By Julie Cohen Wornan

"Ketzi, I love you but I have work to do now. So please...just shut up and leave me in peace!"

"Fluffy, enough! I gave you cat food, chicken livers, fish. I don't know what more you want. Shut up already!"

"!Ya basta — callate, Gatito!"

By Morva Shepley

Sorry I'm late. I didn't mean to die. It was just one of those accidents of fate — you know, the kind where you're thinking about something else, in this case dinner.

By Brendan D. Carson

"So when did you suspect?" asked Bishop Wulfric.

"From the first," said Beorthnoth. Outside, the first full moon of summer curled like a newborn in the clouds. The stink of burnt flesh and smoke still hung in the air. He took a mouthful of mead. "He came a month ago, not a night like this. Ragged, full of lightning. We thought at first he had come a-viking.

By Chris Castle

"How am I here?" the old man asked.

Avichai looked at him, closed his eyes for just a second and listened to the sound of his father's voice returned. "Does it matter?" he asked. Avichai walked forward and took Axel by the hand. It took some of the confusion from his father's eyes. "I'm here, you're here. You can feel my hand in yours, right now, can't you?" He put his hand into his Axel's hand, let it fall into the much bigger palm. Shaking.

By Jan Napier

Cobweb walking's not all that easy. The individual strands are as slippery as a politician's promises, and as thin as a butterfly's eyebrows. Mind you, it also depends upon the cobweb itself, and most importantly, your relationship with its creator. There are those eight-leggers who consider that if athletes lack the courtesy to learn their language there's no reason why they should welcome extreme sports sects onto their webs.

By Matt Cowens

"Is it safe?"

Professor Bradbury chuckled and waved a dismissive hand at the crowd of reporters.  He was wearing a lab coat at the request of one of the networks.  Apparently it would help people understand the news story if he wore a white coat and glasses.

"This is the safest source of power mankind has ever known," the professor said reassuringly.

By Shaun A. Saunders

"Can I help you?" asked the librarian in charge of acquisitions when the scruffy teenager burst through her office door.

The teenager smiled crookedly. "Yes, I think you can." He plonked himself on a chair and swung his dirty, smelly sneakers onto her desk.

The librarian peered over her bifocals at the young man. "You seem very sure of yourself." Then, explosively, "Get your feet off my desk!"

By Darren Lipnicki

"Would you like a seat?"

"No thanks."

"Sorry, I..."

"Oh no, it's okay. I'm off at the next stop."

By Matthew James

Neil plugged the world access needle into his body's V.R. port and flashed into the home of his virtual love.

"Delilah!" he called.

She materialised inside the roaming portal and approached. Neil blinked and swallowed. The sight of her pure white skin and exotic green hair was exhilarating.

By Monica Carroll

"happily until their deaths"

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

The Snow White image, ever present in my mind. She's choked on a chunk of poison apple. The dwarves present her corpse in a glass coffin. Flowers and small furry creatures celebrate her beautiful end. The prince arrives. Was this the device? The trick that spilt those first words from my lips?