Karina Sumner-Smith is a writer and a student currently living in Ontario. Her work has previously appeared in Neverworlds. Dark Planet is designed and edited by Lucy A. Snyder. If you spot any errors, or if you have any comments, please contact her at lusnyde@cyberus.ca. All materials copyright 1996-1999 by their respective creators. No stories, articles, poems or images from this webzine may be posted or published without the written consent of their creator(s).

From False Worlds by Karina Sumner-Smith The wires slowly creep like cautious vines towards the lure of flesh. Lost in an electronic dream caught up in the technicolor fiction he does not see them coming, slithering across the carpet like hesitant snakes. Gently they wrap around a leg, an ankle, a finger before coming to rest on the softly pulsing skin of his neck. Eyes focused only on a world of flickering pixels he does not notice does not move as they twine ever tighter. Finally, all caution fled the wires burrow hungrily into warm flesh. As he writhes twisting in their metal grasp screams dead in his mouth words flash across the screen: Have your false worlds keep your illusions but let us break free to taste life.