The Sprawl: Speculative Fiction

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July 2021
June 2021
Layer Beneath the Underlayer
Jain left his pregnant wife behind to go scavenging in the sewers beneath Verash. The upper levels were still in use and covered in sticky dark muck…
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DC Kalbach
Ashes From a Terrestrial Fall
The skypit was a gash in the crust of the earth that stretched from horizon to horizon. Millie stood at the edge gripping the trunk of a young pine…
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DC Kalbach
Good Apprentice
I never wanted to get older. When I was barely ten years old, my mother sat me down in our cramped apartment, touched my face, and said, “There’s a man…
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DC Kalbach
The First Hunt
Ster rode out from the mountain palace at the head of a twelve-man hunting party. At the base of the steep trail were the rolling grasslands of the…
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DC Kalbach
Becoming What You're Supposed To Be
The entrance to the labyrinth was a crack in the cliff face wide enough for two people to walk through shoulder-to-shoulder. Baran was afraid of getting…
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DC Kalbach
1
May 2021
Weeds, Water, and Sugar
The tincture was bright green and smelled like rotting hay. It boiled in a cauldron above the fire while Dillin counted the coins at the adjacent table…
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DC Kalbach
How to Change Stone to Bread
Men in robes and thick canvas gloves dumped piles of raw material into massive black-iron bubbling vats: smashed stone, weeds ripped from pavement…
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DC Kalbach
What Was Needed (repost)
Jim posted for the first time two weeks after the funeral. — I swear this isn’t a troll and I know you guys aren’t gonna believe me, I’m just saying I…
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DC Kalbach
The Censor
I dragged my knife down the stone wall over and over until a nice fat divot formed in the crust. Villie stood at the alley entrance keeping watch and…
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DC Kalbach
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