• The text "In Deep Water by Jessi Hoff" is set against a deep-water background.
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    “It’s been two days!” I tuck my feet under me and hand Sophie the TV remote. “How long does it take to make a simple decision?” “Now you know why I don’t get along with my dad,” Xander huffs. He lay sprawled on the adjacent couch with a bowl of popcorn in his lap. His ...
  • The text "In Deep Water by Jessi Hoff" is set against a deep-water background.
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    “What the fuck is going on? Where’s Xander?” Sophie and I follow Nathan into a sea of crewmembers, who are moving debris and medical equipment through the halls of Deck Two. The air is thick with the remnants of smoke, making it difficult to breathe. “Over here, Emily!” Xander waves to them from the medical ...
  • Stars trails along the periphery blur against the dark background of deep space creating a cosmic tunnel to travel through.
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    They could always feel the difference at the heliopause where they stopped riding the system’s solar winds and Nor could stretch herself out and approach lightspeed. It was a limitless expanse of possibility. Neighboring stars elongated into streaks of plasma and Doppler shifted blue as they drew closer and red as they passed. But the ...
  • The text "In Deep Water by Jessi Hoff" is set against a deep-water background.
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    “You wanna talk about what had you screaming in the middle of the night?” Sophie shoves a forkful of French toast into her mouth and stares at me expectantly. I sigh and stare at my waffle. Syrup oozing around a mountain of chocolate chips. “Not really.” Sophie purses her lips. “It wouldn’t have anything to ...
  • Sheer rocky cliff faces rise up and pierce the night sky. Overhead, a bright band of stars splits the sky.
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    Peris stood on the brink of the cliff and reached out with her mind while she held her lightstick over the chasm. Stray orange pebbles skittered into the murky schism below while she pitched her body in defiance of gravity. Night had already fallen, but she pictured the twin suns, fierce and blazing in the bright green of midday. Then she imagined the sky ...
  • The text "In Deep Water by Jessi Hoff" is set against a deep-water background.
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    “What’s the name of the ship, Em?” Sophie asks me for the billionth time, her dark eyes darting from one end of the marina to the other as we make our way among the deckhands. “The Griffin. Honestly Soph, you need to relax a little. I’ve got all the information right here. We shouldn’t be ...
  • An arm of the Milky Way stretches across a field of stars, creating cloudy stripes of purple
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    With a sputter, the converted bus springs to life. Grinning, Kalie guides it to the glittering starway leading up along the horizon’s green twilight and into the thickening darkness above. She points it straight at the glowing, round moon still sitting low and red in the sky. Kalie can only see the outline of the ...