Read   |   Buy

Latest Stories

Carrying Stones
2023-02-05

Fantasy
2632 words
 
Content warning: Holocaust, child death I woke up unable to breath, a choking weight on my chest. I wheezed and struggled under the weight of a stone—large, gray, round—pressing down on my ribs. I rolled over in bed; the stone clattered to the floor. It made a dent in the rug. I looked to the ghost of my great-grandmother in the corner of the room and said, “I wish you’d stop doing that. Read more...
Mercy Rides Free
2023-01-08
Elizabeth Cobbe
Fantasy
2978 words
 
My name is Mercy, and I am a constitutional monarch. That means I have no power. Also I am seven. My favorite colors are peach and azure, and my favorite animal is the unicorn. I have six unicorns. Their names are Cumulus, Cirrus, Altostratus, Mama, Papa, and Mr. Thunderclap. My real Mama and Papa disappeared when I was little and I don’t remember. Prime Minister Astiriarchas says that the generals and the Parliament are still looking for the people who did it. Read more...
Rag and Bone, Scrap and Sinew
2022-12-11
Jonathan Laidlow
Fantasy
3996 words
 
“Any ol’ iron?” Tatter Jansen always followed the same route. She was a Rag and Bone Man: she collected junk left out on the kerb and took it away. She lived out past the suburbs in a junkyard as old as the city, if not older. She would zig-zag through the streets, looping around the ring-road, until over the course of a week she had covered every mile. The only street she avoided was on the other side, the Southside, where Old Man Trouble lived. Read more...
A Monster in Miami
2022-11-13
Daniel Delgado
Fantasy
11859 words
 
I really shouldn’t be here, I thought as soon as I saw the body. The dead man had been spread on the marshy ground at the shore of the mangrove swamp, next to the fishermen’s canoe. The boat was beached at one of the few breaks in a dense mass of mangrove roots that sprawled explosively into the air before plunging down and vanishing into the green-gray water. His head had been removed, leaving behind most of the neck, and a wicked slash gaping at the base of his throat. Read more...
Bleed A Little While
2022-10-16
Michael James
Science Fiction
2381 words
 
Before the world collapsed, they did a poll about the Challenger explosion to determine how many people saw it in their classroom. Eighty percent responded they had clear memories of watching it live. I remember the grainy images on the TV, watching in rapt attention as the teacher cried in the corner with her hands over her mouth, all of us shocked to silence by the tragedy of the explosion. The memory is so vivid, I can almost smell the cleaning solution they used on the floors. Read more...
A Tomorrow With You In It
2022-09-18
Matt Tighe
Fantasy
1880 words
 
It is dark when they come, banging on the door so loudly that I know they are bringing death with them. I hurry to answer it. I can see you stir in the sleeping alcove, little more than a hump under the blankets, but you are tired out from a day of laughing and climbing and tugging on my skirt, and you do not wake. The night sounds of the city flow in as I open the door. Read more...
One More Fairy Tale
2022-08-21
Carol Scheina
Science Fiction
1808 words
 
I was told you were dead, but I knew that wasn’t the true story. A mother always knows. I still have one more fairy tale to tell you, my daughter, even if you never hear it from my lips. Once upon a time, there was a woman who badly wanted a child, the longing pinpricking at her heart until she couldn’t ignore it. People with those kinds of longings always make deals, and this time around, that person was me. Read more...
Sing The End
2022-07-24
Claire McNerney
Fantasy
2329 words
 
The modern pop song structure goes as follows: intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, out. — INTRO — We were eighteen and full of ourselves when we decided to start a band. Phoebe could play the keyboard, Seb had a vintage drumset, and I had bought a shiny electric guitar with my graduation money. We met twice a week to practice together in Seb’s garage with the door open so that all the neighbors could hear, but I wrote more often than that in my bedroom, alone, with a headphone in one ear. Read more...

The Second Year - 2021

 
Cover art by Chainatp
An anthology of all 25 original stories published during 2021, covering issues 4, 5 and 6, plus five all-new stories.

Five Original Stories

Push A Little Button
Fiona Moore
Science Fiction
10894 words
The Sea Dream
J. Florence Martin
Science Fiction
3530 words
Paper Hero
Jim Marino
Fantasy
5653 words
The Purpose of a System is What it Does
Jonathan Ficke
Fantasy
3816 words
The One in Possession
Ted Rabinowitz
Fantasy
4871 words

Twenty-Five Collected Stories from all three 2021 Issues

This is Not a Diary, This is Not a Confession
A. Katherine Black
Fantasy
1995 words
Echoes Under My Skin
Alexandra Seidel
Science Fiction
3994 words
I Will Teach You Magic
Andi C. Buchanan
Fantasy
2396 words
Confessions of a Forward Thinker
Derrick Boden
Science Fiction
5958 words
The Game Will be Mortal
Gillian Secord
Fantasy
4431 words
Risings
Jess Hyslop
Fantasy
3100 words
Starter Culture
Jessica Lévai
Fantasy
2956 words
Horangi
Thomas Ha
Fantasy
7166 words
The Association of Twelve Thousand Flowers
Ursula Whitcher
Science Fiction
5618 words
Recreational WorkHart Use
Brenna Harvey
Science Fiction
8532 words
Top Ten Demons to Kill Before The World Ends
dave ring
Fantasy
1800 words
The Quickening and the Canker
David Cleden
Science Fiction
2397 words
Osteography
JL George
Science Fiction
3714 words
The Soul Catcher
Leila Martin
Fantasy
2358 words
Glissade
Lindz McLeod
Fantasy
3666 words
A Glut of Nothing, and Yet... Something
Monte Lin
Science Fiction
3678 words
The Song of Leviathan
Victor Pseftakis
Fantasy
5362 words
Thirty-Three Kilometers from Kiev
Brian Hugenbruch
Science Fantasy
2144 words
The Mysterious Death of Mr. Park
Diane Morrison
Science Fiction
7351 words
The Collector
Jelena Dunato
Fantasy
4702 words
End of The Road
K. D. Julicher
Fantasy
8085 words
The Hagfish Has Three Hearts
Monica Joyce Evans
Science Fiction
6278 words
Splits
P.A. Cornell
Science Fantasy
4327 words
The True Value of an Artist is His Patriotism
P H Lee
Science Fiction
2175 words
Sungrass Girl
Uchechukwu Nwaka
Fantasy
5278 words
Buy The Second Year for $9.99

Also available
through Amazon:

Kindle:
US   |   UK

Paperback:
US   |   UK

In other Amazon markets, simply search for “cossmass”.