Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2020 edition

by Charlie Jane Anders

I have heard it said that happiness is like quicksilver: it runs through your fingers no matter how much you try to grasp it. But what if you’ve never felt its warm touch? What if your element and the elusive element of joy have always been at war?

Men are each other’s brothers and keepers. A woman needs a witness.

“For a woman’s want alone changes neither her fate nor her fortune.”

But this is my world, my love. Shaped in my image, painted with my blood.”

all accompanied by large creatures mostly disguised as adults.

“It feels like there is a flower opening in my chest.”

So vampires liked castles, and they liked the gates to ominously creak, and they liked the floorboards to make a sound when you stepped on them and, in short, they wanted to be well informed in advance if anyone, especially people with sharp sticks, were approaching.

‘She’s a vampire,’ the judge said. ‘Vampires are always guilty.’