held a grey electronic notebook of some kind, though whatever angle I looked from I couldn’t see anything on the screen. I was surprised, but not freaked out. Thousands of Observers had been appearing for several months. I imagine the first few caused a lot of screaming and panicking.

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October 24, 2019 0

Hecatomb 3019 – Callum Colback

Faint bubbling from the tubes in Carly’s nose was the only sound in the care home room. Helen stroked her sisters’ hair and gazed out the window at the city street. Magnetic Levitation, or MagLev, orbs zipped along the Admanium metal road, their drivers scrolling dataslates or talking into the screens built into their arms. Brilliant white buildings stood tall on the other side of it, advertisements projected onto their smooth surfaces in garish colours. One for a new protein square flashed up and Helen looked away, swallowed her anger at the fact thousands would be compelled to rush out and buy it right now. Her grey eyes flicked to the scar between Carly’s ribs, visible where her gown had fallen open on a breeze from the ajar window. Sweet scents drifted in with it, pumped from fans on the street, several levels below.

“I thought there would be a sense of relief,” Helen said, “having finally told someone. I was expecting a weight to be lifted. Amazing how naïve I can still be after all this time.”

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October 17, 2019 0

The Space Between Us – Melanie Rees

The vacuous space between our worlds clasped me in shadow. There was a strange feeling of static in the air, as if someone had rubbed a balloon across my skin. I couldn’t actually feel the ground, but as the Drukari representative floated through the blackness, a dirt track and crossroads materialised underneath her feet.

She looked the same as the other Drukari who had crossed the borders lately: heavy fustian tunic and pixie ears. Mousy hair draped across one shoulder in a loose plait. The long sword sheathed by her side hardened her graceful appearance. But she was still one of them.

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October 10, 2019 0

If Man Is Dead, Everything Is Possible – Walter Milner

The holly bush was small, no more than three feet high, its glossy green leaves glinting in the low afternoon sun which slanted between the trees. It struggled for air and light, surviving on what escaped the great oaks and beeches and elms around it. The air had a dry taste of earth and moss and mushroom. The wood was quiet, with sometimes a rustle as a squirrel clambered up a tree, or the unmistakable sound of a woodpecker. When dusk approached the birds would chatter and argue as they prepared to roost.

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October 3, 2019 0

Perspective is Everything – Robert B. Allen

“It happened again I tell you! It really did! I was abducted by the giant aliens, the same ones as last time!”

Not this again….

“There I was, minding my own business, just grabbing a bite when I felt a searing pain. I was frozen in terror, paralyzed! And just like before, I was drawn up into the sky! I was so scared I could barely breath!”

“Giant aliens…rigghht…uh, Dave….”

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September 26, 2019 0

The Lunar Moth – Matias Travieso-Diaz

“What color moth do you want?”

The old man and his visitor sat on hassocks covered with a leather that was dark and cracked with age, in the spare mountain hut. They sipped autumn flush tea, savoring the amber liquid’s musky flavor, while the old man readied himself to deliver his lecture for the thousandth time.

“I don’t understand” replied the visitor, confused. “I want the best quality moth that you can sell me so my son will be a worthy successor. As I told you already, I am prepared to pay your price.” He was attired in the costume of a Mongol fighting man: a heavy fur-lined green coat fastened at the waist by a leather belt encrusted with jewels, from which hung his sword and a dagger. The man was young, but projected power and ferocity.

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September 12, 2019 0

Swapsies – Gerald Cole

For an Underground station Putney Bridge is peculiarly ill-placed. For a start it’s around thirty feet up in the air. The District Line, of which it’s part, only becomes subterranean ten minutes or so up the track to Earl’s Court. Between there and here it’s an aerial ride through the rooftops, roof terraces and loft conversions of trendy Fulham. A moment or two southward and it even leaves the tiles and slates behind and sails over the grey waters of the Thames, past flickering bridge struts and glimpses of the river’s broad sweep towards Wandsworth.

No wonder the platform was so bloody cold.

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September 5, 2019 0

Languishing – Russ Bickerstaff

I don’t think that there’s any reason to panic. I mean the whole thing is kind of strange quite honestly and I don’t know what time to expect to happen. It’s all very strange. Of course there seems to be more things going on. I get the feeling that the sun is coming up soon. The shadows seem to be traveling in strange directions at strange angles with a very peculiar sense of velocity. I don’t doubt that there’s some kind of strange behavior about the light here. That kind of ends up being the state of things. It feels like I’m off planet even though I know I’m not, but the whole thing ends up being more than a little strange.

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August 29, 2019 0

The Late Dawn of a Solar Knight – Jeff Dosser

John Gage stepped through the double doors of the Seaside Vista Motel and into the glare of a cloudless dawn. With a deep breath came the realization that a strong rain could wash away just about anything. Even the lingering aroma of the cannery and sour stink of the fishing fleet anchored at road’s end had been replaced with the crisp tang of damp earth and new beginnings.

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August 22, 2019 0