THE BRIDGE

"I was raised by three sisters, one a witch, one an assassin and the third just batshit crazy." And so begins The Bridge, from Shirley Jackson Award, Aurealis Award, Shadows Award, and Wonderland Award finalist, J.S. Breukelaar.

Meera and her twin sister Kai are among thousands of hybrid women—Mades—bred in the Blood Temple cult, from which Meera was rescued by a mysterious healer and storyteller, Narn. Years later, Meera, still racked with guilt and grief, enrolls in college to take advantage of a generous new Redress Program. _ ere she can only dream of ever being real, of ever being whole again without her twin, for whose death she blames herself. When Narn's conjure stories buy Meera a free ride to a notorious horror reading series, she is soon the darling of the lit set, feted by the other students, finally whole, finally free of the idea that she should have died so Kai could have lived. It seems like, thanks to Narn, Meera can be re-made a_ er all, her life redressed.

But college is not all it seems and there is a price to pay for belonging to something that you don't understand. Narn has lost a sister too, and Meera agrees to try and find her if Narn keeps giving Meera the stories that are slowly changing her—opening her up to memories she's never acknowledged, secrets she's never wanted to know—about Narn and her connection to a violent campus stalker. Time is closing in on all Meera holds dear—she is afraid, not just for, but of herself, of what she's becoming, and of where she stands on the bridge between worlds—fearful of what waits on the other side, and of the price she'll have to pay for knowing what she truly is.

J.S. Breukelaar is the author of the acclaimed novels Aletheia and American Monster as well as the collection, Collision, and numerous stories, poems and essays in publications such as Gamut, SF&F, Nightmare, Lightspeed and elsewhere. She has a PhD in creative writing and is a columnist and instructor at Lit- Reactor.com. California-born and New York raised she currently lives in Sydney, Australia with her family.