Summoning a ghost isn’t so hard. If your lips touch the teacup rim at dawn, you taste rose instead of chamomile. If you wear a diamond ring with initials you don’t know, you feel a hand in yours.
Sometimes you can hear them too, but don’t follow too far.
Alexa Donley is a speculative fiction writer from Federal Way, Washington. When not writing, she enjoys traveling and walking in storms.
There was something about the doll that was just a little off: its eyes asymmetrical, hair wild and wiry, lips a little too pouty, skin mottled. Still, her daughter loved it, playing with it often, embracing the creepiness of the strange toy in the way only a lonely child could.
Ran Walker is the author of over 30 books, including Apollo’s Toy Box. He teaches creative writing at Hampton University and lives in Virginia with his wife and daughter.
A cherub-faced, golden-haired toddler grins at me from a faded poster. Cute kid, but it’s the age progression sketch beneath the photo that stops me cold.
I study my reflection in the post office window and my stomach knots.
Looks like my “mom” owes me one heck of an explanation.
Jenni Cook spends her days in the courtroom as a corporate litigation attorney and her nights in front of the computer, making up stories. She is the author of several short stories, and is currently working on the first novel in a series called The Millicent Chronicles, about a centuries-old witch whose unique method of conflict resolution plays a role in history and present-day events. When she’s not writing or litigating, she enjoys acting, painting upholstered furniture, and rooting for her nephew’s college baseball team (#goscotsgo). Jenni lives in Northwest Arkansas with her Australian Shepherd, Jasper, whose antics are the source of much entertainment.