Strange Fish

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by Madas A. Hatter

Squelchy and sickening snaps echoed across the frozen tundra, dulled only by guttural grunts of the silky-feathered masses. The creature below had long since stopped squirming. Its pitiful keening had faded into silence. The Great Emperors were glad to have succeeded in this hunt.

Red splattered the white snow as the penguins ripped the fleshy creature with their beaks, pulling the muscle and sinew from the bones. This particular creature had not been scaled, but rather covered in a strange, black, rubbery second skin. It had fought at first, but the blood loss caught it quickly.

What a strange fish.

Madas A. Hatter

Madas A. Hatter is a young writer from Victoria, Australia. He enjoys bringing stories to life with LGBTQIA+ characters, and mainly writes dark fantasy, mystery and horror. When he isn’t writing, Madas A. Hatter spends time with his family, hugs his dog or plays DnD with his friends.

Instagram: @madasahatter07

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The Ice Tunnel Closes

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by Dan Peacock

The ice tunnel is getting narrower. I’m on my hands and knees, trying not to think about how many of them are behind me. Their beaks are nipping at my boots, but so far, I’ve been able to kick them back. My feet are so cold that I can’t feel my toes.

As I worm my top half through the gap, they catch up to me. I look down between my legs, at the mass of eyes and beaks wet with blood, at what’s left below my ankles, and realise I must have lost my boots a long time ago.

Dan Peacock

Dan Peacock is a First Reader at Orion’s Belt and The Dread Machine, and his work has appeared, or is forthcoming in F&SF, Kaleidotrope and Etherea, among others.

Website: danpeacockwriter.com.

 

The Midnight Feast

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by Rachel Grifno

We find him sleeping on the family’s feathers. Most are crushed under his weight, but others flutter in the winter storm. We can smell them—all the adults slain and broiled by the monster himself. We had all feared his bloodlust, but none had known his strength.

Now, he sleeps, twice as big as the rest of us. Blood has dried on his white underbelly, like a red tie. Hanging in his slumbering beak are bits of penguin meat. His own family, ours.

We survivors wait under cover of night. Anger shakes our cores, driving us to action.

We are hungry too.

Rachel Grifno

 Rachel Grifno is a journalist and teacher based out of Washington, DC. This is her first fiction piece, but she has journalism work in Bethesda Magazine, Chesapeake Family Life, and others.

 

Jodi Christensen

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Small town Utah is where Jodi calls home. She spends her days in a turn-of-the-century farmhouse, reading, writing, editing, and mentoring other writers. Her daily companions consist of her rambunctious and adorable six-year-old grandson and two rowdy dogs, all of whom bring her great joy.

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Ice Packs

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by Carys Crossen

After decades of global warming, the new ice age left humanity gobsmacked. The oceans solidified, the forests and fields were scoured by blizzards, oil froze into black diamonds. The population halved within a year.

The penguins marched up from the south like iron filings towards a magnet. They had been shackled by hot, dry earth, but on ice they were transfigured into torpedoes, bullets.

They hunted in packs. Humans, who had held the evolutionary advantage for so long, were helpless. Their efforts to flee futile, they were knocked down and ripped apart by razor-like beaks.

It was quicker than freezing.

 

Carys Crossen

Carys Crossen is a writer from Manchester UK who writes about ghosts, wolves, magic, rebellious women and wild places. She mostly writes short fiction but is working on her first novel. She lives with her husband, daughter and their cat, who is more than a match for any penguin.

Instagram: @swintonwriter

 

His Offering

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by Evan Baughfman

The male drops his offering at the female’s feet. She examines the rock, contemplating if it’s worth starting a nest with this other penguin.

Then, she realises the gift it isn’t a stone, but a human eye.

On the beach: butchered “ecotourists,” pecked to ribbons by frustrated seabirds. Penguins are tired of oil spills, of habitat loss.

The appreciative female squawks. Her happy suitor dances.

However, a rival appears, delivering his own present—a man’s skull, dragged in by tongue.

The female returns the eye to her first admirer, now looking ahead to a future with a more impressive mate.

 

Evan Baughfman

Evan Baughfman is a middle school teacher and author. Much of his writing success has been as a playwright. A number of his scripts can be found at online resources, Drama Notebook and New Play Exchange. Evan also writes horror fiction and screenplays.

 

L.N. Hunter

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L.N. Hunter’s comic fantasy novel, The Feather and the Lamp, sits alongside works in anthologies Hidden Villains: Arise and several from Black Hare Press, as well as Short Édition’s Short Circuit and the Horrifying Tales of Wonder podcast.

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The Eyes

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by Liam Hogan

The nose is a smudge, the mouth a line, but the eyes…

The eyes are huge, and wide, and a soulless black.

My gaze is frozen, my hand, reaching for the off switch, rigid.

When I fed ten years of anime into the AI, I thought I knew what I’d get: copyright free digital art. But when I asked for the most terrifying image it could conjure, I never expected this…

Never expected eyes that locked onto mine, paralysing me with dread.

Never expected eyes to fall into, an abyss, dragging me down…

Never expected eyes I could never escape.

 

Liam Hogan

Liam Hogan is an award-winning, London based, short story writer.

Website: happyendingnotguaranteed.blogspot.co.uk

 

Freedom 不羈

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by Lori Green

Jun ran her fingers down the tender flesh of her arm, the scars long healed. A gift from her father.

His voice still echoed inside her skull. Buta. Nothing but a pig, an unwanted girl. Before she turned; she would have done anything for him.

No matter, the hakken had embraced her now as one of their own, a daughter of the pack. Emiko was her senpai now.

She threw her head back and howled as she raised her father’s severed head, her fangs still dripping. She let the blood pool on her tongue, savouring the sweet taste of freedom.

 

Lori Green

Lori Green is a Canadian author who enjoys writing dark fiction, horror, and poetry. When not writing, she can be found haunting the local cemetery on her morning walks. Published with Black Hare Press, Off Topic Publishing, Blank Spaces Magazine, and many more.

 

Magnetic Eyes

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by Lisa H. Owens

Kimmie will set me free, thought Digme, extracting the vial of luminescent drops hidden beneath his cassock. He’d traded hard-earned quiffles on the sorcerer’s promise of a life beyond reach of his cruel maester.

Liquid mercury—dropped upon Kimmie’s iron-gall ink eyes—begat cavernous pools of light and the animator bowed his head.

Maester Mange eagerly stroked his matted beard; Kimmie’s tempestuous eyes would make him rich.

Her image winked.

Mange gasped, pressing in for a closer look. Kimmie’s eyes glowed—fiery orbs of destruction—consuming the maester. He reappeared in the frame’s desolate background, a writhing smudge of ink.

 

Lisa H. Owens

Lisa H. Owens, an author residing in North Texas with two motley rescue dogs, has been published in several anthologies and various media outlets, including a two-year stint as a monthly humorist columnist. She credits her success to the support and mentorship of the late, great Steven Lester Carr. Her stories are often inspired by true events, usually including private jokes and family nicknames.

Website: lisahowens.com