By Clarissa Janeen (TW: blood, violence against children) There once was a woman whose son was sickly. She took him to the fae so that he could be healed and found a faerie who was willing to help her, but in exchange, she had to make a deal to serve the faerie for ten years. The woman agreed and the faerie bound her wrist with the mark of a begonia as a symbol of her Read more…
By Sadie Lallier I met her for the first time in my junior year of high school. She walked into geometry class wearing a hoodie for some band I can’t recall and black leggings, her dark hair thrown haphazardly into a ponytail. She smiled at me, and I don’t remember what happened for the next thirty seconds after that. It was just that smile, her smile, playing on repeat like an old roll of film Read more…
By Ryn Brierley I place the soda and bag of pretzels on the counter. “That’s twenty seconds, please,” the cashier says. I drop the pack of gum I was just about to add to the pile. “Twenty seconds? It should only be ten for all of this.” “Inflation,” he says. “I don’t make the prices.” I groan. I push in the vial behind my ear, and it clicks out with a soft ping. The small Read more…
By Zenia deHaven The Trojans believed that Achilles’ heroics were exaggerated. Many tales of demigods were thrilling. Perseus slaying the gorgon monster Medusa? Incredible! The children frequently requested a retelling of that one. The older ones loved hearing about Perseus defeating the behemoth Minotaur in Daedalus’ dark labyrinth. The stories of demigods were not new to Trojans, but the rumors of Achilles were absurd. There were whispers that he slayed his foes without looking at Read more…
By Theodore Boronkay Queer romance is a compelling example of social progress’ circularity. Instead of an incline, a hill where we become more enlightened with every step, human development is a merry-go-round where we return to a previous era after a full revolution. As Catherine, River McIntryre’s friend in the New Adult novel, Man o’ War points out, “If we could culturally lose the concept of indoor plumbing, who’s to say we won’t return to Read more…