Where the Dark Stands Still

by A.B. Poranek

Liska heard the word “laboratory” once from Father Paweł, when he talked about the scholars in his home city of Aniołów. He described it as a room where wisdom and chaos have formed a bargain, where a person realizes how truly little they know, and desires, suddenly, to know so much more.

Marriage is an inevitable thing for village girls, but Liska always ignored it—she assumed it would come like death, arriving when least expected and stopping her life in its tracks.

sadness and slumber are both overpowering forces.

“There is a thing we do,” the Leszy says, “where we rearrange ourselves, cutting off pieces here and there to fit a mold that was never meant for us.

if the world has not prepared a place for you, you must take up a hammer and chisel and carve one out for yourself.”

AS IT TURNS OUT, DEMONS have a very skewed concept of the word “fun.”

She is caught in a trance of her own making—the hypnotic, addictive spiral of secrets unveiled.

“Fate,” she scoffs. “What is fate but an excuse to surrender responsibility?