There's a guy I know. We talk frequently. Every day, in fact. I want to help him, but I just don't know how.

He feels alone. He can be in a room with a hundred people, all of them wanting to chat with him, and still feel completely isolated.

He lies to …

"More on the rise of red algae and what that means for the apocalypse at 6, but first; Why should parents be watching their pediatricians closer than they watch the presidential election?"

Steve threw his half-eaten biscuit at the TV, "Oh for Chr---, J…

Elden was always such an obliging person: a foster mother to me, who took better care of me than my own mam, always had been. There was nothing she wouldn't do for me, no tear too small to wipe away, no threat too menacing to face.

At eleven I was plagued…

"You're dead."

The bishop nods sadly at me and swigs his pint. "Sorry about that," he says, "I held on as long as I could."

"I had hoped for more," I say, unable to keep the anger and disappointment out of my voice. I had hoped for more, but cancer ha…

The orc looked for a while, circling around to view the object from different angles. She made hand signals for "cannot save" and "immediate extraction".

Tenever's face tightened, but he nodded. Astarlane flipped her hand up to call for attention and sig…

I hurry back home with the other half of the loaf. I need to get home before the screaming starts and the nosy neighbours start asking questions again. She is asleep on the stained red velvet settee. She has been asleep for the whole day. Her breath is sh…

This is where my story begins. I am hungry and even the smell of the cabbages our neighbours are perpetually boiling is enough to make my mouth water. I open the cupboard door, even though I have opened it three times already, hoping that maybe a half emp…

Their steps quietly echoed back at them off the hard surfaces that surrounded them. Tenever flipped his spell to wide area indirect illumination and clicked his pistol-mounted flashlight on, throwing a single beam far ahead of them.

Their guide moved for…

The mindspace they entered was completely dark. Astarlane and Tenever closed ranks instinctively, tracing each other by footsteps until, with a soft collision, they were back-to-back. Astarlane drew her sword, the action mirrored by Tenever's sidearm risi…

Detective Hawk reached a gloved hand to the light switch. In the moment before the room was bathed in light, she braced herself for a scene of unknowable atrocity. It was not difficult to kill a muse, they are quite delicate, but at times the results can …

Open the bag, use your best scoop.

Prepare your keyboard and your mill. Each bean is a notion, an image, a memory. An inspiration.

Grind the words in bursts, then pour the fragmented syllables, letters, and phonemes into the basket.

In goes the hot water…

Gulmar, their squad leader, explained the process. Ideally the unconscious team would be taken out of the mists and allowed to recover on their own, but such luxuries could not be afforded in the here and now. Thus their mage would enter the mindspace of …

She's incredible, he thought, she's amazing, self-sacrificing, an incredibly kind person.

He's wonderful, she thought, he's so funny, carefree, a really great guy.

"Hey, it's been a while," he said, "How are you?"

"Pretty good," she said, "and …

Sad, I picture myself cutting the sugary crust with my stainless steel fork. When it cracked apart there'd be a sharp sound of metal against porcelain. The crust, dark brown seeping to deep red, is softer, gooey, nearby.

There is a ring of pineapple again…

Lyrics, licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0, by robomoon. Set to rap on http://vimeo.com/robomoon/jiggledee-bum-mr . Contains a derivative of The Warning by Ficly member Lone Writer on http://ficly.com/stories/865 and story #18968 by The Silence, al…

Lyrics, licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0, by robomoon. Set to rap on http://vimeo.com/robomoon/jiggledee-bum-mr . Contains a derivative of The Warning by Ficly member Lone Writer on http://ficly.com/stories/865 and story #18968 by The Silence, al…

Lyrics, licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0, by robomoon. Set to rap on http://vimeo.com/robomoon/jiggledee-bum-mr . Contains a derivative of The Warning by Ficly member Lone Writer on http://ficly.com/stories/865 and story #18968 by The Silence, al…

Strong's cat roamed their rented studio office space like he owned the place. Sarah found the matted fur ball curled on top of her desk, arrogant tail thwacking the keyboard of her laptop hard and steady, like a Sousa march.

"What, are you composing the…

The voices in my head talk over each other, a multitude of conversations all happening at once. I press the palms of my dirty hands to my temples, willing them to shut up, but to no avail.

Little iridescent beetles scuttle over my feet and through the …

I hadn't heard from you in several days, my dear close friend. Sunday when I thought of you I was suddenly sure that I would hear from you later that day, and that you had decided that it was best to stop all contact with me, that you could not feel any m…

The disaster happened. What I feared the most, really occurred. I lost it all, all I wanted to keep, and all the things that scared me the most were right with me to rip me asunder.

And they left me for dead. No, not for dead, but for finished. Nearly r…

There were things we worshiped before the new gods. Things of the dirt. Things of the dark. Things that moved and swarmed and crawled in the spaces beneath our feet. We feared them, even as they ignored us. To them, we were the worms. And less than worm…

Later that night, I came back from work my shirt covered in blood, just itching to take a shower. I was just about to open the bathroom door when I heard a thudding sound. Cautiously, I walked over to the light switch, only to trip over a large squishy o…

Lyrics, licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0, by robomoon. Set to music on https://soundcloud.com/robomoon/life-looks-like-rumbling-echo-edition . Lyrics contain a derivative of "Life Is Like A Canvas ~ Another Poem For Her" by Ficly member "The Sile…

Lyrics, licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0, by robomoon. Set to music on https://soundcloud.com/robomoon/life-looks-like-rumbling-echo-edition . Lyrics contain a derivative of "Life Is Like A Canvas ~ Another Poem For Her" by Ficly member "The Sile…