The Bards and Sages Quarterly closes out its eleventh year in publication with an appropriately creepy and peculiar issue featuring works by Joe Vasicek, Sara Pauling, John Post, Zachary Kellian, Lucy Stone, Kay ben-Avraham, Claire Simpson, Emily Sorensen, Thea Boodhoo, and Lisa Timpf.

A nervous curator invites a stranger into the museum's collection after hours to deal with a newly acquired and highly problematic piece in "Viaticum."

An act of chemical terrorism creates a bizarre zone where victims are frozen in place. One woman's fascination with the event leads to a surreal discovery in "The Pause."

A mother's face-off with a witch yields surprising results in "Unexpected Lastborn."

These and other stories await.