Benbrook Public Library

Strange. Beautiful. Shocking. Surreal. APEX MAGAZINE is a digital dark science fiction and fantasy genre zine that features award-winning short fiction, essays, and interviews. Established in 2009, our fiction has won several Hugo and Nebula Awards. We publish every other month. Issue 129 contains the following short stories, essays, reviews, and interviews. EDITORIALEditorial by Jason Sizemore ORIGINAL FICTIONIt Happened in 'Loontown by Lavie TidharCity...

An explosive return to the library leaves the six Alexandrians vulnerable to the lethal terms of their recruitment....And still the outside world mobilizes to destroy them, while the Caretaker himself, Atlas Blakely, may yet succeed with a plan foreseen to have world-ending stakes. It's a race to survive as the six Society recruits are faced with the question of what they're willing to betray for limitless power--and who will be destroyed along the...

"A dark power called the Talisman, born of ignorance and persecution, has risen in the land. Led by a man known only as the One-Eyed Preacher, it is a cruel and terrifying movement bent on world domination--a superstitious patriarchy that suppresses knowledge and subjugates women. And it is growing. But there are those who fight the Talisman's spread, including the Companions of Hira, a diverse group of influential women whose power derives from the...

First published in 1872, Carmilla is a classic gothic novella and one of the earliest examples of vampire fiction. Fast-paced and gripping, the story follows the protagonist Laura, who lives in a secluded castle in the woods with her father. One day, a carriage accident brings a young woman named Carmilla into their lives, and she is taken in as a guest. As time goes on, Laura becomes increasingly drawn to Carmilla, despite her strange behavior and...

It has been 4 years since the 1st crisis ripped the town of Bangseong from the Earth. Kyung Joon is a scout of the Church of the ever Loving Christ. Where he needed to identify monsters within the city and report them. Recently he has received a promotion and is asked to head to see the head Pastor Matthew Kim. What lies in store for him? Surely, it couldn't be something dangerous.

While at school, teenage nonbinary Rat Evans, heir to a powerful magical bloodline, discovers secret portals no one else can see, and is pulled into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse that leads them through the passages.

Mary, a troubled teenage detective, must solve a missing persons case as she discovers the reimagined origins of infamous Disney Villains. High school senior by day, intern at the Monarch City police department by night, Mary Elizabeth Heart watches with envy from behind a desk as detectives come and go, trying to contain the city's growing crime rate. The city's wealthy elite plan to gentrify the decaying neighborhood called the Scar, once upon...

To have a heart is to love, isn't it?

The faerie war has devastated the world, and what little remains of humanity lives underground as vampires.

Kara is a half-blood. Her mother was human, but her father was not. She works as a hostess in one of the many pleasure dens of Nocturne, a vampire nest in a catacomb. Earning her blood one night at a time, Kara lives as peacefully as she can in a dying world.

For decades

...

Creating a new House of Magic is hard work. Aria knew she had a tall task ahead of her, cleaning up the mess her family had made in the Nine Realms, but nothing could have prepared her for the horrors that awaited within the Nine Realms.
Dark magic has taken hold of the lands as Aria finds herself in the middle of an ongoing war while playing cat and mouse with Knox, who hunts her relentlessly.
To make matters worse, Aria's creature

...

Every day in Clara's world, a dark cloud descends upon her town. The storm comes like clockwork, erasing everyone's memories. Everyone except Clara. But after Clara's father mysteriously disappears, things change. The Diviners, captive souls who feed off memories, come for her. With the help of a mysterious figure, Clara escapes the Diviners and flees to Khalom, a city in a parallel world, where she hopes to find refuge. There, Clara discovers that...