Flash Fiction: On the Evening of the Comet

It was nearly sunset when the comet streaked overhead, trailing ice and rock. My feet were sore after a day of hiking and eager to return home, but still I stopped and stared and wondered. At first I thought it was a plane, but the more I watched the more certain I became. There was...

Flash Fiction Friday: The Hospital of the Dolls

No one ever went into the doll's hospital. It had been there for years, perched grotesquely on Main Street between the post office and the ice cream shop. Children hurried past, casting grim, curious glances at the dismembered doll heads and little bodies, the same morbid collection as ever. One of them even seemed to...

Flash Fiction Friday: The Telephone and It’s Dog

"Operator," the dog barked. "I would like to make a long distance phone call." He was becoming quite indignant. The stupid human on the other end was being surprisingly unhelpful. Clearly, he had never been properly trained. Man might be a dog's best friend, but he was a stupid animal, barely able to function without canine...

Flash Fiction Friday: The Pickpocket Queen of San Francisco

San Francisco 1900. It had been five hours since Big Tilda had been arrested, and she was very upset. The police had locked her in an interrogation room without any respect for her status or so much as a by-your-leave and had promptly forgotten her. It was downright disrespectful. Insulting even. She was the Pickpocket Queen...

Flash Fiction Friday: Along the Waterfront

They waited on the waterfront for Mr. Birch to arrive. There were five of them—distinguished men in long coats and expensive shoes. Their cars were parked down the road, and their drivers were milling around out of sight. None of them wanted to be there. Mr. Summerscale checked his watch for the third time and...

Unexpected Stories by Octavia Butler

Octavia E. Butler was a Hugo and Nebula award-winning author of a number of series including Patternist, Xenogenesis, and Parable, as well as a many other stand alone novels and short stories. Unexpected Stories is a posthumous collection of two previously unpublished novellas—"A Necessary Being" and "Childfinder." "A Necessary Being" is the longer of the...