io9 is proud to present fiction from Lightspeed Magazine. Once a month, we feature a story from Lightspeed’s current issue. This month’s selection is “Drosera regina” by A.L. Goldfuss. Enjoy!
Drosera regina
by A.L. Goldfuss
The men knew before she did. Before this boy, before sophomore year, before even her twelfth birthday, they had jostled her on the sidewalk and hooted from cars, searching for something just past her skin. But now, with her panties stripped off and the boy’s eyes on her, Jackie felt a strange prickling. A warning pacing behind her ribs. A mouth about to drip.
The boy’s family had a single-wide, newer than her mother’s, and the carpet in his bedroom was soiled with crumbs. The thin pile bit into Jackie’s shoulders and spine as she thought how, inches below her, was fresh air and cool earth.
“Feels good, right?” the boy said, sliding a part of him along a part of her. It did feel good, at least in one place. Another place hurt, and that seemed to be where the boy was interested most.
On the other side of the door, his father watched television in the living room.
“Here I go,” the boy said, and Jackie bit her lip as he pressed into the place that didn’t feel good at all. He thrust once, twice, pimply face blocking out the inset ceiling light, then yelped in her ear and pulled out, leaving behind a hole.
“What did you do?” he said, clutching his crotch. Between his fingers the skin growled red and steamed with blisters. “What did you do to me?” Beyond the door, the television swelled louder.
Jackie sat up and her cami stuck to her chest with something thicker than sweat.
“It hurt me, too,” she said, thinking it was an experience they could share. Perhaps this was part of it.
“You’re diseased! Look what you did to me! Get out!”
She dragged on her shorts, denim sticking to her fingers, and plucked her sneakers from the kitchen on her way to the door. She might have said goodnight to the boy’s father—he didn’t respond—but all she remembered when she got home was the betrayal in the boy’s eyes, as though Nature itself had wronged him.
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About the Author
A.L. Goldfuss’s work has been shortlisted for Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy and has appeared in Lightspeed, Nightmare, Fantasy, and other venues. For more work and newsletter updates, visit algoldfuss.com.
Please visit LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE to read more great science fiction and fantasy. This story first appeared in the October 2025 issue, which also features short fiction by Martin Cahill, Osahon Ize-Iyamu, Micah Dean Hicks, Stephen Graham Jones, Sean McMullen, Megan Chee, An Owomoyela, and more. You can wait for this month’s contents to be serialized online, or you can buy the whole issue right now in convenient ebook format for just $4.99, or subscribe to the ebook edition here.
