The first thing I noticed was the hurried shuffle of shoes and the constant chime of texts, emails, and secure chat messages. Usually, I moved through the day almost automatically, answering
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Tomorrow, you will wake up in a body that is not quite yours. It is older and fatter than you remember. When you look at the calendar, it is 18 years from your current time. The house you came to is
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Dewdrops splatter across my skin as I slowly open my eyes and am greeted by the dark indigo sky.
Pain begins to radiate from my hips and ribs. I am lying down on moist dirt.
Horror takes ove
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Long ago, in Korea's mountainous interior, perhaps in what is now Gangwon Province, a village stood nestled among mountains and trees. This was long before you or even your great-granny were
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It was a rainy day, and I was sad. Life felt like a lot, and it was more bad than good. To make matters worse, it wasn't just a bad week; it had been a long couple of bad months. From betrayed
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"They traded places!" Ardenné Leuront was met with confused looks from the rest of the reluctant guests. She ignored this. She was too busy, in any case, untangling the rest of the
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On the night Paul was supposed to remember our son, I cooked enough fried rice for three.
I had done it without thinking. For six years, there had been three of us. My hands still measured out the
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When I am five, I listen to my brother stomp about the house —
everything he does sounds angry.
When I am twelve, I watch my father kiss my mother's fingers;
in his eyes, a strange mixture of
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A perfect world is one with no disease, no violence, and no homelessness. Well, soon, there will be no violence. Our poor leader, Jonah, so kindly, is willing to do everything in his power to grant
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Always and forever. Now I have to live an always and forever life without him? Without his smile, his laugh, his jokes to keep me going. Did he ever know how every conversation healed something in me
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I've always looked up to Alyssa like a big sister. No matter what happened, she always knew exactly what to say. During my hardest times, she was by my side with a comforting smile, a hand on my
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The last thing Meera said to her mother was, "I wish you'd leave me alone."
Six hours later, her mother was dead.
They had argued over a scholarship overseas. Her mother had hidden the
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At six on Monday morning, Mayor Helen Voss put on a bus driver's uniform.
It was supposed to be a photo opportunity. She'd ride Route 6, hear from passengers, and announce the
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Something does not feel right.
This thought claimed my consciousness as I struggled to open my eyes. The body I was in felt foreign to me. The skin I wore felt stitched to my flesh, my insides
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"Ma'am, over here!"
My hands clamped around the camera, knuckles tight against the grip. I didn't call myself a paparazzo—I preferred photojournalist—in here; speed was
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The audacity of mortals to love what they must hate.
To yearn for a moment, and yet not belong in it. To want to let go and yet unable to.
Ha. The dead surely have an unfortunate amount of time
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Switching on the simulation.
This was it. Everything I deserved. I was standing at the podium of the stage, with the beaming smiles of the judges next to me. In front of me stood rows of envious
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