All Stories, Fantasy

Project Nüwa by Wanying Zhang

Palms slick with sweat, Daji paced around her penthouse waiting for Goddess Nüwa’s arrival. She hiccupped and noticed writhing shadows behind her. She drew in her eight fox tails that had kept slipping from her human figure since she summoned Nüwa about an hour ago. Today marked the hundredth anniversary of the creation of Project Nüwa. She sipped from a glass of a thousand-year-old baijiu and cast her gaze over Beijing’s city lights, a dense kaleidoscope of blue and white LEDs juxtaposed against flashing neon billboards. The World Trade Center, a sleek curtain of glass walls reaching upward, stood as a commanding presence against the city’s skyline. Rain splattered against the floor-to-ceiling windows, blurring the urban sprawl below into an impressionist painting.

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All Stories, Fantasy

Karass by Iván Brave

After piling the paper bills from his last passenger and placing the square photograph of his wife on top of the money, the ferryman lights a match. He lowers it slowly, shaking. But just then a breeze blows out the flame, leaving nothing behind but a thin waft of smoke. There are no more matches, unfortunately. Now his hut—earthy, with a cot, a bucket, and a small shrine inside—feels emptier than ever.

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