AFTERIMAGE

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Afterimage is what stays with you after a story ends. We asked each writer for what lingered. Because the stories in this issue speak to one another, these fragments begin to connect, carrying thoughts across pages. Together, they form something shared:

A kind of quiet, collective poetry.

A collective afterimage.

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The most unsettling part wasn’t the presence,
But the moment it understood it no longer
Had a place
For those we miss
For those we have missed
For those who remain missing.
We remember you
In the end,
We were all trapped
I found that more comforting than expected.
Mud and blood are the stewards of history
Tradition acts as the guiding hands; belief, the great filter
Time is not a line,
But a knot
The river and the moon keep their secrets,
There’s something scarier than ghosts, demons, and their hauntings
It’s memory
Reality
Sometimes,
Even yourself.