September-October 2023
Standard Edition + Brain Matter Variant + Antimatter Variant




Letter from the Editor: Borderland
By Rob Carroll
Fiction is often described as a doorway into other worlds. Stories are where we fall down the rabbit hole, step through the wardrobe, cross the River Styx, and enter the Upside Down....

Art Feature: Beyond the Veil
Art by Cho-hyun KimFeature by Rob Carroll
South Korean artist Cho-hyun Kim is inspired by the gothic: medieval patterns, ornamental frames, death, alchemy, literature, the afterlife. Her surrealist...

Art Feature: Final Girls
Art by Dan FrisFeature by Rob Carroll
There’s a collectible nature to the artwork of Dan Fris. His gory and grinning depictions of the “final girl” horror trope is a kaleidoscope of B-movie fun and...

Reprint Story: The Door is Open
By Warren BenedettoOriginally Published in The Storyteller Series Podcast
“The back door is open,” an automated voice said in a pleasantly informative tone.
Carol’s eyelids fluttered. They felt he...

Devouring the Starry Night
By Angela Liu
Like every night before, I begin my evening trek through the dark, dirt roads toward the spired white chapel.
The city is empty. Not a single person or creature. There’s only the slap...

My Other Half
By Belicia Rhea
I joined the new dating service Together Again, and I’ll admit it’s a little extreme, but I can’t bring myself to try anything else because I’ve had too many terrible relationships...

Stand Here, Close to the Light
By Murtaza Mohsin
At the start of our endless night, most of the security squad was a little drunk as it staggered towards the mining outpost. Some of the idiots were actually looking forward to ...

Glacial, Eternal
By Aleco Julius
It all began with a mysterious find. In the summer of 2019, a small team of underwater archaeologists from the University of Chicago was traversing the waters of Lake Michigan in se...

The New Family
By Elliott Gish
Through windows and over fences we watched the new family arrive on a bright, cold autumn morning. A convoy of moving vans slowly followed the family’s unwashed gray car up the str...
Issue 017 Authors

Warren Benedetto

Marlaina Cockcroft

Elliott Gish

Bill Gusky

Aleco Julius

Amanda Cecelia Lang

Angela Liu

Murtaza Mohsin

Belicia Rhea
Issue 017 Artists

Dan Fris

Cho-hyun Kim

Voodoo Salad
Cover Artist