M. Olivas

When the death of her aunt brings Liz Remolina back to San Ojuela, the prospect fills her with dread. The isolated desert town was the site of a harrowing childhood accident that left her clairvoyant, the companion of wraiths and ghosts. Yet it may also hold the secret to making peace with a dark family history and a complicated personal and cultural identity.

Setting out on the train with her younger sister Mary in tow, she soon finds herself hemmed in by a desolate landscape where monsters and ancient gods stalk the night. She’s relieved at first to find that her childhood best friend Julian still lives in San Ojuela, but soon realizes that he too is changed. Haunted.

Yet she’ll have no other choice than to seek out his help as the darkness closes in.

M. M. Olivas is a speculative fiction writer from the San Francisco Bay area. She is currently an MFA student at San Jose State University and studied creative writing as an undergraduate at the University of California Riverside; she is also a graduate of the 2022 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop. Her short fiction has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Weird Horror Magazine, Apex, and Bourbon Penn. A trans, first-generation Chicana, Olivas explores the intersection of queer and diasporic experiences in her fiction. She also collects transforming robots. Find her on the web at olivasthewriter.wtf.