Captured in Glass

/by
by A.J. Van Belle

 

I can’t remember when I moved into the lighthouse. Or why the beacon’s never lit.

Model ships of glass, perfect replicas, sit on every surface in my circular kitchen.

The nights are deep and the surf wild on the shoreline rocks.

A storm whips sea foam against the windowpanes. The outline of a schooner tosses in the dark, looking unreal through rippled glass.

When its splintered wood joins the rest of the wreckage in the coastal waters, another glass schooner model appears on my rotting wooden table. I caress it with ghostly fingers.

I have been here a long time.

 

A.J. Van Belle

AJ. Van Belle is a writer and biologist whose science background informs their fiction. They can be found online at www.ajvanbelle.com.

 

Curse

/by
by K.J. Watson

 

A wave crashed on the shore. As it withdrew, the foam-flecked water left behind a ship’s captain. Another breaker deposited her wrecked vessel’s figurehead.

Just my luck, the captain thought. Instead of rum, this has to wash up alongside me.

 The figurehead’s demonic eyes lit up. Seconds later, its ligneous body became animate flesh.

“Your craft’s destruction has ended the malediction binding me to it,” the figurehead said.

“I know nothing of any curse,” the captain replied, attempting to crawl away.

The figurehead reached out a taloned hand and hurled the captain back into the raging sea.

“Liar,” it muttered.

 

K.J. Watson

K.J. Watson’s fiction has appeared on the radio; in comics, magazines and anthologies; and online.