# Cetera Magazine
> Read something you didn't expect.
Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. Use `/llms-full.txt` for consolidated page and post context.
Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`).

## Pages
- [Welcome](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/about.md) - Cetera is a multi-genre magazine that believes fiction can be one of the best forms of surprise. Every Thursday, we deliver original short stories that challenge, comfort, and hopefully astonish. Tales that explore the unexpected corners of human experience and the worlds that shift without warning…
- [Cetera Press](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/cetera-press.md) - Cetera Press is the book-publishing imprint of Cetera Magazine, dedicated to literary fiction, speculative work, poetry, and other work shaped by emotional consequence. Our first release, All Our Bright Ruins by Jon Negroni, introduces the imprint’s central concern. Of ordinary people enduring brok…
- [Podcast](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/podcast.md) - Our companion podcast, Worlds Without Warning, offers audio versions for many of our written stories. You can subscribe to the podcast on all major platforms so new stories hit your feed right away.
- [Submissions](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/submit-to-cetera.md) - We're always looking for fresh voices and untold stories. Cetera publishes original short fiction and poetry that surprises, challenges, and moves readers. If you write stories that explore the unexpected—tales of memory, rebellion, folklore, or worlds that change without warning—we want to hear fr…
- [Themed Poetry Call: "After the Fire, the Garden"](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/themed-poetry-call-after-the-fire-the-garden.md) - Deadline: August 20, 2026 Cetera Magazine’s third digital poetry issue turns toward aftermath. Toward the altered ground left behind by rupture. And the strange forms of life that begin there. "After the Fire, the Garden" is an issue about what grows after devastation. We're interested in poems tha…

## Posts
- [Goddess Class](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/goddess-class.md) - A data analyst’s uncanny social instincts earn her an invitation to a billionaire’s mysterious island retreat.
- [Fade to Bette](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/fade-to-bette.md) - When Bette falls in love, she finally stops disappearing—so long as he keeps watching.
- [Carcinization](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/carcinization.md) - A woman travels 10,000 years to find her missing lover. Instead, she finds crabs.
- [Pete](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/pete.md) - After her husband dies, a widow starts meeting the versions of him who lost her instead.
- [We All Must Attend the Deathbed of the Lich](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/we-all-must-attend-the-deathbed-of-the-lich.md) - When an immortal tyrant begins to die, the whole kingdom must decide what it owes him.
- [Please Respect Our Decision](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/please-respect-our-decision.md) - He got the text this afternoon. Now it's last call, and he needs to say it out loud to someone.
- [And Yet, So Far Away](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/and-yet-so-far-away.md) - Trapped inside an alien warehouse, a soldier radios the one person who might keep him sane.
- [Berm People](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/berm-people.md) - In a world of endless wind, a roofer plots to kill the privileged half of his shelter.
- [The Bones](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-bones.md) - Her husband walked off one winter night and didn't come back. Months later, a box arrives.
- [Bleach](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/bleach.md) - A woman is sure her quiet roommate isn't human. She's almost right.
- [And a Bottle of Rum](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/and-a-bottle-of-rum.md) - A pirate's ship is failing. So it steals a new one.
- [105.9°](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/105-9.md) - In a world where fever can be sold like a drug, Jimmy makes one last deal with the customer he’d rather forget.
- [A Little Something](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/a-little-something.md) - Chasing the American Dream, an Indian immigrant learns about American corruption.
- [Nighthorse](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/nighthorse.md) - A sleepless man steps outside for a smoke, only to find a horse who's been looking for his cousin.
- [The Heir](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-heir.md) - A reluctant heir and an anxious graduate student confront the cost of being found.
- [Branches](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/branches.md) - Heartbroken and desperate, Mara discovers two ways to rewrite her past: one scientific, one magical, both dangerous.
- [The Griefing](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-griefing.md) - After her neighbor dies, Rachel becomes obsessed with the ruined house across the street. And the man waiting inside it.
- [Kids Eat Free](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/kids-eat-free.md) - A tiny pet funeral becomes a strange, funny journey through grief and motherhood.
- [Rain Check](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/rain-check.md) - Ninety-two days sober, Marge walks into a storm to find out what’s left of her.
- [What We Were Good At](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/what-we-were-good-at.md) - They were perfect for each other until they decided to be together.
- [The Day Hikaru Died](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-day-hikaru-died.md) - When a caregiving robot learns to feel, love becomes the one system she cannot control.
- [Cetera #2 – The Body Keeps the Score](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/cetera-2-the-body-keeps-the-score.md) - A digital issue gets built in a strange way. First it exists as a submission call. Then it becomes a flood of attachments, cover letters, half-remembered lines, notes in the margins, long email threads about sequencing, and the gradual realization that certain poems have started following you aroun…
- [The Closure of St. Jerome's Home for Foundlings](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-closure-of-st-jeromes-home-for-foundlings.md) - Blind and overlooked, Lucy Victoria learns to read the world around her. And waits to find out if anyone will choose to read her back.
- [Texts After 3](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/texts-after-3.md) - Two insomniacs grow closer one 3am text at a time, while the wrong relationship slowly makes the right one impossible to ignore.
- [The Stranger in Apartment 3A, First Floor](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-stranger-in-apartment-3a-first-floor-2.md) - A dead girl haunts her old apartment’s new tenant, only to discover grief can trap the living and the dead alike.
- [Notch: The Lost Years](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/notch-the-lost-years.md) - She spent thirty years learning to trust the part of herself she couldn’t explain to anyone.
- [Memory With a View](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/memory-with-a-view.md) - A man returns to his mother’s apartment to sell it. In a locked drawer, he finds what he could never say out loud.
- [Xeno’s Dilemma](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/xenos-dilemma.md) - They found something in the woods. They can’t stop returning to it.
- [Cold Genius](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/cold-genius.md) - A god of cold is dragged from extinction to retrieve a doomed child.
- [Doors that Open on Leap Days](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/doors-that-open-on-leap-days.md) - Every four years, on February 29, the bar is open.
- [The Silence Between My Thoughts](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-silence-between-my-thoughts.md) - I counted three sets of eyes. Looking out at me. Judging my frailty.
- [Addressee Unknown](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/addressee.md) - The cards keep coming. Year after year. This time, she's going to make them stop.
- [Three Days on the Water](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/three-days-on-the-water.md) - Gustavo’s stomach tightened. He had been on rougher seas. This was nothing.
- [Starling Song](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/starling-song.md) - I asked the crows what they wanted, but their unnatural suspension was its own form of acknowledgement.
- [Cetera Poetry #1 – The Things That Survive Us](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/cetera-poetry-1-the-things-that-survive-us.md) - Every poem in this issue arrives carrying its own weather. Some carry the hush of a kitchen after midnight, or the shape of a shoreline where the water keeps its counsel. Some move through childhood terrain half-remembered and half-invented, through fields that no longer exist except in the body. O…
- [The Pomegranate Man](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-pomegranate-man.md) - The pomegranate split in his hands—reluctantly, then all at once—and Riam set half of it on the flat rock where the tide would find it by morning. The seeds shone like wet garnets in the last grey light. Forty years he had done this. Forty winters watching the fruit go soft, then vanish, taken by g…
- [Closure, and Other Impossible Wishes](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/closure-and-other-impossible-wishes.md) - Unfortunately, Sian had a talent not only for creativity but also overthinking, which meant that by the end of the second week she had a full list of possibilities. 1. He’d had a breakdown. 2. He’d been mugged. 3. He had a girlfriend. 4. He had a wife. (4a. He had a wife and a girlfriend.) 5. He wa…
- [The Big Black Square](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-big-black-square.md) - In every reflection, I saw a happier version of myself—and I finally understood why.
- [A Special Bond](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/a-special-bond.md) - Before I play the video, perhaps you would care for another glass of wine.
- [Starving for Salvation](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/starving-for-salvation.md) - “Yes, child,” Matty said, forcing himself to open his eyes again, “I am a vampire.”
- [Second Run](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/second-run.md) - “I’m fine,” I told everyone. It was easier than saying anything else.
- [Hành Tinh Thu Doesn’t Welcome You](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/hanh-tinh-thu-doesnt-welcome-you.md) - Some planets tell you when you're not welcome.
- [Overnight](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/overnight.md) - Her dad said the desert was the most honest place there is.
- [No Regrets](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/no-regrets.md) - Before the clock strikes midnight, you have to confess your regret. If you don't, you lose a precious memory.
- [You're the Best](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/youre-the-best.md) - It seemed to matter that this was Christmas.
- [Holiday Party](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/holiday-party.md) - He told himself another ten minutes would not kill him.
- [The Empathy Gig](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-empathy-gig.md) - She’s paid to nudge couples closer. This time, the feelings nudge back.
- [What Are Friends For?](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/what-are-friends-for.md) - Four friends, four pints, and a death that changes everything.
- [The Blessing List](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-blessing-list.md) - We went around the table saying what we were thankful for. No one said the truth.
- [The Graven Oaths](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-graven-oaths.md) - Magic oaths carved in bone. Trauma passed through blood. Both must be cut out.
- [Little Good People](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/little-good-people.md) - She was paid to invent the perfect neighbors. Now she can't prove who's real.
- [Three Poems from Lynchburg: A Study in Stillness](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/three-poems-from-lynchburg-a-study-in-stillness.md) - The Table, Dishwater Light, and Evening Window.
- [The Ex Files](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-ex-files.md) - Her ex is getting married. Her other ex is the maid of honor. This is fine.
- [Someone Lived There Too](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/someone-lived-there-too.md) - The house on Seagrass Close is haunted. But the ghosts aren't angry. They're lonely.
- [The Caller isn't Human](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-caller-isnt-human.md) - At 3 AM in a dead-end laundromat, the payphone rings three times. No one ever answers. No one ever should.
- [The Petals Beneath Her Tongue](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-petals-beneath-her-tongue.md) - A disgraced influencer sells her emotions as consumable flavors. But the technology under her tongue has plans of its own.
- [Housekeeping for the Dead](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/housekeeping-for-the-dead.md) - Seven rooms. Seven deaths. I have to clean up all of them.
- [The Ghost Census](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-ghost-census.md) - Every hundred years, the dead cast their votes. And the living wait to see if they still deserve tomorrow.
- [The Morrow Twins](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-morrow-twins.md) - There had been three girls in the attic, once. Two names I knew. One I had burned.
- [I Am the Wolf, I Am the Boy](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/i-am-the-wolf-i-am-the-boy.md) - When someone loves him, he becomes a wolf. Then he forgets them forever.
- [The Archivist](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-archivist.md) - When missed calls and broken promises begin piling up as literal objects in his home, Isandro must choose to burn or keep everything he's been carrying for years.
- [The Man in the Mirrors](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-man-in-the-mirrors.md) - They say a man has three faces: the one he shows to the world, the one he shows to his family, and the one he shows to himself alone.
- [End of the Line](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/end-of-the-line.md) - “Sorry to interrupt your shift, but there’s a killer on this train.”
- [Behavioral Pause](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/behavioral-pause.md) - Take the Pause. You’ll still be you, just more thoughtful and considerate.
- [We Should Celebrate](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/we-should-celebrate.md) - Come on. Everyone sees it. Sees what? she said. You share groceries. You have a favorite side of the couch. We’re roommates. Right.
- [The Hunger Beneath the Warrens](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-hunger-beneath-the-warrens.md) - To save their way of life from undead hordes, a band of rabbits will pick up their swords.
- [Frequency](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/frequency.md) - When the bass drops, the bodies follow. And one faithful night never ends.
- [Your Inner Sourdough](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/your-inner-sourdough.md) - When it comes to the only good seat on the commuter train, tensions will rise.
- [The Little Matchgirl Makes Good](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-little-matchgirl-makes-good.md) - She died cold, poor, and alone. Now she’s burning the rich with a vengeance.
- [That's Your Problem to Solve](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/thats-your-problem-to-solve.md) - The most detached therapist in the world just met his perfect match. A woman addicted to being ignored.
- [One Good Ghost](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/one-good-ghost.md) - The groom’s ex is back for the wedding. She’s dead. And I’m the only one who can see her.
- [Paper Dreams](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/paper-dreams.md) - In a future where dreams are monetized, one woman learns that not even her grief is exempt.
- [Soulmate Season](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/soulmate-season.md) - Every ten years, the threads appear. Some people follow them, right to their soulmate. Some people don’t.
- [Open Concept](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/open-concept.md) - I've been a home for generations. Now I'm about to be renovated to oblivion by a family that doesn't get me.
- [The Dinner Party](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-dinner-party.md) - Tom has a solution to the male loneliness epidemic. His wife Linda isn't so sure.
- [They Won't Stop Lying Because They Can't](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/they-wont-stop-lying-because-they.md) - A poem about the televised theater of cruelty.
- [Burning Love: Fire, Brimstone, and You!](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/burning-love-fire-brimstone-and-you.md) - A holy guide to channeling your inner arsonist.
- [The Lost Item Rule](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-lost-item-rule.md) - If you find something you lost years ago, don’t touch it. It means something else found it first.
- [We Mean All of Them](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/we-mean-all-of-them.md) - A poem for the ones who didn't make it home.
- [Everything I Told You Was True](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/everything-i-told-you-was-true.md) - The memory of a girl, the industry of forgetting her.
- [Songs for the Dead and Drowning](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/songs-for-the-dead-and-drowning.md) - A short tale of revenge, monsters, and the bleeding tides.
- [A Butcher's Fable](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/a-butchers-fable.md) - A parable of salt, silence, and the words that cut deep.
- [Magical Pork](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/magical-pork.md) - To save his business, a struggling food truck owner needs a real miracle to turn things around.
- [The Moon Dancer’s Bargain](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/the-moon-dancers-bargain.md) - When the Sea demands everything, one Woman stands alone.
- [To Feel Like a Person Again](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/to-feel-like-a-person-again-2.md) - A haunting tale of love, loss, and the hopeless desire to do it all over again.

## Optional
- [RSS Feed](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/rss/)
- [Sitemap](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/sitemap.xml)
- [Full content of pages and posts](https://www.ceteramagazine.com/llms-full.txt)