by Frank Luke We have a saying, “it is always darkest before the dawn.” The phrase talks about what CS Lewis and his friend Tolkien referred to as the eucatastophe, the good disaster. They mean the time in the story when everything looks the worst, but it is this sequence of events, this time when…
Life Plus 99 Years – Part I
by Silent Draco A life sentence is complicated by who pronounces it, and with what method … Part I “Husband,” said Hilda patiently, “bitte, why is it that we must return home by train? Could we not have returned by steamer? Business is very good for you. It is early October, beginning to cool and…
Can We See Too Far?
by Den Blonde Ulven July 19, 2023 My father and I performed some optic experiments near Virginia Beach in Norfolk, Virginia. The goal of this event was to check the hypothesis: can objects be seen further than they should be able due to the curvature of the Earth? We were standing on Ocean View Beach…
Stasis Treatment
by Michael Kingswood Some folks call dead bodies stiffs. And boy, they ain’t kidding. Couldn’t tell you what happened before then or how I got there. But when I opened my eyes on the cold stainless steel of the medical examiner’s exam table and looked up at the bright fluorescent lights shining down on me,…
O’Bannon’s Talisman
by Michael Kingswood Humidity made Carl O’Bannon’s shirt cling to his torso, almost completely soaked despite not being out and about all that long. He felt like he was sweating a river, though in reality it wasn’t all that hot out. It was like an ocean itself was condensing on top of him, and he…
When Sons Become Daughters: The Posterity’s Guardians Get Woke
God, Home, Country — DAR motto Eligibility. Any woman is eligible for membership in the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution who is not less than eighteen years of age, and who is lineally descended from a man or woman who, with unfailing loyalty to the cause of American Independence, served as…
The Shrine of Tulok
by Michael Kingswood Hot wind blew past Thurim, bringing with it the scent of impending rain overtop the other, more earthy odors that seemed to permeate the grasslands he was traversing. It whipped his cloak around behind him as he peered down from the hilltop where he stood. The garment was once bright scarlet but…
Bridge Mending
by Michael Kingswood I’m not a super sentimental guy, but there are times when even I look back on past events through the lens of nostalgia and pine for those long-gone, supposedly simpler times. Never thought an elf would do the same. When they gave the Big Guy the finger over working conditions and left…
Candlemass
by Michael Kingswood Ray knew he was in trouble the instant the lights came on. It wasn’t the two grim faces staring at him, round cheeks and narrowed eyes so similar the two men had to be brothers. No, it was what Ray saw past them that clinched it. A broad window through which he…
Sea Legs
by Michael Kingswood The light from the brass oil lamp hanging from the ceiling above me swirled, sending shadows careening around the room as the lamp swung and twisted about on its chain. The corners of my little room flashed in and out of view as the shadows swam, and I imagined I was somehow…