fairy skeletons.: Fiction Friday [13]: "Five Fairytales About the End of the World"

Long time, no Fiction Fridays! I've been neglecting this feature for entirely too long, which is lamentable, considering that it's one of my favorites to do on the blog.

This week's pick is a piece called "Five Fairytales About the End of the World", written by Chloe N. Clark. I'm just going to let that title sit in your head for a bit.

It's beautiful, isn't it?

The story was published in an online literary magazine called Gingerbread House, which publishes magical poetry and fiction. The magazine tells its submitters to "Take your fairy tale and twist it. Bend your fantasy to suit your needs. Be original and fresh, loose and lovely." And those are some pretty fabulous submission guidelines, if you ask me. I'm looking forward to reading more of Gingerbread House now that I've discovered it, and I advise you all to take a look into its archives as well!

I love this piece because it's composed of dark, magical vignettes that really give an impending sense of doom without being too forceful about it. It's absolutely exquisite, and chilling in the best sort of way. The writing is fluid and lovely and really controlled, elegant without being overdone. And the ending is perfection.

Here's my favorite sentence in the whole piece, just to give you an idea:

Death’s voice was boats breaking up in the middle of the sea and buildings crumbling in wartime and ice that cracks too soon.

But don't just let me tell you about it; see for yourself! The full story is available to read here.

(NOTE: It's Alyssa's birthday today! Go give her some virtual cake. Meanwhile, I'll be helping celebrate the birthday of one of my family members, which is also today.)