I was parked at the edge of the world. There was a hill at the very back of my parent's property that overlooked the neighbor's pasture filled with cows. It was a great place to stop and think. I had turned off the radio and watched the bovines graze. The…

Ring "Hello."

"Hey, what's up?"

"Glad you called. sigh Nothing much."

"You sound like something is up."

pause

"I wanna say I'm sorry if I was too overbearing."

"Overbearing?"

"If anything I texted or emailed left room for misinterpretation. S…

I kept her at the periphery of my life, all too aware of the danger. She was a black hole, and if I dared to venture near enough, I'd be pulled in, pulled apart. Infinite gravity, infinitesimal space. No chance of escape.

I don't know where I went wrong.…

The bearded man stood on the marble stairs of the park’s stage and raised his Big Gulp cup over his head. “Drink deeply and live!”

Five onlookers watched him with faint curiosity. This was new.

He paused to wipe rub his face on a worn and well-stained s…

Squeak, squeak. The porch swing sways gently back and forth as my legs dangle to and fro. The evening breeze is cool as the sun sets on the ridge above the pasture.

The horses graze peacefully, stopping occasionally to look up in my direction, as if to s…

He squirmed and screamed but he wasn't going anywhere. My left arm was securely locked around his upper body. The claws of my left hand had perforated his upper abdomen and were interlocked with his lower ribs. With my right hand, I slowly shredded his sk…

Beckton felt Newkirk slip a handful of bullets for the Springfield into his pocket.

"Were you expecting this, Beckton? They have two heavy hitters."

"We knew they had an interest in you, but we didn't think they'd move like this."

"I can't take them. I…

I promise, I did do some testing before taking this site live.

It's a horrible thing, to be jealous of a dead person. You can't get angry at them. You can't even say anything bad about them. Our parents will always remember David as the honor student, as the star athlete, as the altar boy, as the perfect son.

A…

"No. We're not lost."

I despair.

............................

These short nine years,

have gone by so fast,

Our lives intertwined by-

love and trust - so vast.

From boys to books,

our friendship never

dared to forsook

because it is forever.

As we grow old-

-er, our secrets - untold,

our lives separated,

by time an…

I turn 80 today. Birthdays don’t mean much anymore, but I’ve been lucky. I'm the only one of my friends to have lived to this age, the only one of my kind who has acquired eight decades.

I’m a magical girl- or rather, a magical woman.

The nursing home a…

My steps make little noise as I move gingerly between the bushes. As I survey my surroundings, my thoughts wander.

In the village, hunters are respected. We risk our lives to provide food in this hostile land, where killing animals is our only option. Our…

Story is marked as mature

Story is marked as mature

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…

Katharine Espin Tarnath III let the door slam and dropped her bag to head upstairs. She slipped off the heavy black ceremonial robes - how anyone was supposed to wear these in the heat of summer, she didn't know - and pulled a long T-shirt over her head i…

Roger had been in the cradle of the Marula tree's branches for three days. Muscles ached unevenly across the map of his back, and in knotty pockets in his thighs and arms. Below, the thick savanna grass moved in waves as if strings in a grand harp played …

With precise synchronization, the drones broke through the fog that covered the Woodland forest canopy. Dew sprayed from the conglomeration of insect-like machines as a cloudburst. And the sound of thousands of whirling fans echoed through the trees.

The…

Malika pushed forward with single-minded focus. She would complete her task, with Orthael's help or without it. It mattered not to her which way the work at hand was done.

She passed through the clearing where moments before she had just performed her ba…

The house was still half-built, half-destroyed. It had never been completed and for every few hours of work I put into repairing it, it seemed like something new broke, or nature won another victory. Yesterday, a long brick wall that lined the dining hall…

It wasn't until they were playing "Taps" that it really hit John. Three hours of hand shakes and condolences, and it was a 19 year old cadet with a bugle that struck home.

General Larson was dead.

He'd taken a ship from McMurdo to Montevideo, a red ey…

I like her nose.

How many times have I said that to myself? It's not the sort of compliment you can hand out. Compliments from strangers are limited to: hair, dress, and nails. Anything that varies from our unspoken rule will screw up your tenuous connec…

Quick hands. Moonlight flashing on a blade. Mooncat dying on a blade.

Grims dropped the knife and reached for his rifle, all senses searching for the remaining predator, but it had vanished into the night, courage overwhelmed by pack hunter instinct.

He…

Katy fought down the urge to blush, taking amber-coloured jar and directing a spoon to coat the pastries. Mitaran took the tray with a light-hearted bow and spun it on one finger, firing up the underside in a dance of blue flames with his other hand. Pale…