This issue is full of dark themes.
“Anthracite Weddings” by John Zaharick
A dark tale of a coal town, Collierville, and of the McCormicks, who own the mine and, and the Sewarts, who, like everyone else in town, is in fiefdom to them. Katherine Seward’sis Elisha McCormick’s ‘double’, who looks close enough like her to fool evil spirits at her wedding. When Eliasha disappears, and things begin to get complicated.
“Keep Talking”, by Marie Vibbert
Gerald is the single-parent father of Sarah, an eighteen-year-old autistic who is a savant with numbers, spends her life in her darkened room, obsessed with SETI. Gerald thinks that Sarah is unable to function on her own; when he wins the job of his dreams, in Japan, she doesn’t want to go, precipitating a crisis. When first contact with aliens is found in the SETI data feeds, it’s Sarah finds the message hidden in the data. A story of communication and miscommunication, and of separation and loss.
“Griefbunny”, by Brooke Juliet Wonders
The story of a boy, Teddy, and his jackalope, as told by Teddy’s half-sister Lola. Dark and twisted. I liked it a lot.