One of the prompts

He peered between the rocks.

“What do you think?”

“I think you should shut up!”

The man listened for the slightest out-of-the ordinary sound. Nothing. But he knew they were out there.

And two of the stories

The Double Dare

By Marie LeClaire

“There’s no such thing as fairies!”

“There is so.”

“Is not.”

“Is so,” Brandon taunted his little brother.

“Is not!”

“Is so and I saw them.” The claim was out of Brandon’s mouth before he could stop it. 

“You’re a liar. You did not.”

“Did so.”

“Okay, where?” Damon challenged him. 

Brandon had to think quick. “Out back of Old Kelsey’s barn.” It was an easy target. There were campfire stories told about Old Kelsey. No one liked him and most of the kids steered clear of his farm. Damon wouldn’t doubt him.

“Nut-uh,”

“Yuh-hu.”

Damon locked eyes with his older brother. “Prove it.”

When Brandon hesitated, Damon took full advantage of the balk. “I dare you.”

Oh, no. Now, it was on. “Alright. How?”

“Show them to me.”

“They don’t like being seen.”

“Oh, sure. No surprise there. Cuz you’re a liar.”

“I am not!”

“I double dare you!”

  There was no backing down now. “I’ll show you. Tomorrow, after supper. Behind the barn.” Brandon figured his brother, three years younger, would back down, too scared to go.

Damon stared his brother in the eye. Was Brandon bluffing? Would he really go to the old farm and at night? Damon’s need to win the dare was too great. “Okay,” he nodded. 

“Okay!” Brandon spat back.

Brandon lay in his bed that night wondering how he got suckered into this. One minute he was heckling his brother, the next he was going out to Old Kelsey’s farm after dark to prove that there were fairies out there. How was he going to pull this off? He’d have to sneak over during the day and set something up – and hope Old Man Kelsey didn’t catch him.   

***

 Armed with the solar-powered daisies from his mother’s garden, Brandon headed over to the barn after school. He was hoping the lights would glow long enough for Damon and him to get to the woods, get scared, and then run home. He was sticking them in the ground at the edge of the woods when Old Man Kelsey snuck up behind him.

“What do you think you’re doing out here, boy?”

Brandon spun around. “Ah, ah,” he stammered. 

“Speak up, boy. Fast!” Old Kelsey was leaning on a long-handled garden shovel and looking down at him with beady eyes.

“I—I want to scare my little brother.” 

“And?”

“I told him there were fairies in the woods here, then he dared me to show him.” Brandon was fast-talking now. “So, I’m thinking I could set these lights up and come back after dark.” He paused to see Old Kelsey’s reaction.

“You don’t need them lights to see ‘em.”

Brandon looked at him, unsure if he was serious or not. “What do you mean?”

“The fairies, boy. You can’t be messing with ‘em,” Old Kelsey said. “They ain’t all nicey nice like in those bedtime stories.”   

“But—fairies aren’t real.”

“Course they are. Otherwise what the hell are you doing here setting up lights to see ‘em?”

“But I—”

“Look! There’s one now.” Old Kelsey pointed into the woods past Brandon’s left shoulder.

Brandon spun around in time to see leaves in the brush move but nothing more. 

“Look, kid,” Old Kelsey said, “We need to get out of here. They really don’t like it when humans mess around at their door.”

“You’re making it up. Everyone knows fairies are nice—if they’re real. But they’re not.” Brandon found a little bit of courage to challenge him. 

“They ain’t all nice. You remember that little girl Sarah, from down the street? She went missing last year?”

“She moved away,” Brandon corrected him. 

“That’s just what they told you ‘cuz you’re a kid.”

“What do you mean?” Brandon was hooked into the story now and forgot how scared he was of Old Kelsey.   

“She was messing with the fairies.”

“Nut-uh.”

“Yuh-huh,” he nodded. “She had this glass pickle jar with holes poked in the lid. She was trying to catch one. They didn’t like it much.”

“What did they do to her?” Brandon’s eyes were buglike with fear.

“I don’t know but she ain’t come back, has she?” 

Brandon was scared all right, but not enough to give up on a double dare. “My brother double dared me to show him one.”

“Hmmm,” Old Kelsey thought about this a moment. “Well now, a double dare, that’s pretty serious stuff. Is he younger ‘n you?”

“Yeah.”

Old Kelsey nodded slowly, considering this. He liked to scare the kids every few years to keep them off his property. It made it easier for him to come and go through the Fae portal where he procured the most amazing moonshine, made from real moon shine. 

“Tell you what. You bring your brother by tonight and I’ll give you both a peek at the fairies. But I gotta warn you, they can be real mean.”

“For real?”

“Don’t push it kid. I could change my mind.”

“No, sir, Old, I mean Mister Kelsey.”

“Be here at dusk. That’s when they are most busy.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Hide behind that stone wall over there.” He pointed to an old wall along the edge of the field that ran into the woods. “Now get outta’ here. And take those ridiculous flowers with you.”

Brandon grabbed up the garden ornaments and ran.

 ***

 The boys ate quickly and put their dishes in the sink. 

“What’s gotten into you two?” their mother asked.

“We’re meeting Manny and some kids to play ball.” Brandon had his excuse all set up.

“Really? First I’ve heard of it.” She looked at them both trying to determine if this was true.

“We decided at school today. We’ll be home early.” The boys didn’t wait for an answer before they were out the door. 

Making their way along the old stone wall to Old Kelsey’s barn, they found a spot where the stones had shifted, creating a gap. They ducked behind the wall and peered between the rocks.

“What do you think?” Damon asked.

“I think you should shut up!” Brandon sneered in a hushed voice. 

They listened for the slightest out-of-the ordinary sound. Nothing. But Brandon knew they were out there, or he hoped they were.

Then, coming down the hill from the house, strode Old Kelsey carrying a camp lantern that swung back and forth as he walked making shadows dance around him. In his other hand he had an old pottery jug. He didn’t stop at the edge of the woods but took a few more steps into the brush. He lifted his hands out to his sides like a big Y and stood still. 

As the boys watched, little balls of light appeared, first as small dots, then growing bigger, to the size of baseballs. Then they started pelting Old Kelsey. He ducked and winced as the attack intensified, then, in a bright flash of light he was gone, sucked in as the flash collapsed to a pinpoint before vanishing, taking the light balls with it. 

Branon clapped a hand over Damon’s mouth before he could scream, then grabbed him by the arm and both boys ran like lightning back across the field to home. 

 ***

 Kelsey was sitting in his kitchen using an ace bandage to wrap an old cast around his right leg. He’d already applied blue and purple makeup to his face. He wrapped his left wrist in gauze, grabbed the crutches and headed out the front door just as the school kids were going past. He made sure he could be seen, mumbling a few indiscernible words at the few kids that came too close to the house. 

He stumbled back inside but not before Brandon and Damon got a good look at him. He sat back down at the kitchen table, removed the fake medical treatments and poured himself a tall drink of Fae moonshine. That should keep the kids out of his way for another couple of years. 

Fifth Dimension

By Lucy A.J. Tew

“I think… you oughta shut up, Commander!”

“CUT!” 

Otto’s voice came from the canopy where the camera crew had set up. Beside Nora, Mike cracked up at his flubbed line.

“Seriously?” she groaned. The rest of the crew hooted with laughter. The key grip hollered at the cameraman to save the take for the wrap party.

“Relax, Commander.” Mike rolled his eyes. The makeup crew darted forward to touch up their fake wounds and sweat sheens. “I screwed up, no big.”

Nora didn’t say anything as Amani touched a sponge to the gash on her cheek, from the Vorack Beast in yesterday’s shots. She’d gotten good at not saying anything lately. She was the first female, nonwhite actor to portray the titular Commander Chronostar in the show’s decades-long history (a recasting feat achieved through the character’s ability to Revivify in new physical forms). She was used to everything from unprofessionalism to racist diatribes strewn across the internet like Quatroleum Crystal particles across the starscape of the Tenth Dimension, the show’s setting.

“Okay?” Amani asked, offering a Hydroflask. Nora sipped and nodded, returning it. Amani retreated to the shade. Mike finished slugging his water and tossed it to his makeup artist. 

After a ratings dive when Commander Chronostar and Lieutenant Tasha Tomlinson had shared an onscreen kiss—two, actually, one under the influence of alien hormones and one purely character-driven—the producers had… negotiated with the writers. In the season finale, Tasha was sacrificed to a Fifth Dimension villain, but came back Revivified as… Taz, played by Mike Brenneman. That device had worked to introduce Nora Yang as the Commander—why shouldn’t it be used to “reset” the relationship between the Commander and the Lieutenant? 

A portion of the fanbase had expressed fury over the announcement, but this had dissolved when they saw the “chemistry” (courtesy of a crack team of editors) between the Commander and the new version of the Lieutenant.

Otto, the episode director, was now jogging up the sun-grilled alien hillside in Agua Dulce, California. “That’s a funny bit you came up with, Mike. Try it again, and keep the blocking I gave you, yeah? Remember, we like the tension, ‘cause it’ll resolve nicely when we get to the cave scenes next week.”

“Can’t we just go as written?” Nora asked, dropping her fake American accent. “Nobody tells the Commander to shut up, especially not Tasha.”

“Taz,” Mike corrected her, tugging his uniform straight.

 “Go with it, yeah, Nor? Hot as hell out here,” Otto said. Without waiting for an answer, he called to the tent, “We’re going again! Back to one.”

Nora and Mike put their backs against the rocks again, lifting their rayguns to wait for the cue.

“Lookin’ a little red there,” Mike said, gesturing to Nora’s forehead. She frowned at him. “Don’t squint too much, huh?” He gave her a smile that came closer to a sneer.

She opened her mouth to ask exactly what the hell he meant by that, but Otto had already called the cue.

“What do you think?” she managed to say, just barely getting the cue line out.

“I think—”

“Cut! Airplane!”

That evening, as the team packed up, Nora stepped out of her trailer into a sunset of bleeding purple and gold. Walking down the rocky dirt road to her car, she passed a cluster of crew members hanging around the tailgate of a shiny white truck. Mike stood in the bed, beer in hand, holding court. 

At that moment, the showrunner appeared at the top of the fire road and barked at the crew to get back to packing up the sound and camera equipment. Mike jumped down as they all scattered.

“Hey, Commander,” he said, with a mock salute. 

“Mike.” Nora stopped a few feet from her car, gripping her script tighter. “Need something?”

“Nope, just checking in,” he said, still grinning lazily. “Sunset’s something out here, huh?”

“I guess,” Nora replied. “Night, then.”

“Wanna drink? I got a cooler.”

“I don’t drink and drive.”

“Suit yourself,” Mike shrugged, taking a sip of his IPA. “Uptight…”

Nora slapped her script, keys, and bag on the trunk of her car, and turned. “What the hell is your problem with me? Not enough that you beat my downvote on casting you, you’ve got to be an asshole about it, too?”

“Nope.” He lifted his chin. “I just think girls like you, who take this type of nerd-saga bullshit serious as gospel, are a waste of a good rack. Think you’re better than me because you’ve seen all nine thousand hours of this freakshow, or something? I’ve heard you at fan events, talking like this is some kind of elevated art form—”

“And I’ve heard you—you’re perfectly happy to sing the show’s praises when you’ve got a paycheck on the line,” Nora snapped.

“God, you’re a piece of work. I do that stupid crap because I’m not an idiot—”

“Oh no? Could’ve fooled me!” 

They became aware, at the same moment, that silence had fallen over at the load-out up the hill. Nora was sure Mike knew as well as she did that a dozen beetle-black iPhone irises were already pointed their way, zoomed in on their granulated figures against the streaky sky. She could imagine the Tweets and message board headlines – which one of them would be the bad guy, at the end of it all?

It was already too dark to tell who’d seen or heard what from where Nora and Mike stood among the parked cars, looking up the boulder-adorned slope to the trailers. All the same, they peered between the rocks.

“What do you think?” Mike asked.

Nora looked at him. “I think you should shut up.”

They listened for the slightest out-of-the ordinary sound from the load-out team. Nothing. But Nora knew they were out there. And as she started her car and drove away, she felt some small part of her snap off, hurtling into the Fifth Dimension.

And there’s more…

• Abandoned at the abbey as a boy, Brother Silas holds a smoldering resentment of his fate.

• Sailors often tell frightening tales of what they find at sea. No one warns you about the ships in the harbor.

• A young man, tired of office-place bullying, is arrested for a murder that he didn’t commit -- but not for lack of trying.

• Old buildings come with ghosts, and ghosts come with stories. Ghost stories are Emily’s favorite part of her job at Monmouth-Whitman Girls Academy.

• A teen couple sneaks out into the woods at night, only to find they’re not alone.

• A man struggles to find peace in a quantum world; where people are entangled; events are in superposition; and the uncertainty principle reigns.