The web's first magazine devoted to stories about life in giant artificial structures created by forces beyond human comprehension

The Fifth Stranger

by Kristine Ong Muslim

Trapped inside our captor's ribcage,
I sang with the other prisoners.
The yellowing bones were encrusted
with mold and something stank and filmy
which gave off a horrible light.
We licked them to stay alive.

The fifth stranger had long ago lost his heart.
His entrails were eaten by the first captives.
He had nothing to lose now.

Crying, we watched while he trampled the cities
and small towns. A satisfying smack thundered
with every crunch of flattened roadkill under his
feet.

The fifth stranger staggered towards the sea.
He lapped at the water.
We wished that he would empty his mouth
of those stolen drops of ocean.
We were all waiting to drown.


Kristine Ong Muslim's publication credits and recent acceptances include more than 500 poems and stories in more than 200 publications worldwide. Her work has recently appeared in Abyss & Apex, Not One of Us, Tales of the Talisman, and Star*line. She has received an Honorable Mention in Year's Best in Fantasy and Horror and won Sam's Dot Publishing's James Award for genre poetry twice.