dreamszilla

Ex-con Arlo is hanging Christmas lights with his buddy Conant, but the job goes south when he is hired by a man he knew from prison. Image generated with OpenAI Arlo sat in the driver's seat of the Santa's Helpers van, staring through the windshield. The window was rimed with frost mixed with hardened dirt, but there was still enough clear glass for him to see through it. Across the street stood a nativity scene fronting Saint Ignatz High. The manger looked to be made of treated lumber, the straw bedding torn from one of those big Home Depot bales. Baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were made of plastic and glowed with electric light, while the wisemen and a dumb-faced donkey looked on, beatified by the baby god's glow. The passenger door opened and Conant got in. "Got you your hot chocolate, Santa." "'Preciate it." Arlo held out a hand without taking his eyes off the scene. "You know, you really should think about it, man. You'v...

In 1990 Scotland, a murder at a carnival signals the return of the Glasgow Ghoul. Image generated with OpenAI Any kid who grew up in Glasgow always knew the Christmas carnival as "The Shows". Every year, down at the Clydeside, the winter holidays carnival would come to town. For the kids, this was a hot-and-sticky, dangerous sort of freedom. You could go wild with your pals, spend as much money as your folks had been prepared to give you, eat and drink so much rubbish you instantly regretted it after getting on the Waltzers, and just maybe, get past your crushing self-embarrassment and hook up with someone. Perhaps the best shows to ever hit Glasgow was in the winter of 1990. We'd had the Garden Festival in '88, which had enlivened the river-front at the Clyde after years of neglect and decay. Then, in 1990, the city claimed the title of the European Capital of Culture. The winter shows had to live up to the billing, and boy, did they. Until, that is, th...

On a secluded planet, Ral studies alchemical spells with his mentor Som, who has largely eschewed her Imperial training for local techniques and traditions. Image generated with OpenAI 1. Dinra The escape pod fell two days before high summer. It happened when Ral was in the close, stuffy warehouse sorting the thick leaves of the dinra plant from its thin seeds. The leaves were easy, but the seeds stuck to everything - his fingers, the table, his forehead when he wiped his brow. He did not enjoy the warehouse, but it was important to do this work inside. Sunlight ruined the seeds. They were a much more powerful alchemical reagent when they were harvested in the dark. Even though the warehouse was uncomfortably hot, Ral was grateful to be standing still. He had spent this morning as he did all summer mornings, hiking in the hills above the village with his teacher. Now, his muscles ached. The dinra flowers grew up there, protected by a thick scrubland of ulex. The dinra...

Anuka, now turning 30, comes to grips with her decision to stay in her homeland of Georgia after studying in the United States, and with the death of her friend Luka. Image generated with OpenAI Anuka spent the first day of June searching for a grave in the wrong country. Telavi, Georgia, was boiling when she marked her 30th birthday, along with eight years and three days since Luka's death. In the wake of her receding habitual grief, she relapsed into optimism. A renewed motivation, renewed purpose, an unexplainable delusion. Hope. This glow of an emotion crept up on her when her parents arrived and wished her a happy birthday. Tentative ambition swarmed when Mariami, her favorite cousin, dropped by to gift her a new violin. They hugged tightly that morning as if they did not see each other several times each week. Mariami asked if she was well, if she would consider playing music again, and if she would please use this new violin she ordered from Yamaha. Anuka's s...