I don't think I answered her, but she figured out all the same. Both dead. She held me tightly, trying her best to comfort me. I remember her meeting up with the others, faintly. Those who escaped the attack. I can't say I remember the rest very well, but…

One night, when I was nine years old, my parents and I were working on packing things into our cart. Then we heard screaming, and saw fire, and smoke.

"Noleka, get down!" my mom hissed, shoving me under the cart.

I couldn't do anything but watch as three …

I hope, through all of this, that I have learned

Some lessons to apply to later life,

So I may save fond friends from future strife,

And loathe myself a little less. I turned

My eyes upon myself, at point of knife,

From others' viewpoint: hard. It changed…

My left leg's been through surgery--ah! Twice.

I'm walking nearly normally by now,

But that was taxing. Very. I'll allow,

My limp's a minor thing, one grain of rice

Within a heaping bowl.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Oh, I would splice

Tho…

My life, in recent months, has been o'erfull.

There's too much going on, inside my heart

And head, to parse, to handle. As for art,

I've had no spoons to work. I'm gath'ring wool,

Bereft of words, o'ercome. I've been a fool

Both in and out of love. How ca…

My name with foul insinuation's tarred

By people who seek easy victims meek

To charge with crimes in public. Life is marred

And razed for me. Now, everywhere I seek,

.

I picture enemies in friends I knew

Before this whole fiasco. Do they now

Believe tho…

For a moment Dana was paralyzed, not truly understanding what had just happened. It seemed impossible for a man to whole one moment and then dying without warning the next. Then she recovered her senses enough to duck behind the raised seat of the driver,…

A beam of blinding white light shot down from a sky thick with clouds, centering on Kym and bathing her in a gentle warmth. Under the intense brightness of the light her sweatpants and rumpled hoodie seemed to lose their color before fragmenting into piec…

“Thank the gods! It feels like it's been forever. ” Dana stretched her arms toward the sky, reveling in the long strain on her ligaments. Bracing herself on the rim of the cart, she rose to her feet. Even a few feet off the bed of the cart, the smell got …

Ohmwari, the city where all things find their end. It was a place that Dana only knew by reputation. Stories first and later jokes had been carried long distances, spreading on the trade routes that made up the connective tissue from kingdom to kingdom …

A bump in the road jolted the cart hard enough to force Dana past the edge of near sleep and into wakefulness. She noted that the wheel on the right side had picked up another squeak. At the next stop, she'd have to oil it again or it would grate on her f…

"Not who you were expecting?"

The snake dropped from the branch, out of view before emerging mere heartbeats later - as a wolf. Its cold yellow eyes weighed heavily on Rahmi's neck.

"I doubt there are any other shape-shifters here, so I'd wager you are e…

The orange girl watched as the city burned. Smoke billowed high into the sky, and people ran screaming through the streets, trying desperately to escape.

She wouldn't let them.

With a swift motion of her hand, she made more flames, blocking paths.

"Nerim,…

The girl was flipping through her notes on her phone one day when she found the words she'd jotted down months earlier. She remembered that little story she'd wanted to write. The details weren't all there, but some of them were.

She got up and went to si…

The small creature jumped up on her shoulder, faintly glowing, perfectly poised with its chest slightly puffed out.

Oh, that was actually a neat idea! The girl picked up her phone and typed a few notes, before setting it down and returning to homework.

Sh…

The faintly glowing creature approached the girl sitting at her desk, frustratedly typing away on her keyboard. It leapt lightly onto the corner, peering at her work.

It sat, curling a dainty tail round itself, watching as she continued typing, jumbled me…

"How many died?" The lighter one asked the other.

"Too many, nearly all. How many escaped?" She replied.

"Too few."

One summoned her vine-entwined rod, the other her scythe.

"We should take care of them, shouldn't we?" The lighter one asked.

"They'l…

A yearning pit of doom. This place felt like death. Empty. Desolate. Yes, someone or something had killed everything that was good here long, long ago. Privately, she knew what it was. She could see it. She could feel it. She watched as the creatures walk…

A lifeless void. This place was had no life to be seen. None she could feel. All that remained of it were traces of life... momentos from a long forgotten past. The feeling that something had once lived here. The memories of light. The only thing that liv…

Nara ran over, body slamming an off-white girl, before jumping back and blasting her with inky black balls of magic. "Stay away from them!"

Rima blocked it the best she could before getting back up, a little worse for wear. "If you'd keep those foul thi…

"Would you like to be a magical girl?"

The ad popped up on her screen for the third time. "Why won't you bug off?" she asked, clicking the ad blocker to attempt to block it again.

"Please wait. I need your help," pleaded the cute little mascot on the ad.

…

BANG!

Thump

Rylis stepped back a little as blood pooled around the person she'd just killed, looking at it with mild disgust. But this had gotten easier. The fifth time, she'd still thrown up. The 27th time, this time, she just felt a little nauseated…

Another night, another peaceful dinner with gently clinking silverware and soft voices discussing the days events.

"How about you, Aria?"

"Ah, you know, usual boring school."

"Same old?"

"You know it." Oh no. "I'll be back!" Aria took off up the stairs.…

Banging exploded across the breadth of the door as people tried to break in. My worry was fleeting. It wasn't impossible to break down a VouchSafe steel door but you'd need specific tools to do it.

“Let us in, you bastard!” Voices shouted in waves, muffl…

Trissa walked through the pouring rain. She was getting soaked, but it was hard to care.

She stepped under an overhang, finally taking a moment to relax. She unzipped her jacket, and carefully removed the poor broken mess inside. Her heart was in so many …