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Since 2002, 50 pieces of KJ Kabza's fiction have appeared 60 times in 40 different venues, including F&SF, Daily Science Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Nature, and more. His work has been anthologized in The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2014 and The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 6, among others, and has been called, "Intelligent and sublime--a powerful combination" (Tangent), "Fascinating, unique, imaginative" (SFRevu), and "Worthy of Edgar Allan Poe" (SFcrowsnest). He invites you to peruse kzkabza.com or follow him on Twitter @KJKabza.
I bring back photos of my dreams--a crumbling well, a four-winged bird, a city made of glass. I find them in my phone the next morning. It's always been this way.
You were the only person I told. I remember that Sunday afternoon, when you scrolled through your pictures and showed me your friends. My heart was a chambered round. It was coming. But that's how I knew you were the one: when I showed you the photos of the red-sand beach, where people tall as houses and slender as storks play their games with sticks and dice, you only sighed and whispered, Show me more.
After our final winter together, I buried my secret with you. It's not that I don't want to tell anyone else, but you must understand. There are certain risks that come with baring the heart. Nobody can look at my photos now, not even me.
I only dream of how you died.
The End
This story was first published on Thursday, March 5th, 2015
Author Comments
I do not awaken to find photographs on my phone, but in this case, I awoke one morning to find this story fully formed in my mind.
- KJ Kabza
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