Rain's Published Works
Mother Moon
The Ballad of Daphne Dark
Whimsical middle grade short story published in National Magic: Hikes and Hexes Anthology, September 2026
Mom used to tell me I make everything harder than it needs to be. She doesn’t anymore. Maybe it’s because she’s simply moved on from that particular phrase. Maybe it’s because she thinks I’ve outgrown the pesky little habit. I think I’ve just gotten really good at hiding it...
The Ballad of Daphne Dark
The Ballad of Daphne Dark
Dark fantasy short story published in Curses, Charms, & Other Enchantments Anthology, September 2026
There’s nothing you could have done, dear circles maddeningly at the opening of my ear before violently needling my brain. I frown to tack the wicked little line to the base of my skull—I didn’t want to hear it then, least of all from my mother on the day they lowered your body into the ground, and I don’t want to hear it now...
The Lost Girl
Grim horror short story published in 96th of October Magazine, June 2026
I thought it was a dream, when I coughed my teeth into the sink. I’ve had similar dreams before. Even looked them up. Anxiety, according to the search engine on my phone. But after going back to bed bloody-mouthed and beaten black and blue by…I’m not sure what, the teeth are still here, in my sink, this morning...
Smoke Stained
Dark speculative/mystery short story published in Allegory Magazine May 2026
Rumor round here’s that by the time you start seeing ghosts, you’re well on your way to becoming one. But considering the vast majority of those living out in the soggy backwaters of Nanm Pédi, Louisiana both see ghosts regularly and haven’t the constitution for dying prematurely, I’d long ago let that warning drip from my skin...
Continue reading (on Allegory's site)
Harold the Harbinger
The Girl Behind The Glass
Satire short story published in Dark Horses: The Magazine of Weird Fiction, February 2026
Above a swanky piano bar on 73rd and Lexington, there’s a second bar, a quainter, much quieter bar. It can be accessed from any door, anywhere, at any time, so long as the entrant has been selected to live life in-between, and the time is of the present or the near-future. No go-sie backsies, unless of course, the go-sie backser is returning from the near-future to the present...
The Girl Behind The Glass
The Girl Behind The Glass
Dark sci-fi short story published in Elegant Literature Magazine, September 2023
My girlfriend died three days ago. No back alley barter, no hold up. Just two quick shots to the head. Twenty-four hours later her car appeared across three chop shops in South End, all its goodies missing. No stereo, no catalytic converter, and whatever shit we had in the back was gone. Same time-ish, I figured out the world wasn’t what it seemed...
Digger
Luck and Other Things
Luck and Other Things
Dark crime short story published in Elegant Literature Magazine, June 2023
When they slap your window at two AM, flexing their badge and thumbing their Glock, you get up, nod, show ‘em your keys, and move out. They don’t want you clogging up the street; you don’t want them flashin’ red and blue. Shit’s annoying. Plus, they flash and every mother fucker around knows your make and model like that...
Luck and Other Things
Luck and Other Things
Luck and Other Things
Gritty sci-fi short story published in Elegant Literature Magazine, May 2023
To the Everliving this is but a game. And hope—simple, stupid, cheap hope—is all they’ll ever need to gather players like me. They know it, I know it, and yet we, me and the seven other hungry women in this cage, bet our lives against all odds that hope will bend in our favor. If never before, then today. Just today. Just this once..
Why I Write
Luck and Other Things
Why I Write
Personal essay published in Writerly Magazine, June 2022
I’ve always been a runner, an escapist looking for a way out. But both running and escaping are funny terms. They imply leaving, getting away from, abandoning, yet so often fail to disclose—but by their very nature entail—the result of the venture. The deliverance component. There is no ‘running from’ without ‘arriving at,’ no ‘escaping the old’ without ‘discovering the new’...