Bee Season
ShortStory 5,013 words Recommended by 1 award/anthology source
"The girls of our town float down the middle of the street, cheap fabric wings pinned to their clothes. I watch them walk, hobbled by coat hanger curves that refuse to bend with the bow of their backs. I see Min towards the back. She’s been doing this for a decade now, and even though the orange and black of her wings have dulled with age, she still looks more beautiful than anyone else."
Content warnings 3
body-horrorsexual-violencesubstance-use
Quasar links out; the story lives on Strange Horizons, where the author gets the click.