I had folded the last messed up t-shirt in the souvenir shop. No one had come in for at least 30 minutes. It was probably safe to take a lunch break. Since this was my cousin's shop, and he was out doing whatever, there was no other person to relieve me. …

He didn't say anything. Really, there wasn't much he could say, not then and certainly not now, standing in his doorway bare to the 3 am chill.

He stepped back into the apartment and lead the way to the kitchen, as if his visitor had forgotten, as if it…

I dreamed of my 17 year-old self. I dreamed that she got the boy of her dreams and that he made her laugh and that she grew comfortable with him. Everything was perfect, from their words to their date locations and the movies he picked, and even the way t…

The drone tumbled, hissing aerosol, as the pre-programmed flight plan adjusted for turbulence. Righting itself, it spewed paint from four vents, creating a comic-book-esque pointillist effect. Tile 7F, on the north face of the tower, took on a deep red co…

He pulls the knife across his own skin, lightly parting the flesh above his navel. Blood wells up but does not quite spill over. He uses the tip of the blade to complete the sweeping arc of a symbol that represents just one of his sins. There are dozens o…

"Wait, so, she ran away from her husband into the arms of another man. That's adultery," concluded Sonia.

"But, her husband was raping her. He only sees her as a possession he's entitled to by law," argued Monica.

"Ew. I'd run away, too. Can't she get a s…

A grisly, grating moan spread across the warrior tribe as they discovered their kin at the shrine.

They heard still the beyond's war drum beating across their hearts, and they thrashed like raging bulls in grief.

Michael's spell ceased stasis; the red…

Story is marked as mature

Michael's tribe was one of warriors. Their magic was rooted in guttural blood-lust, the feeling of knife ripping into flesh and the enraged satisfaction of wound infliction, the tear of teeth in sinew. Their magic made them strong and fast and unafraid. T…

"Eve?...if ya ask me, God set 'er up fer failure."

"...bless 'er heart, but Eve never loved me. Well, she loved me like a person loves another, 'specially since there was so few of us. I suspect she was...more of a fella', in the romance department."

"M…

A glint of dark light. A pitch-black night sky, if you will, crisscrossed by dark galaxies, stars, constellations, darker even than black...

Nick awakens with a full-body shudder, and the monitor starts beeping furiously. A moment later, the pain hits h…

Inspiration sought

but just for a thought

a snippet of something to say

Longs' been the time

when my heart penned a rhyme

emotions inspiring some prose

A muse just to bring

to light a small thing

that awakens creativities flow

when quite so suddenly

I …

The two live units continued fire, systematically dismantling, disabling and/or dismembering every possible threat in the concourse. As this included every person, sentinel, bodyguard and drone, this was a task that took several seconds.

It was a shame t…

'Unusual' is a word often used to describe Tamori Taka.

Wearing a kimono of green and gold, befitting a Dragon Shugenja, she would stick out in a crowd of peasants, but what makes her stand out among Samurai starts higher up.

Uncommon enough to see such…

A wolf I will claim

yet a dog I became

there was no other way to describe

I did all that you said

as your little pet

ignoring my pride

I lavished affection

at your beck and call begging

for your hand upon my furry hide

At the time I confess

that I love…

Ryle sighed, never one for games. I made him wait a little longer before answering in earnest.

"Cerian is two years my senior. She has always been the sensible one. My brother is the eldest, but he was often too busy to be spending time with us, so Ceria…

Story is marked as mature

And now, like a spirit, your voice rings once more


How confusing to put them together:


Your voice, and your words, I could never expect


You would speak this way to me. Can we reconnect?


With the return of hot, muggy weather


Comes a new conversation. …

You were so sure I'd wronged you, you'd made me believe

It was surely my fault; but then, how?


All the pages grew soggy and limp with the turning;


There were so many leads, but they all left me burning,


But the smoke didn't spell out an answer; well, n…

I never understood what I'd done that was wrong,


Why you exiled me thus from my life.

Was it something I did? Was it something I said?

I strapped me to a table, I taped still my head


Underneath the hot lights. I was cut with a knife


But my brain wouldn…

"We've got it."

Captain Khan's tablet filled with lines of text and numbers. A massive spreadsheet, with some sort of unreadable data, plus a long program, rendered in some programming language.

A second message popped up onscreen.

"Target was not bank,…

Nick goes flying, spinning and bleeding, through the train. He passes through walls and seats and hull.

He's flailing around, twisting and turning in blind panic. He can see the train and the station, but he's in void. Air rushes out of his lungs violentl…

His ragged breath jagged on, each with an untimed pause preceding it. He stared down at the pulpy mess that had been his best dancer and most skilled voice actor. He didn't seem to understand what he was looking at. Then his eyes glazed over and he starte…

I spoke to her in direct neural interface. A text or audio message might have sufficed, but there could be no mistakes today, no misunderstandings. I refused to analyse my motivations further.

The link pushed dark chunks of conceptual meaning between our…

The lantern was burning low, putting an orange-gold cast on the cabin. Ryle was pouring us a drink of a very fine twenty-year Presagian whiskey. It was his one indulgence; many a night did we spend far from civilisation sipping on the finest drinks availa…