Fiction

“The Two-Way Mirror” by Nephtalie Charles

“Even though your height made you seem older, the tumbleweed of coils on your head and your chubby cheeks always revealed your true age.”

“To Have and to Hold” by Mackenzie Gregory

“Ember was always like this—constantly defending Roy for his shitty behavior towards her. Ophelia wasn’t entirely sure if her friend did this on purpose, or if she was just terrified of the thought of the life she has always lived changing right before her eyes.”

“First Date Ideas” by Annie Elizabeth Kreiser

“You ask me what my friends are like and I tell you that I don’t have any. You pull a Rolodex out of your purse and flip through, looking for someone who might find me tolerable that I will not loathe.”

“Dear Me” by Emily Mangold

“Perhaps it was simply the joy any mother would gain from holding her newborn for the first time, the same unspoken love that would never be broken as time passed, the love that would be expressed even when a child grew older and no longer needed their mother anymore.”

“A Distraction of Whales” by Arthur Roberts

“She heard them before she saw them. The song of the Serra carried high over the trees from the river below. Finding an outcropping of rock, Monica climbed up and gained a clear view straight to them.”

“The Secret Visitor” by Arthur Roberts

“Memories of her explorations over the last three years flooded her mind, and she knew. Three years of climbing mountains, hiking through forests and across deserts, scaling cliffs, and hiding from wild animals that desired her for a meal. Nights spent in a predator’s territory. Samples collected in the middle of a blinding storm.”