One Kiss Can Change everything
A teen boy begins uncontrollably manifesting birds from various orifices of his body, each bird carrying a cryptic message that threatens to unravel his fragile adolescent world.
I lifted my t-shirt. The wren hopped into my hand and rich red blood pooled in the cup of my navel, then trickled over, making a thin red trail into my waistband. The wren skipped to the top button of my jeans and dipped its beak in my blood.
“Ew! Vampire bird!” Isa noted.
“Stop that,” I said to the wren. I inspected my navel. It seemed fine. Aside from the blood, you couldn’t tell a bird had just pushed through. I snatched up the wren and wiped at the blood, and it kind of just smeared around on my pale belly turning it pink.
Fantasy. Flash Fiction (1,012 words). Published in Lightspeed Magazine, issue 175 (December 2024).
Nicely strange story.
Sam Tomaino
Nothing if not inventive….Short, but imaginative, this was a nice fantasy short story with which to end the magazine, successfully conveying a wistful sense of the loss of innocence. Recommended.
Mike Bickerdike
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