You’re washing your face one morning, half-awake, when something odd in the mirror pulls you closer. There, slicing diagonally through […]

The first spoonful is always a surprise. It hits your tongue cool and sour, like a sip of mountain air,

The letter arrived on a Tuesday, in one of those thin white envelopes that never bring good news. Jenna noticed

The sound came first—an odd, mucousy glug echoing from the laundry room, like the machine was trying to swallow something

The café was loud in the way only Parisian cafés know how to be loud—porcelain clinking, chairs scraping, a hum

The first time I poured it into my coffee, I half expected the universe to wink at me. It was

The hum of the apartment used to sound different at night. The fridge sighed, the pipes clicked, the neighbor’s television

The streets look different after midnight. Sodium lamps puddle on wet asphalt, windows glow like slow heartbeats, and the air

The first time I tasted a slice of bread that had been frozen for three months and somehow still tasted

The first time I saw the study, I laughed out loud. Not because it was funny—but because it felt almost

The first time Milo stopped at the end of the driveway, Jenna laughed. “Come on, bud,” she chirped, giving the

The leash is already in your hand when you notice it—that tiny hesitation where there used to be a joyful

The first thing you notice is the sound. Not the harsh, electric whine of a dental drill or the crinkling

The year 2026 doesn’t arrive with a bang so much as a hum—a low, electric buzz that seems to live

The kettle sat quietly in the corner of the kitchen, a little chalky crescent of white clinging stubbornly to the

The first time you notice it, it’s almost nothing—a faint little crinkle near the corner of your eye when you

The water is always hottest at dawn in Elaine’s little cottage at the edge of the marsh. Steam snakes up

By the time the third tiny foil packet of “premium organic catnip” hit the bottom of my shopping basket, I

The clock blinks 2:57 p.m. You’re staring at your screen, eyes a little grainy, brain a little foggy, when it

The pharmacist paused, pen hovering above the white prescription bag, and lowered her voice just a little, as if the

The first time I heard someone call it “diabetic birdseed,” I almost laughed. It was a rainy Tuesday in a