Hugh J. O'Donnell

The little bird sat on the snow-covered branch, twittering madly and trying to keep itself warm. The girl in the red coat felt bad for it. The first snow had caught it by surprise, and it had missed its chance to fly south.
She crept up on it, silencing the crunch that her boots made in the fresh powder. She didn’t want the poor thing to spook and fly away.
Slowly, she reached a pale hand towards the shivering creature. With one swift motion she grabbed the bird and snapped its neck. She felt bad, but she was hungry, too.

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The coffee shop had a stained glass door leading to a patio. I enjoyed watching the bar of rainbow light spread across the linoleum as I sipped my morning coffee.
But one day, I noticed something strange. The light on the ground didn’t match the door. The colors were off. The red panes reflected violet, and the yellows became green.
Suddenly, the glass door terrified me. I became convinced that if I were to pass through, I wouldn’t arrive in the same world as I left.
Finally, I worked up the courage to find out and discovered I was right.

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The bounty hunter sat in the cockpit of his ship and looked out at the stars. A galaxy full of adventures, and he couldn’t decide where to go next.
“If I might make a suggestion,” his droid companion said. A hologram of a barren desert appeared over the instruments. “This remote planet is associated with an unusually high number of beings-of-interest. On the other hand, there is always something going on in the capital.” The scene shifted to a world of towering skyscrapers.
The bounty hunter tapped his helmet thoughtfully, then set a course for the capital. He hated sand.

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“It’s never going to fly, he said, slapping the stabilizer of the airship.
“Why not? Because I’m a girl?”
“Because you built it out of junk,” he replied. She pushed her brother’s hand away.
“It’s what I had to work with. It’ll fly. Just wait and see. Then we can get out of this miserable place and start our quest!”
He rolled his eyes. “Why are you always so dramatic? This isn’t one of your dumb stories.”
She raised the patched sail and smiled to herself. Someday he’d understand. Telling the world a story was exactly how the magic worked.

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When the stars were in the correct alignment, in the dead of night, she rode out on a white horse, nude except for a crown of stag antlers and oak leaves she had fashioned herself. She rode for a long time until she passed through a shadow into Someplace Else.
All around her she could see the detritus of those who hadn’t followed the instructions. The sand was littered with glasses and shoes and other scraps of clothing. But no bones.
“What do you seek?” A voice called from the darkness.
“Power,” she replied and felt herself begin to change.

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