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Irradiated by Hartley James

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A supernatural task force is sent to Manhattan to silence an existential threat. Image generated with OpenAI Bon leaned his head back against the metal panels behind him, feeling the throb of the four turboprop engines through his skull. Bonaparte Cage, you have been judged . He could almost feel the words running through his head, traced in half-formed fire. He opened his eyes a crack and shifted his heavy-lidded gaze to Katya. She was watching him, a look of - it was hunger, and something more, longing? - etched across her face. He didn't need to look to know she was watching him. He could feel her, feel her presence. He'd made her after all. Yet another act to add to the litany ensuring his damnation. Katya had made her own choice, but what real choice was it? Anyway, he had other concerns than the morality right now. The interior of the MC-130 echoed with the noise of the engines and the voices of Maklin and Duval. The occasional muttered consultation passed between the m...
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Where Wildflowers Bloom by Renee Tawa

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Bill and his daughter Leilani live on an isolated nature reserve, but Bill wonders if she needs something more. Image generated with OpenAI From the top of a cliff overlooking the Pacific, Bill watched the sixty-five-foot catamaran motor toward their island. Under the spring sun, he kept an eye on his little girl, Leilani, who was zigzagging through wildflowers so tall that they might have escaped from a giant's garden. Bill, the island's ranger, wore a clean, pressed khaki uniform. He and Leilani lived alone on Bluff Island, a national park twenty-two miles off the coast of Ventura, California. Lately, the mainland - usually a forgettable mass on the horizon - had been pushing into his thoughts, as much as he tried to ignore it. On the cliff, he and Leilani decided that the first person who spotted a dolphin could name it. In the turquoise waters, a long-beaked dolphin surfed the bow waves of the approaching tour boat. "Banana!" Leilani yelled. Unlike her dad, she s...
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My Daughter Came Back Wearing Red by Wei Bo

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Something goes hideously wrong at Maplewood Mall, and one very determined mother is willing to go to extremes to keep her daughter safe. Image generated with OpenAI I took my daughter to the mall, and for maybe three seconds - just long enough to fish my card out of my purse - she vanished. In those same three seconds, the whole place sealed itself shut and turned into a slaughterhouse. People in red started killing everyone they could reach. And then my little girl was standing in front of me again. Red dress. Red shoes. A red ribbon in her hair. A long knife in her hand, the point aimed at my belly, and she was smiling up at me. "Mommy, do you think I'm pretty?" You think the ghosts were the scary part? Let me show you what people are really made of. My daughter was gone. Emily - Emmy - had been right beside me, one small fist hooked into the hem of my shirt the way she always does in crowds. She was humming something under her breath, low, half to herself, and I wasn...
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