Genres: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror, Horror Fantasy
The bell jingled as we left the creepy little doll shop. The store owner smiled from behind the counter, one of those off-putting, ‘I know more than you do,’ kind of smiles. Her old, crackly voice didn’t help.
“Take care of her now, won’t you?”
She was a witch.
She was absolutely a witch. (Continue Reading…)
Genres: Fairy Tale, Fantasy, Horror
The sound of the metal grinding against the whetstone reverberated up my arms. My father was sharpening his ax, preparing for the day’s work. “I invited Mu to dinner tonight,” he said.
I shuddered.
Mu was a woodsman whose family came from a neighboring village in China and had settled in the same rural town in Oregon a decade before my family. How happy my family was to hear our dialect! It almost made this foreign country feel safe. (Continue Reading…)
You can access all our 2024 original fiction at this link. At the end of December, we’ll be releasing our Staff Picks from 2024.
We welcomed several new associate editors to the team: Rebecca Ahn and Becca Miles. We also wish Somto Ihezue all the best and a fond farewell as he moves on to bigger and better things.
Cast of Wonders also ran a number of special events through the year
We are looking forward to a baking-themed Christmas episode this year. Following that, the team will present their Staff Pick episodes for 2024.
Genres: Science Fiction
2076 words
“Hey T! You about?”
James rounds the corner of the kitchen, his dark hair lank, his face pale, his breathing all-too shallow.
Tenderbot is standing at the kitchen island bench. It pushes the sandwich and milk forward. The Home Care Unit has already scanned the boy and computed a 92% chance he will reject the sandwich, but Tenderbot always attempts to optimise care.
James sits down and opts for the glass.
“Your platelet count is down. Eat,” Tenderbot says.
“Oh, come on, T. You think a sandwich is going to save me?” (Continue Reading…)
Author E J Delaney has been in touch to let us know that their story Forbidden Voices (CoW 510; CoW 524) has been shortlisted for the 2024 Woollahra Digital Literary Award – you can cast your vote for your preferred story here.
Genres: Comedy, Science Fiction
Additional audio production by Summer Brooks of EscapePod
Trick-or-treaters: Rebecca Ahn, Amy Brennan, Katherine Inskip, Samuel Poots, Ryn Richmond
531 words
“Whoa! Hold on, partner!” the host of the party asked with his fake Texan accent. “What is that costume supposed to be?”.
Of all the insufferable things, he was wearing a cowboy hat on his green, scaley head.
Dinosaurs did not wear hats. (Continue Reading…)
Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Horror Fantasy, Modern Fantasy
Additional audio production by Wilson Fowlie of CatsCast
Trick-or-treaters: Rebecca Ahn, Amy Brennan, Katherine Inskip, Samuel Poots, Ryn Richmond
1248 words
The air has only just begun to smell of autumn as I head for Gingerbread Cottage, where I am to house sit two cats for the winter. I have packed warm clothes and antihistamines, and the emailed instructions are both simple and strange. Feed the cats and clean up after them and yourself. But don’t let them out, no matter how much they ask.
It’s easy work and easy money. It’s also a chance to hide from my sins, and those who would hold me accountable for them. (Continue Reading…)
Genres: Modern Fantasy
Additional audio production by Eric Valdes of Podcastle
Trick-or-treaters: Rebecca Ahn, Amy Brennan, Katherine Inskip, Samuel Poots, Ryn Richmond
1360 words
I was told we had the night off, but I guess no one told you kids that. Tell me, whose idea was it to come trick-or-treating through our camp? I suppose it was yours, since you’re the only one here. You do realize we’re a bunch of broke circus performers, don’t you? Well, since you’re here, we might as well get this over with. Which do you want: the trick or the treat?
Treat? All right, let’s see. What have I got… Here you go. A handbill folded into the shape of a bird.
What do you mean, it doesn’t look like a bird? It’s a swan, obviously.
You have some nerve, showing up outside a man’s tent on his night off, demanding a treat and then insulting his paper-folding abilities. Yes, I know it’s not a very good paper swan, but what do you expect? This isn’t my area of expertise. You’re the one who came to an illusionist asking for a treat.
Genres: Horror
Additional audio production by Chelsea Davis of Pseudopod.
Trick-or-treaters: Rebecca Ahn, Amy Brennan, Katherine Inskip, Samuel Poots, Ryn Richmond
2130 words
A lot changes as you get older, thought Wilkie Saunders.
For example, he’d been sure older boys like Tom Dunn—who was either in 10th or 11th grade depending on if you counted the year he was repeating—hated his guts. Tom had tormented Wilkie and his friends everywhichway for years. And yet here they all were in the dark, Tom and Wilkie and half a dozen other older boys, gathered up behind the home of the local dentist. This was small-town Indiana, and not the best parts of it. The house of the dentist was plenty run down, perhaps not as much as the other homes along the street, but its peeling dish-sponge-blue paint was enough to make Wilkie feel antsy. Outside was a shingle-style sign, dismally busy with fancy script, advertising the services within. “What’s so special about a dentist?” Wilkie asked. (Continue Reading…)
Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Horror Fantasy, Modern Fantasy
2992 words
They say if you take the old scarecrow out back, jam some old leaves in there to make up for some of the straw that’s fallen out, and put a jack-o-lantern on the shoulders where the head used to be, you can make it almost as good as new. And then, if you get the old pill bottle filled with your baby teeth out of your mom’s dresser drawer and shove the tiny white contents into the jack-o-lantern’s wide grin, you can make it come alive. (Continue Reading…)
Image by Dennis Wilkinson
Tristan was not what you might call a traditional evil sorcerer.
For one thing, he didn’t quite look the part. Most evil sorcerers do not wear Star Wars backpacks, or shoes that fasten with Velcro, or short-sleeved button-downs tucked into belted-up shorts.
For another, most evil sorcerers lived in exciting, exotic places. Brimstone castles with ghouls for guards. Ice palaces with magical moats. Underground crypts and catacombs crawling with spiders and slithering, slippery things. Most evil sorcerers do not live on cul-de-sacs, in the stumpy roots of suburbia, surrounded by kids on scooters and corgis on leashes and middle-aged men on put-puttering lawnmowers.
Lastly, and most importantly, most evil sorcerers could cast spells. Tristan could not. Not while anyone was watching, at least. (Continue Reading…)
The old monk of the temple warned us not to go to the meadow, but Haru and I, we could not help ourselves. The strawberries were so ripe, like jewels, and we were so hungry. Other children had vanished there, but we were willing to take the risk.
It was the fifth year of the clan war and the seventh year of the drought. The dry, cracked rice paddies, the dusty taste of millet, and the ever-present gnawing in our bellies defined our existence.
That spring, Haru and I rose early each morning to fetch water from the Yubari river before the heat became unbearable. We’d haul it back to the rows of millet, dump it on the ground, and watch it disappear into the cracks. Year after year, the customary summer and fall rains had not come, and the earth’s thirst was insatiable.
The cloud dragon was sickened by the war, the old monk said. The thunder god was insulted by the poor offerings. The mountain gods were angry and withheld the rain. Every few days he had a different explanation. What were we to believe? We knew only our hunger. (Continue Reading…)
