Hugh J. O'Donnell

The bridge only extended a few feet into the foggy canyon. It was a collection of wooden struts and posts that ended in open air. Or so it appeared.
She stepped out towards the edge, in her white dress and flower crown, carrying the chalice carefully. She reminded herself to have faith as she raised the cup to the void.
The hand that took it coalesced out of black cloud and shadow. The Stormcloud King seemed to stand on nothing at all. But as he drank, the rolling bank solidified into a strong bridge, and their two worlds were joined.

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The prison complex was a marvel of superhuman design. It was a tower of interconnected spheres, each of which held a different type of supervillain. The site didn’t merely suppress powers, but actively used them against the inmates. Fire powers contained villains with ice powers, and so on.
As more prisoners were incarcerated, more were needed to maintain equilibrium. Abuse became rampant. Sentences were extended for the slightest infraction. Nobody got out. The prison became overcrowded.
But in bringing that many master criminals together, it was only a matter of time before they figured out how to bring it down.

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The dragon stood over the fallen adventurers and roared in victory. They had been fierce opponents but not nearly strong enough.
She bent down and began to strip the corpses, adding armor, weapons, and coins to her hoard. Humans loved their gold, but then so did she.
The metal was soft enough to work and would conduct the heat of the dragon’s breath without completely melting. It was the perfect nesting material.
Soon, she would have enough to keep her eggs warm when she laid them. She just needed a few more parties of ‘heroes’ to deliver it to her.

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With every fiber in his being, he reached towards the light. He couldn’t see it, but he could feel it, the warm glow of sunlight above him.
He felt the dirt and soil that buried his feet, imprisoning him.
He remembered being a man, lost in the witch’s forest. He remembered the horrifying transformation as skin became bark and arms became branches.
He didn’t sense the witch as she walked her orchard, reinforcing the spell she’d placed on the trees. It was cruel to make them believe they’d once been human, but it shaped them better than any topiary saw.

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The screen on the wall of my cell chimed. I ran a hand through my hair and tried to make myself as presentable as possible before standing in the square painted on the floor.
A cheerful young woman, prerecorded, appeared on the screen.
“Welcome to Digital Defense. Brought to you by eJustice and the State of Wisconsin! Your testimony is about to begin. Do you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth? Press ‘Yes’ to continue. Otherwise, press ‘No.’ Your Incarceration Specialist will provide further instructions.” I thumbed the green box and waited for the first question.

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That the Leviathan of the Canals existed was taken as given by the people of the city. They used the creature to explain every capsized gondola and the occasional large iridescent scale that washed up on the quayside.
They held the annual Leviathan Boat Parade and put the creature’s supposed image on anything they could sell to tourists. Never mind that almost nobody in the city had ever seen the beast.
But she had. She went to their secret gathering spot and wondered who had dropped the first one in the canal, not realizing goldfish grow to fit their containers.

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The Head Librarian conducted the tour for the new intern with perfunctory boredom. The girl was rapt. The Great Library was overwhelming, But the last room was something altogether different.
Rows of desks housed brass display terminals, each with a typewriter-like keyboard underneath. In the room’s center, a knobby iron sphere sat humming in a tangle of wires and tubes.
“What’s that?” She asked breathlessly.
“This is the Comprehensive Encyclopedic Engine. It communicates with the Central Information Hub and can answer any question. It will be your job to make sure the homeless guys aren’t looking up porn on it.”

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The junior diplomat clicked her claws in frustration as she read over her new assignment again. She had been from one end of the galaxy to the other and served the Alliance on a dozen worlds, but the Anomurians and the Cyclidae at least looked normal.
Now she was assigned to a backwater planet where the dominant lifeforms weren’t even decopoid. Instead of following its normal course, evolution on the planet had favored a species of hairy, paranoid, ape-like maniacs.
She scuttled into her supervisor’s office. She had to find a way to be assigned anywhere but the planet Earth.

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The witch took my hand and led me through her garden. She brought me through a maze of twisting, thorny hedges to a still rectangular pool.
“This is the Pool of Possibility. It can show you the person you would be today if you had chosen differently. Gaze into the water and see the person you might have been and could still be.”
I looked down at the water. “That’s just me wearing a new hat.”
“Some people possess a greater capacity for change than others,” she replied.
My reflection tipped his hat. I had to admit he looked good.

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