Another exhausted day yawns, a winter chill painting my knuckles white as I sink into my pillow and replay January. A plane ride ago, the herd of us spilled out of Worthing Square, bellies half-full with cold beef patties and pockets empty as we flooded the sidewalk to go who-knows-where—the boardwalk, Quayside, any corner we could claim. The streets were ours and they were just driving in it, the gaze of grizzled men on my bare waist, their Mazdas throbbing with bass and spi

The girl who swallowed coins Let’s say the first five pence went down between handfuls of popcorn. As Elizabeth’s teeth hit metal, it was a do or don’t, spit or swallow moment. Let’s say she calculated the risks of this coin getting lodged or causing mischief at the other end and found them within tolerance limits. She swallowed, thinking of Carmen, the precise lines of her bob, the moon pebble perfection of her teeth when she laughed.  The next evening, she gulped down an

The government is replacing people with Replicants. They got to Carter a couple nights ago—when I woke up, I knew it wasn’t my fiancé lying beside me, even though it looked just like him. I wondered whether they’d programmed the thing to think it was really him before I slid my gun out from under the pillow and blew half its head off. That’s how I discovered that Replicants are organic. Fake Carter looked human, right down to the blood and brain.  I didn’t cry because I knew

I’m waiting in line at the corner store when I see my ghost four people ahead of me, trying to buy a pack of cigarettes. But he only has ghost money, so the clerk won’t let him buy anything. “Why don’t you try the boarded-up gas station across the street?” the clerk asks. “I hear it’s haunted. I’m sure they have all sorts of ghost cigarettes you can buy over there.” “They don’t have Camels,” my ghost says. “They only carry brands that no longer exist.” My ghost tries to ge