Size / / /

Content warning:


(Rom Spaceknight #5, April 1980)

north

You enter the house.
You are in a small room.
You hope you will
be safe in here
from the aliens
disguised as FBI agents.

There is a window
in the east wall.
There are exits
to the west and south.

look

There is a wooden table
and chair here.
There is a fireplace
in the north wall.
There is a window
in the east wall.
There are exits
to the west and south.

You hear a low moan.
A pair of ghostly eyes
appears above
the mantelpiece.

A smoky tendril
emerges from
the fireplace.

The tendril
reaches out
for you and
your friends!

This house
Is haunted!

fight house

What do you want
to fight the house with?

fight house with steel fists

Nothing happens.

The tendril wraps
around your friends.
They are paralysed!

fight house with hidden subspace laser

You fire your
Hidden Subspace Laser
at the fireplace. The eyes
above the fireplace widen
as though in shock.

The house screams.
The walls shake.

The table flies
through the air
and strikes you
in the back.

Your Hidden Subspace Laser
has three charges left.

fight house with negative energy gun

You fire your
Negative Energy Gun
at the fireplace. The eyes
above the fireplace wince
as though in pain.

The house screams.
The window in
the east wall cracks.

Your Negative Energy Gun
has two charges left.

get friends

You pick up your friends.
Your cyborg strength
lets you carry them easily.

use jetpack

You turn on
your jetpack.
You hover
above the floor.

The house screams.

The exhaust from your
jetpack has set
the house on fire!

south

You are standing in
a clearing in the woods.
Sunlight filters though
the dense canopy.

In front of you stands
a humble wooden house.

Smoke drifts out of
the window on the
east side of the house.

The house screams.

There are exits
to the north, south and west.

wait

You wait.

A cloud of sinister
black fog envelops
the house.

When the fog lifts,
the house
has disappeared.

You stand with your
friends, staring at the
smouldering square
of flattened grass
where a haunted
house once stood.



Adam Ford is the author of the poetry collections The Third Fruit is a Bird (Picaro Press, 2008) and Not Quite the Man for the Job (Allen & Unwin, 1998). He lives in Australia and writes poems about sad robots and such. His website is theotheradamford.wordpress.com.
Current Issue
20 Jan 2025

Strange Horizons
Surveillance technology looms large in our lives, sold to us as tools for safety, justice, and convenience. Yet the reality is far more sinister.
Vans and campers, sizeable mobile cabins and some that were barely more than tents. Each one a home, a storefront, and a statement of identity, from the colorful translucent windows and domes that harvested sunlight to the stickers and graffiti that attested to places travelled.
“Don’t ask me how, but I found out this big account on queer Threads is some kind of super Watcher.” Charlii spins her laptop around so the others can see. “They call them Keepers, and they watch the people that the state’s apparatus has tagged as terrorists. Not just the ones the FBI created. The big fish. And people like us, I guess.”
It's 9 a.m., she still hasn't eaten her portion of tofu eggs with seaweed, and Amaia wants the day to be over.
Nadjea always knew her last night in the Clave would get wild: they’re the only sector of the city where drink and drug and dance are unrestricted, and since one of the main Clavist tenets is the pursuit of corporeal joy in all its forms, they’ve more or less refined partying to an art.
surviving / while black / is our superpower / we lift broken down / cars / over our heads / and that’s just a tuesday
After a few deft movements, she tossed the cube back to James, perfectly solved. “We’re going to break into the Seattle Police Department’s database. And you’re going to help me do it.”
there are things that are toxic to a bo(d)y
By: Michelle Kulwicki
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
  In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Michelle Kulwicki's 'Bee Season' read by Emmie Christie Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify.
Wednesday: Motheater by Linda H. Codega 
Friday: Revising Reality: How Sequels, Remakes, Retcons, and Rejects Explain The World by Chris Gavaler and Nat Goldberg 
Issue 13 Jan 2025
Issue 6 Jan 2025
By: Samantha Murray
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
Issue 23 Dec 2024
Issue 16 Dec 2024
Issue 9 Dec 2024
Issue 2 Dec 2024
By: E.M. Linden
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
Issue 25 Nov 2024
Issue 18 Nov 2024
By: Susannah Rand
Podcast read by: Claire McNerney
Issue 11 Nov 2024
Issue 4 Nov 2024
Load More