FEATURED STORY
RECENT STORIES
STORIES BY TOPIC
NEWS
TRANSPORTER
Take me to a...
SEARCH
Enter any portion of the author name or story title:
For more options, try our:
SUBSCRIBE
Sign up for free daily sci-fi!
your email will be kept private
TIDBITS
Get a copy of Not Just Rockets and Robots: Daily Science Fiction Year One. 260 adventures into new worlds, fantastical and science fictional. Rocket Dragons Ignite: the anthology for year two, is also available!
SUBMIT
Publish your stories or art on Daily Science Fiction:
If you've already submitted a story, you may check its:
DAILY SCI-FI
Not just rockets & robots...
"Science Fiction" means—to us—everything found in the science fiction section of a bookstore, or at a science fiction convention, or amongst the winners of the Hugo awards given by the World Science Fiction Society. This includes the genres of science fiction (or sci-fi), fantasy, slipstream, alternative history, and even stories with lighter speculative elements. We hope you enjoy the broad range that SF has to offer.






The Fallen Girl

Marge Simon lives in Ocala, Florida. She has won three Bram Stoker Awards, Rhysling Awards for Best Long and Best Short Fiction, the Elgin, Dwarf Stars, and Strange Horizons Readers' Award. Marge's poems and stories have appeared in Blade, Bete Noire, Urban Fantasist, Daily Science Fiction, YOU, HUMAN, CHIRAL MAD 2,3,4, and THE BEAUTY OF DEATH 1,2 --to name a few. She attends the ICFA annually as a guest poet/writer and is on the board of the Speculative Literary Foundation.

Since her untimely birth in the Brothels of Lemorrah, she was mothered by many, daughter of none. The city spawned more children than the poor could afford. Boys were sent to work the streets; young girls to Lemorrah. She'd witnessed them be broken in for service. When it came her turn, she was the only one who didn't cry.
Her name doesn't matter. She's barely seventeen but she looks much older. In the forests surrounding Lemorrah there is a glade that she visits when she is depressed. This time, she thinks of suicide, for she's obtained a knife.
An evening breeze condensed with messages. Would that she were free to follow the moonlight out of this place.
A man approaches from the shadows. His robes are priestly, his demeanor condescending.
"What are you doing here, little sister? Do you await a customer?"
"I'm quite done with customers, Vicar. I can't go back to that."
"How about me, little sister? he smirks, loosening his robe. "Will you not make an exception, on the house?"
Smiling, she stands up. "You are indeed an exception, Vicar, as you've always been," she says, fingering the blade within her pocket.
After it is done, she cleans her knife. To her surprise, the moonlight reflecting off the blade reveals a new path she hasn't noticed before. Smiling, she looks up to the sky and nods her head.
The End
This story was first published on Thursday, August 9th, 2018


Author Comments

I usually don't write this kind of fantasy, but this story was inspired by a visual prompt of a young woman in the woods with her head down and her body language signaling despair. I put the rest of it together from imagining why she was there by herself and what could make her so utterly sad--as if beyond hope.

- Marge Simon
Become a Member!

We hope you're enjoying The Fallen Girl by Marge Simon.

Please support Daily Science Fiction by becoming a member.

Daily Science Fiction is not accepting memberships or donations at this time.

Rate This Story
Please click to rate this story from 1 (ho-hum) to 7 (excellent!):

Please don't read too much into these ratings. For many reasons, a superior story may not get a superior score.

4.7 Rocket Dragons Average
Share This Story
Join Mailing list
Please join our mailing list and receive free daily sci-fi (your email address will be kept 100% private):