1 Fake Italian Furniture "But blood killed, too. Blood divided, as easily as it united. It was both a cement and an acid..."

3 Tierra templada Leave it to the good people of this age to freeze fire for better best-before and sell it by the cubic meter.

1 The Rooted and the Dendrophobic At my feet lies a saw saber-toothed, abandoned by a dendrophobic dwarf.

3 Dream Compulsion Every man sooner or later meets his personal compulsion, a drug as sweet as it is fatal. This is his second birth. His true birth. Paul Firth met his compulsion at the tragic age of 16.

2 Life Affair He knew life very bleakly. It might be said they met in passing.

4 Preconception She tried to smother but police withheld that mercy...

3 The River Boa We lived by the River Boa, named so after its admirable count of drownings. It wasn't always Boa. When I was a kid, we called it the Holy River, on account of the purity of its waters.

2 Caviar and Champagne Intravascular Living in the saloons of King Sun, sipping champagne, savoring the light-speed minute, we don't care or know we're all animals cunningly bred into slaughter.

3 After Many a Summer Flies the Swan He'd been coming to feed the swan since age of fifteen when he had a fight with his mother, ran away and discovered a secluded lake close by the orchards. It was just a gray cygnet then, still learning to fly.

1 The Rape of the Woodcutter We are rape victims everyday, molested so much it doesn't hurt anymore. The victim stands still, befriending futility and the metal teeth sink like phalli in butter.