Three Faces of a Beheading
ShortStory 4,139 words Recommended by 5 award/anthology sources
"Bloodsoaked and grinning, the Soldier climbs to the summit of the ruins. The wind is mountain-top fast. It grabs the strands of her hair that have escaped her ponytail and sticks them to her ecstatic mouth: the slick surface of teeth, the gloss-wet of lipstain. She stands up straight and the wind lights her up."
Content warnings 1
violence
Quasar links out; the story lives on Uncanny, where the author gets the click.