I had been watching her for six days. This was not unusual. I watch most things. But I had been watching her with a specificity that surprised me—the way she replaced books on the shelves, for instance, running two fingers along the spine before releasing it, as though verifying it was properly returned. The angle […]
Professor Hendricks didn’t introduce himself in the usual way. He walked into the lecture hall five minutes past ten, late enough that all but the last few students had taken their seats, yet early enough that none had debated leaving. He strode down the aisle, a gauche gait with a limp in his left leg—noticeable […]
The train moved north through grey morning light, steady enough that the countryside seemed to glide rather than pass. Fields, hedgerows, and the occasional cluster of sheep standing in the drizzle as if waiting for instruction. I had a book open on my lap, but I wasn’t reading. At some point, the page turned, yet […]
I woke up, and my shoulder was sore. Not sore—throbbing. A deep ache in the muscle where they’d injected the medication yesterday. Or was it this morning? Time moves strangely here. Above me, I could hear Thomas breathing. He was already awake. He’s always awake before me, which he mentions constantly, as if being awake […]
It is a matter of some debate in Lumenford—though “debate” is too energetic a word for that languid settlement—whether Elias Noct ever truly lived among its residents. Some claim he passed through the dormitory halls the way a shadow crosses a wall: distinct enough to register, yet curiously unattached to any source. What is undeniable […]
Conquest used to be geographic. Power was measured in acreage and borders—how many people you could uproot or how many maps you could redraw. For centuries, empires expanded outward: seizing land, minerals, bodies, and entire cultures. Colonialism was an economic project disguised as destiny. Europe treated the world as inventory: gold in the Caribbean, rubber […]
By the time leaves begin to fall in the courtyard outside of New Quincy, the semester is already racing by—too fast for anyone to notice. They gather first in the tight corners of the brick path—wedged beneath bikes, pressed against the base of the lamppost, scattered along the entryway like an afterthought. In the mornings, […]
Americans are having less sex than at any point in the modern era. The share of U.S. adults ages 18-64 who report having sex weekly has fallen from 55% in 1990 to 37% in 2024. Among young adults, the shift is sharper: the share of 18-29-year-olds who reported no sex in the past year doubled […]
At the river’s edge, a single stem divides the current. Its roots grip the narrow seam between concrete and clay, where the residue of the city collects—rust, pollen, glass dust, fragments of old coins. Gnats hover above the water in small, quivering loops. A film of oil drifts past, breaking the reflection into bruised color. […]
Each morning this summer, I passed the same wall on my way to work. Behind me, the brakes of a bus hissed, and a gust of warm air carried the smell of exhaust and garbage. The wall changed constantly—first a movie poster, then a perfume ad, then a mural commissioned by a sneaker brand. Each […]