Big Lonesome Monster, Andy Dudak
“My mother named me Big Lonesome Monster, just before she abandoned me in the wilderness to die. I was the product of her brief masturbation with a bull’s horn. So much for my lineage.”

Bonnie and Clyde, Nicola Belte
““Well fancy that,” she’d said, foxily flicking her tail as they were introduced, and as Clyde looked into Bonnie’s black-ringed eyes, and took her paws in his, the huskies and the bears and even that beautiful leopardess blurred into hazy dots on some distant savannah.”

Change-Me Chelsey, Thomas Kearnes
“She followed you. That’s the only explanation. You left her in your daughter’s room, left her behind a closed door, yet here she is! She crawls behind you as you ease down the frozen-food aisle.”

McRib Ending Soon, Clint Walker
“She follows him through the drugstore, late at night, hovering over his shoulder while he tries to find his brand of condom. He’s too embarrassed to buy them by himself. His excuse is, “I can’t take those up there. They’re going to know what I’m going to do with them.” “Yes,” she says. “That’s the point. That’s why you shouldn’t feel embarrassed. They’ll know you’re getting laid.”

Paper Heart, Ally Malinenko
“After the first week they started to wonder, what if? They asked the doctors again but their answer never changed. She cannot live with a paper heart. When a week turned into a month, they named her, Narin Kagit.”

Crumplezone, Allan M. McDonald
“In my hand he palms a ticket. He skips away, only pausing to reload the flamethrower. In the background calculators are clapping.”

Cover art: Beneath the World Teeth, Andy Dudak