Worlds Without Warning

Welcome back to Worlds Without Warning. This week, we’re reaching into the Cetera Magazine archive for “Rain Check” by Emily Brown, originally published May 21, 2026. Jon Negroni reads aloud the story of Marge, a woman ninety-two days sober whose carefully planned backpacking trip changes when her sponsor cancels at the last minute. Rather than stay home, Marge takes her permit, shoulders her pack, and heads into the wilderness alone, with a storm already moving toward the trail.

You can find the written version of this story right here.

About the Author

Emily Brown is a writer and poet based in Toronto. When she is not writing, she can usually be found walking by the lake, buying books she has no shelf space for, or making coffee she forgets to drink.

• Tip the author to support them and say thanks
• Explore our full archive of stories and poetry.
• Submit your own story to be featured on Cetera.

About Cetera Magazine

We publish original short fiction every Thursday. Our stories span literary fiction, speculative tales, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and weird fiction. All written without AI assistance and curated by editor Natalia Emmons.

Credits

• Author: Emily Brown
• Narrator: Jon Negroni
• Editor: Natalia Emmons
• Artwork: Jon Negroni
• Music: "Magic Escape Room" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Welcome back to Worlds Without Warning. This week, Jon Negroni reads aloud “Carcinization” by Danielle Wilfand, which is a science fiction/speculative story about a chronically ill woman who travels 10,000 years into the future searching for the man she loves and discovers that everything has evolved into crabs. As she waits for him to find his way through time, however, this alien future begins to feel unexpectedly accommodating to a body that her own world increasingly treated as a problem.

You can find the written version of this story right here.

About the Author

Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Danielle Wilfand resides in Denver, Colorado where she is a first-year internal medicine resident at the University of Colorado. She enjoys writing about and examining her experience of living with chronic illness through different lenses.

• Tip the author to support them and say thanks
• Explore our full archive of stories and poetry.
• Submit your own story to be featured on Cetera.

About Cetera Magazine

We publish original short fiction every Thursday. Our stories span literary fiction, speculative tales, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and weird fiction. All written without AI assistance and curated by editor Natalia Emmons.

Credits

• Author: Danielle Wilfand
• Narrator: Jon Negroni
• Editor: Natalia Emmons
• Artwork: Jon Negroni
• Music: "Magic Escape Room" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Welcome back to Worlds Without Warning. This week, Jon Negroni reads aloud his short story “What We Were Good At,” a literary story about two longtime friends who finally act on the romantic possibility everyone around them has already noticed. As familiarity gives way to expectation, two people who once knew exactly how to be together have to confront the possibility that changing the relationship has also changed what made it work.

You can find the written version of this story right here.

About the Author

Jon Negroni is a Puerto Rican author based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He’s published two books, as well as short stories for IHRAM Press, The Fairy Tale Magazine, and more.

• Tip the author to support them and say thanks
• Explore our full archive of stories and poetry.
• Submit your own story to be featured on Cetera.

About Cetera Magazine

We publish original short fiction every Thursday. Our stories span literary fiction, speculative tales, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and weird fiction. All written without AI assistance and curated by editor Natalia Emmons.

Credits

• Author: Jon Negroni
• Narrator: Jon Negroni
• Editor: Natalia Emmons
• Artwork: Jon Negroni
• Music: "Magic Escape Room" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Welcome back to Worlds Without Warning. This week, Jon Negroni reads aloud “Pete” by Jeremy Morris. It's a funny, strange, and perhaps unexpectedly tender speculative story about a widow whose husband dies from cancer, only for another version of him to walk into her life. Blending multiverse science fiction with sex, absurdist comedy, and the mundane rhythms of life after loss, Morris asks whether another version of someone you loved can ever replace the particular person who is gone.

You can find the written version of this story right here.

About the Author

Jeremy Morris has been published in The Deadlands, Neon Demon, and SciFanSat. He's also won a Sloan Writing Fellowship, the Jubilee Prize, and the McGill Short Play Prize.

• Tip the author to support them and say thanks
• Explore our full archive of stories and poetry.
• Submit your own story to be featured on Cetera.

About Cetera Magazine

We publish original short fiction every Thursday. Our stories span literary fiction, speculative tales, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and weird fiction. All written without AI assistance and curated by editor Natalia Emmons.

Credits

• Author: Jeremy Morris
• Narrator: Jon Negroni
• Editor: Natalia Emmons
• Artwork: Jon Negroni
• Music: "Magic Escape Room" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Welcome back to Worlds Without Warning. This week, Jon Negroni reads aloud “A Little Something” by Vaidhy Mahalingam, which is a literary fiction story about an Indian immigrant trying to build his American Dream one meticulously inspected borehole at a time. When a building inspector’s exacting standards make him wonder whether the man might be waiting for “a little something,” memories return of the bribes, bureaucrats, moral compromises, and carefully maintained principles he thought he’d left behind in India.

You can find the written version of this story right here.

About the Author

Vaidhy Mahalingam came to the USA from India for graduate school, completed his PhD in Naval Architecture, and had a 29-year career in the tech industry. In retirement, he spends his time cherishing moments with his family and putting into words the stories that have lived in his thoughts for years. His short stories have been featured in Arkana, Pembroke Magazine, Solstice, MudRoom, The Temz Review, and The Write Launch.

• Tip the author to support them and say thanks
• Explore our full archive of stories and poetry.
• Submit your own story to be featured on Cetera.

About Cetera Magazine

We publish original short fiction every Thursday. Our stories span literary fiction, speculative tales, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and weird fiction. All written without AI assistance and curated by editor Natalia Emmons.

Credits

• Author: Vaidhy Mahalingam
• Narrator: Jon Negroni
• Editor: Natalia Emmons
• Artwork: Jon Negroni
• Music: "Magic Escape Room" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Welcome back to Worlds Without Warning. This week, Jon Negroni reads aloud “We All Must Attend the Deathbed of the Lich” by Haden Cross — a dark fantasy story about an immortal ruler finally approaching death and the kingdom ordered to gather at his bedside. Told through a collective “we,” Cross turns a fantasy death vigil into a story about propaganda, obedience, political memory, and the strange moment when a population realizes the supposedly permanent thing governing their lives can end.

You can find the written version of this story right here.

About the Author

Haden Cross is the author of The Uncontinented Stars, which was a finalist for the 2026 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction. Their short fiction has been featured in The Deadlands and Shadowrun: Augment. 

• Tip the author to support them and say thanks
• Explore our full archive of stories and poetry.
• Submit your own story to be featured on Cetera.

About Cetera Magazine

We publish original short fiction every Thursday. Our stories span literary fiction, speculative tales, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and weird fiction. All written without AI assistance and curated by editor Natalia Emmons.

Credits

• Author: Haden Cross
• Narrator: Jon Negroni
• Editor: Natalia Emmons
• Artwork: Jon Negroni
• Music: "Magic Escape Room" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Welcome back to Worlds Without Warning. This week, Jon Negroni reads aloud "The Day Hikaru Died" by Frances Koziar. This is a science fiction story about a family robot given an emotion chip by the man who raised her as his daughter. Blending quiet domestic detail with devastating loss, this story asks what it means to love someone whose life is slipping beyond your reach, and what remains in your hands once they're gone.

The written version of this story was published on May 7, 2026. You can find the written version right here.

About the Author

Frances Koziar is an author with over 200 published stories, poems, and articles. She is a tricenarian (disabled) retiree with a Master’s of Archaeology (Anthropology) from McGill University, where she specialized in cannibalism and Aztec human sacrifice. She is an intersectional social justice activist, a gamer, painter, DM, musician, and a bubble tea fangirl. She lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

• Tip the author to support them and say thanks
• Explore our full archive of stories and poetry.
• Submit your own story to be featured on Cetera.

About Cetera Magazine

We publish original short fiction every Thursday. Our stories span literary fiction, speculative tales, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and weird fiction. All written without AI assistance and curated by editor Natalia Emmons.

Credits

• Author: Frances Koziar
• Narrator: Jon Negroni
• Editor: Natalia Emmons
• Artwork: Jon Negroni
• Music: "Magic Escape Room" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Welcome back to Worlds Without Warning. This week, Jon Negroni reads aloud "Notch: The Lost Years" by Patricia Caspers — a fiction story about a woman named Alicia who has spent her whole life hiding a secret she's carried since infancy: a presence inside her body she calls Notchie, a turtle who has been whispering the word "girlfriend" since before Alicia knew what it meant. Part coming-of-age, part body story, part queer love story told through the language of shame and discovery, this is a tale about what happens when you meet someone who makes hiding feel worse than being seen.

Originally published April 2nd and released in audio this week alongside our second poetry issue, "The Body Keeps the Score." You can find the written version right here.

About the Author

Patricia Caspers is the founding EIC of West Trestle Review. She is the author of three full-length poetry collections, most recently The Most Kissed Woman in the World. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College (RIP), and her award-winning work has appeared widely in journals such as Ploughshares, Pithead Chapel, and Cimarron. She is a Unitarian Universalist. 

• Tip the author to support them and say thanks
• Explore our full archive of stories and poetry.
• Submit your own story to be featured on Cetera.

About Cetera Magazine

We publish original short fiction every Thursday. Our stories span literary fiction, speculative tales, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and weird fiction. All written without AI assistance and curated by editor Natalia Emmons.

Credits

• Author: Patricia Caspers
• Narrator: Jon Negroni
• Editor: Natalia Emmons
• Artwork: Jon Negroni
• Music: "Magic Escape Room" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Welcome back to Worlds Without Warning. This week, Jon Negroni reads aloud "The Closure of St. Jerome's Home for Foundlings" by Tamsin Liddell — a historical literary fiction story set in a Baltimore orphanage in the 1950s. Told from the perspective of Lucy Victoria, a blind girl found as an infant on V-E Day, this story follows three years of quiet transformation as the orphanage slowly empties and Lucy learns Braille, mathematics, and typing from a teacher named Miss Wagner.

You can find the written version right here.

About the Author

Tamsin Liddell was born in Texas and has spent most of her life in the southern US. She lives with her spouse, their daughter, and far too many cats outside of Atlanta, GA.

• Tip the author to support them and say thanks
• Explore our full archive of stories and poetry.
• Submit your own story to be featured on Cetera.

About Cetera Magazine

We publish original short fiction every Thursday. Our stories span literary fiction, speculative tales, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and weird fiction. All written without AI assistance and curated by editor Natalia Emmons.

Credits

• Author: Tamsin Liddell
• Narrator: Jon Negroni
• Editor: Natalia Emmons
• Artwork: Jon Negroni
• Music: "Magic Escape Room" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Share This Episode
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Welcome back to Worlds Without Warning. This week, Jon Negroni reads aloud his new contemporary romance, "Texts after 3." Told entirely through late-night text messages over the course of a year, this story follows Nina, a coffee shop manager who can't sleep, and Adam, a middle school English teacher who can't either. What starts as a post–New Year's check-in between strangers slowly becomes the most honest conversation either of them has ever had, but complicated by the fact that Nina is dating Adam's best friend.

You can find the written version right here.

About the Author

Jon Negroni is a Puerto Rican author and illustrator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His published books include The Pixar Theory (Slimbooks, 2015) and his debut fantasy novel Killerjoy (5050 Press, 2017). He's published short fiction for IHRAM Press, The Fairy Tale Magazine, The Vanity Papers, Discretionary Love, and many more. He’s the chief editor of Cetera Magazine, and his work has appeared or is forthcoming in several anthologies, including Neon Hemlock, Oddity Prodigies, Sinister Smile Press, Inked in Gray, and Speculation Publications. He was a finalist for the 2025 BCLF Elizabeth Caribbean-American Writer’s Prize, received an honorable mention for the Rhonda Gail Williford Award for Poetry, and is a Best American Short Stories 2025–nominated writer.

• Visit Jon Negroni's author website to find more of his work
• Tip the author to support them and say thanks
• Explore our full archive of stories and poetry.
• Submit your own story to be featured on Cetera.

About Cetera Magazine

We publish original short fiction every Thursday. Our stories span literary fiction, speculative tales, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and weird fiction. All written without AI assistance and curated by editor Natalia Emmons.

Credits

• Author/Narrator: Jon Negroni
• Editor: Natalia Emmons
• Artwork: Jon Negroni
• Music: "Magic Escape Room" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Share This Episode
If you enjoyed this story, please share it with fellow story lovers. Your enthusiasm helps these stories reach new readers. Thank you!

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