Call Of The Deep

It was his first and last voyage to sea. An escape ship. His duty; to scrub the decks. He watched as jellyfish gathered around the keel, unnoticed by the experienced sailors. A simple extra hand. Days passed, or months.

Brine burned his lips, rum quelled his pains.

The jellyfish still gathered.

In the moonlight glow their beauty morphed into that of a woman, her tail flowing along the starboard side.

She called to him, and the dragon uncoiled. Drunk with thirst and madness he dove into her arms, and the dragon swallowed him whole. Only the birds’ song remembered him.

From Guest Contributor Valkyrie Kerry

The Toxins in All My Pores

My name was Dr. Jillian Fisk. My specialty was genetically engineered marine invertebrates.

When Dr. Gardner stole my research grant, I was reduced to testing myself as a subject. I couldn’t know the altered hemocytes -- the experimental "jelly cells" -- would multiply everywhere within me.

I find Dr. Gardner and embrace him, smoothly, wordlessly, wetly. His face scalds in my translucent hands. The toxins in all my pores scorch his skin there. My gelatinous tongue fills his throat, ruptures his stomach.

I rise, bioluminescent. DR.JELLYFISH.

All the world will know the scent of salt, the sting of soft skin.

From Guest Contributor Eric Robert Nolan

Parasitic Sea

A stillness descends on the empty beach. The children are asleep in cottages. How many of you stepped on shells and hurt yourselves? How many of you were stung by jellyfish?

A small light shines far away over the dark sea. It rushes faster than the waves, dashes across the beach, and dives deep into the scratched feet of the dreaming children. And it divides, multiplies, and devours.

The next morning, the children wake and run toward the sea. They leap into the waves and swim away.

It’s time to go home. Are your parents going to miss you, kids?

From Guest Contributor Natsumi Tanaka

Translated from Japanese by Toshiya Kamei

Natsumi Tanaka is a writer living in Kyoto, Japan. Her short stories have appeared in journals such as Anima Solaris, Kotori no kyuden, and Tanpen. She is the author of the short story collection Yumemiru ningyo no okoku (2017). Translations of her short fiction have appeared in Fanzine, Star 82 Review, and The William & Mary Review, among others.