I’d heard her name and said it sometimes under my breath because I liked the way it felt in my mouth: Cherry Smith. It felt so accidental, like halfway to the name of a superhero.

The teen ballerina dies in the locker room. Her ghost peels itself away from her body and overlooks the carnage, studying the way her cracked chest parts to reveal her insides. The teen ballerina has...

By Kelly Lynn Thomas And eventually, we all become ghosts. Our bodies fail. Our hearts cease. Our breath stills. But our souls, our essences, those indefinable, slippery, mystical things—those...

Seer: You’re able to tell the exact point when he’s lost interest. In you. In everything. You notice his gaze on his plate, the restaurant, the door, everywhere else. You watch him slip away, as if...

He sleeps in the basement with the spiders. I take the crickets in the upper bedroom. The cat sleeps in the okra during the day, and on top of three folded blankets at night.

Above my bones, the concrete slab presses down. On the other side of my body, it’s hot from the sun. On my side, it must be cool. I mostly can’t feel it anymore. I know that the life of the village...

by Sarah Leavesley The young woman in front of you is a conundrum. Normally, you can tell a person’s fate well before you read their tea leaves: you sift the dregs already knowing what you’ll find …

On the morning of the final bus-safety drill of the school year, Gina Thornton felt sick to her stomach. They were supposed to always dress appropriately for bus drill days—no slip-on shoes, no dre…

Are careful not to style their own hair, realising chignons and soft waves will cause the bride distress. Instead they cover their heads with silk scarves, each one a subtle cream, while the bride’…

Black Cake “Did you know that to get black cake right you have to leave it five days and five nights to rest before putting on the icing?” Abuela asked me while I sat in the kitchen licking my cake…

Like most things now, it began as a meme. Ashleigh Weingarten (@ashashbaby) posted a photo of herself biting a cheat-day cheeseburger and branded it with the caption Getting Ready for Hibernation. …

She imagines the Other Mary Owen sunning herself on a terrace in Mykonos, reservations purchased with the real Mary’s stolen credit card.

He found her in Portobello Market in a box of old postcards, between the guy selling antique cameras and the lady selling vegan hot dogs. He bought her for fifty p then took her home and cut a...

Every office has one: a tiny door tucked away near an elevator.