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Reader--are you in a secret place, far from suspicious eyes? Can you hear the buzz of drones above? Are the shades drawn? No? Quickly, quickly, close them NOW before you crack open this latest directive from Planet Scumm.
By now you surely know the Powers That Be will KILL to conceal these tales. Tales of subjugated planets forced to dance for their conquerors' entertainment. Of lonesome space wanderers who abandoned their generation ships. Of rebels trying to overthrow oppressive governments. Some use science. Others, sympathy. Most fail.
There's rumors of a lonely place where dead and defeated revolutionaries serve a sentence of sorts, waiting out the end times in a haze of cigarette smoke and bureaucracy. But that way is not for you, Reader. Not yet.
Look to your left, to the steel door at the end of the hall. The door that wasn't there a moment ago. I fear They've found you, Reader, and now you must flee. Run to the door, open it, step through. Close it behind you. Just a few seconds. Just long enough to feel the dirt beneath your feet and a warm, ancient sun on your face. Then turn and come back to the Cause.
But be warned. The world you return to won't be the same as the one you leave.
Donald Jacob Uitvlugt lives on neither coast of the United States, but mostly in a haunted memory palace of his own design. His short fiction has appeared in numerous print and online venues, including Cirsova magazine and in the Flame Tree Press anthology Murder Mayhem. He also writes the on-going webserial Jiao Tu's Endeavour, the first story arc of which has been collected in the volume The Kidnapped Mousling.
Donald strives to write what he calls "haiku fiction," stories small in scale but big in impact. If you've enjoyed "The King of Cats," let him know. The easiest way is through Twitter, where he can be found under the handle @haikufictiondju
Hailey Piper is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth, A Light Most Hateful, The Worm and His Kings, No Gods for Drowning, and other books of horror. She is an active member of the Horror Writers Association, with over 100 short stories appearing in various publications. She lives with her wife in Maryland, where their occult rituals are secret.
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