Suffocating under the weight of the moon, I left—down the street, across the town, into the plane, toward the sunrise, over the sea, out of my seat, onto the bus, between bright towers, among the strangers. Then night fell over the strange new land and the same moon rose.

Karris Rae is a fiction MFA/MA candidate at McNeese State University. Her chapbook, We Obedient Children, recently won the 2024 Etchings Press Chapbook Contest in prose. Her short work has appeared or is forthcoming in 100 Word Story, Fourth Genre Magazine, Eunoia Review, Mount Hope Magazine, and Gargoyle Online, among others.