“I don’t think I’ll ever get that image out of my head.” I sit in the Hangar control room with a blanket wrapped tightly around my shoulders. The only warmth I feel comes from a steaming cup of tea cradled between my palms on the desk in front of me. Sophie cries softly beside me. ...

My thoughts swirled inside me as I walked back to the hotel. Miss Billings had lied to me all along about Louis! She manipulated me! But I was the one who chose to betray Louis and Miss Martha, this is my fault too. How could you’ve have been so stupid, Jessica? These thoughts continued until ...

Days went by, and still waiting for word from Thelma. I drove to the farm, hoping to see my Uncle Jeb, but he wasn’t on the grounds. It was unusual for him not to be around. The gnawing tug in my gut grew stronger. But when Ralph, the most unobservant of men, failed to offer ...

“I’m telling you, we’ve been up and down this section three times. There’s nothing down here but coral and fish,” a frustrated voice explains over the speaker in the Hangar’s command center. Xander huffs out a breath, throwing his hands in the air. “Well, it must be somewhere. Shipwrecks don’t just disappear.” I put a ...

“Emily!” Sophie screams in the dark. I scramble off the floor as vertigo races through me, feeling my way back onto the couch. “I’m here.” Holding her shaking form, the world stops spinning. She sniffles. “What is going on?” “I have no idea.” I gulp around a wave of nausea. The whir of an engine ...

Uncle Jeb had a far-off look in his eyes, as if gathering his thoughts on where to start with his missing hand story. Throughout my childhood, my mom and aunt recounted the tale of him driving down one of the dirt roads one day with his arm dangled out the window. His truck got too ...

“It can’t be,” Sophie whispers for the seventh time, eyes glued to the computer screen on the desk in front of us. “Y’all are seeing this, right?” Nathan runs a hand down his face. “It’s not just me?” Xander blows out a breath, his broad shoulders connecting with the back of his chair with an ...

Peris and Alfie sat facing each other on Nor’s ribs, their feet dangling. They continued to orbit the yellow star while Nor lapped at its energy, half-asleep. On a normal day, they’d be underway as soon as they woke up, but on this occasion, they let her doze.  “It feels wrong to exercise control over ...

On Friday morning, the story about the flamingos finally broke in L.A. County. Miss Martha’s house was shown on television swarmed with reporters, wildlife control, police officers, and animal rights protestors. Trained handlers led the flamingoes to the Los Angeles Zoo. Press and protestors called Miss Martha terrible names like abuser, crazy flamingo lady, etc. ...

“She’s gotta be at least five hundred years old.” Nathan rechecks the sample of organic material on his desk for the fifth time. Sophie digs her palms into her eye sockets. “That’s impossible.” “I know.” Nathan huffs. I stare at the three-dimensional image on our photogrammetry software. The jagged remains of an immense vessel lay ...