Tag: futuristic

All Stories, Horror

Hades Lounge by Jacob Otira    

literallystories2014

                                                

Part I:

HELLS KITCHEN

An arachnid-type beast roasts portions of sin-marinated corpses from inside a furnace in hell. Its tentacles slither along the hallways that connect Hell’s kitchen to the abyss, while holding onto non-silver platters filled with well-done souls for beings of the underworld to feast on.

As a passerby behemoth helps itself to a portion of sin-glazed appetizers, an ascetic’s essence is delivered as an array of gourmet selections to the holiest orders in Hades’ lounge. The martyr’s soul bears too much essence for Beelzebub and his priests, and so most of it is served to visiting heathens from heaven.

It’s here in Hades’ lounge where all energies made manifest by man’s thought, word, and emotion are fed to the holiest of deities after death—to again manifest life through rebirth.

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All Stories, Science Fiction

Human Resources by Salena Casha

literallystories2014

The first message on Elana’s iCom pulsed red as she stepped out of harassment training. This job gave her no time to breathe. When she’d signed on, they’d told her the cadence would be intense, like drinking water from an Old World firehose. Ironic, for obvious reasons. Just the thought of filtered droplets made her throat hum. Given the time, given her title as Head of Human Resources and Logistics, making jokes about water wasn’t ever in good taste.

It was her tenth day.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Horror

Chrome and Marrow by Maudie Bryant

literallystories2014

The metallic aftertaste of recycled oxygen lingered in my throat, each breath a sweltering struggle to survive. I tracked the merciless white sun as dust devils spun in the distance. Their swirling forms juxtaposed against the still figures before me.

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All Stories, Science Fiction

Last Call for Grams by Barry Yedvobnick

literallystories2014

They want some blood, so it’s time to tell Benji, my seventy-year-old grandson. His wrinkles came earlier than his father’s, yet he’s trim with little gray hair. He sits in the frayed recliner his father jumped on as a toddler. I hand him a cup, and he caresses my hand.

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All Stories, Science Fiction

Fortune’s Gambit by Ed Dearnley

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Ashley Lefey had seven outfits, a different colour for each day of the week. She’d developed the system whilst interning at Facebook, inspired by Mark Zuckerberg’s famous elimination of small unnecessary decisions. Unlike Zuckerberg, her wardrobe routine didn’t condemn her to a life of monastic grey t-shirts.

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All Stories, Science Fiction

Disconsolate Chimeras by Jie Wang

literallystories2014

I am standing on the beach. The sand under my feet feels like soot. An uncanny, organic look emerges from the bowing, rusting skeletons of the sea-view skyscrapers. He is gone, like his father, into the ominous, omnipotent water.

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All Stories, Science Fiction

Cryobaby by Sean Burke

literallystories2014

“Got any juice?” I asked Stewart when he pulled up. 

“Hello to you too,” he said, as his helmet collapsed into his collar.  He pulled a charge off his vest and tossed it to me. 

“How long she been up there?” he asked, shielding his eyes against the hazy, setting sun as he looked to the top of the bridge.

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All Stories, Science Fiction, Short Fiction

This God is Going to Happen by Leila Allison

literallystories2014

Once per year, Vicar meets her child at Altar. The event is a scheduled appointment, and means as much to both participants as an annual dental cleaning had meant to a First Form human being. For whatever reason, Awesome insists on yearly Vicar-class “mother-daughter” contact, which will terminate the year the color of the child’s skin changes from topaz to jet, thus signifying spiritual maturity.  At that point onward, they will neither see nor think about each other again. Vicars are happily solitary beings, in keeping with Awesome’s self-image.

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