Synopsis: A lab technician who must complete his tasks in pitch blackness accidentally sees the forbidden subject of his tests. Eyes That Do Not See There were no lights in the room where we kept the creature and, furthermore, we wore opaque goggles over our eyes when we performed our experiments on it in endless cycles of rotating shifts. "You must never lay eyes on the creature and you must never hear it," my superior warned me as we all stood together outside the laboratory on my first day, zipping ourselves into protective coveralls and sheathing our hands in thin, tactile gloves. "Tell me if you understand." I confirmed that I did. I had trained for six months to get my specialized lab technician credential and I knew the risks. On my superior’s signal, we slipped the noise-canceling pods into our ears and lowered our goggles. Calming music enveloped me. "Are you ready?" My superior's voice entered my ear canal in an electronically intimate...
Author's Note: I asked for prompts on Tumblr and got this one: An unreliable narrator retelling the story of the first time they kissed their romantic interest. I had a hard time coming up with something at first, but then I started thinking about the Princess and the Frog and somehow ended up with this. Enjoy! Sleeping Beauty, and I Was Her Prince Rosie was ahead of me on the paved footpath when it happened. She likes to jog and I like to walk behind her and watch her jog—she’s mesmerizing when she’s bouncing on the pavement with her ponytail swishing back and forth and her breath coming out in cute little huffs. She had her earpods in. Listening to music or a podcast or whatever helps her focus on her run and I don’t mind not being able to talk to her. I just like being near her, you know? But I wasn’t near enough to her then, and she was listening to her music or podcast or whatever. So when I heard the tell tale crack, she didn’t. And when the cottonwood branch fell, I was too ...