by Katherine Villyard | Sep 17, 2024 | free fiction, short fiction
This story was originally published in Love Stories. When I got home, there was a statement from my retirement account in the mailbox and an eviction notice taped to my front door. I tore open the account statement. My IRA was worth nothing. I guess I shouldn’t...
by Katherine Villyard | Aug 17, 2024 | free fiction, short fiction
This story originally appeared in in Alien Abduction: Short Fiction on the Themes of Alien and Abduction, September 28, 2015, and was reprinted in Love Stories. The spires of Miros were tall and slender, much like Ted’s captors. They walked in the streets below...
by Katherine Villyard | Jul 16, 2024 | free fiction, short fiction
This story was originally published in Electric Velocipede, issue #17/18, Spring 2009, reprinted in Escape Pod, March 10, 2011, and reprinted in Love Stories. JUNE 23, 1994 Ann stuffed her blood-spattered clothes into the next door apartment complex’s dumpster. He...
by Katherine Villyard | Jun 15, 2024 | free fiction, short fiction
This story originally appeared in ChiZine, October 2011, and was reprinted in Broad Spectrum: The 2012 Broad Universe Fiction Sampler (October 30, 2012, and in Love Stories. INFERNO Last time this happened, I was Orpheus. Ethan was lost, pale, gone in a haze of...
by Katherine Villyard | May 15, 2024 | free fiction, short fiction
This story was originally published in Fantastic Stories of the Imagination and reprinted in Love Stories. (Also this graphic is adapted from the original publisher’s art.) Tucking his computer science textbook and his Book of Shadows into his backpack,...
by Katherine Villyard | Apr 18, 2024 | free fiction, short fiction
This story was originally published in Escape Pod on July 5, 2013, and reprinted in Love Stories. There’s also a really good audio version by Kyle Akers! In the beginning, there was darkness. And in the darkness were the words. And the words were, AI...
by Katherine Villyard | Apr 7, 2024 | drabble
He closed his eyes and reached out with his thoughts. In the distance, he could feel others. Other wizards. He didn’t know which side they were on. He didn’t know what side he was on, either. The breeze tousled his hair, and he ducked back inside the house and closed...
by Katherine Villyard | Mar 15, 2024 | free fiction, short fiction
This story was originally posted in Ficticious Force in 2009 and reprinted in Escape Pod on May 13, 2011, and in Love Stories in 2022. Yvonne looked up from her monitor, the beads in her cornrows clattering as Roger walked into her office. Roger sat in the dark wooden...
by Katherine Villyard | Mar 6, 2024 | drabble
No one mentions supply chain problems for witches. Alas. Seriously, do you know the cost of a decent cauldron these days? And then there are the actual ingredients. Moonstone and alabaster are one thing, but even quartz has had its issues. Hawthorne, valerian, lemon...
by Katherine Villyard | Feb 21, 2024 | drabble
It’s almost the full moon, and I’m out of sick time. I’m tired, and itchy, and I shaved this morning and have a five o’clock shadow at noon. I just want to curl up under the conference table and take a nap. Instead, I go to the lunch line in the cafeteria downstairs....