Short Story
Wrong Identity
For a moment, Curtis tried to follow the instruction. He stopped treating the hum as a data point and instead let it be a sound. As he did, the "Curtis" protocols suffered a sudden, violent crash. The tactical overlay of the room—the heat signatures of the walls, the structural weaknesses of the ceiling—shuddered and vanished, leaving behind a raw, terrifyingly quiet space. For the first time, he wasn't seeing the world through a lens of probability; he was just seeing a small, dim room and a tired man with a mug of tea.
By Forest Green3 days ago in Fiction
Wrong Identity
Behind him, the cleaner recovered with an effortless, sickening fluidity. It didn't pursue with a run; it simply adjusted its vector, its movements a series of precise, geometric shifts that closed the distance in seconds. Curtis could hear the same metallic clicking of the magnetic clamps, now echoing not from the walls, but from the creature's own limbs as it navigated the treacherous mud with an efficiency that defied physics.
By Forest Green3 days ago in Fiction
Wrong Identity
Curtis didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. While Elias was lecturing him on the inevitability of the loop, Curtis’s mind was already mapping the same structural flaws he had noticed in the lighthouse's masonry. He didn’t see the room as a room; he saw it as a series of stress points and gravitational vectors. He knew exactly how much weight the rotting floorboards could take before the salt-damaged joists gave way.
By Forest Green3 days ago in Fiction
Wrong Identity
The "Jake" part of him felt a sudden, sharp spike of panic—a raw, human terror that didn't fit into a spreadsheet. But the "Curtis" side of his brain immediately categorized this panic as fuel . He didn't try to suppress the fear; he integrated it, using the frantic energy to accelerate his heart rate and sharpen his focus. If he was a version, a draft, a variable in a cruel experiment, then the only way to survive was to become an outlier.
By Forest Green3 days ago in Fiction
The Fig Woman. Top Story - September 2026.
"The concept of fate is weird in that it implies twisted forms of time and causality that are alien to ordinary perception, but it is also eerie in that it raises questions about agency: who or what is the entity that has woven fate?"
By Tyler Clark3 days ago in Fiction
I'm Sure It's Fine. Top Story - September 2026.
“The Great Wildebeest Migration was not just a spectacle for tourists, and it was not just a time-specific, clockwise loop that the herd animals made through Tanzania for the purposes of obtaining water and fresh grazing grounds. These animals made a year-long journey, hitting certain areas during certain months; they cut down on grass that could lead to the spreading of wildfires, and their massive march brought with them seeds that planted new life in various places. Mother Nature was an awesome creator, and she saw to it that the wildebeest, zebras, and gazelles moved throughout the land at precise times to aid the balance of life… that was, until some jackass got his greedy, stubby fingers on the manifest and fucked the planet in its axis.” - Unknown
By Stephen Kramer Avitabile4 days ago in Fiction
Wrong Identity
"The cleaners don't come for dinner," Curtis said, his voice now a flat, modulated instrument. "They come for the assets." He didn't wait for the counter-attack. He rolled, using the momentum of his fall to sweep Elias’s ankles. It was a move designed for efficiency, a textbook takedown, but Elias didn't fall. He simply shifted his center of gravity, floating just inches above the floor in a way that defied physics, his movements now blurring into a series of strobe-like displacements. To any ordinary observer, Elias was flickering; to Curtis, he was a set of probability vectors.
By Forest Green4 days ago in Fiction
