Story is marked as mature

It's swirling around them, this confusing mass of tendrils, burning asphalt anger, hot and painful to touch. Fuse has never been safe. They've always been sharp and lean, a knife trying to cut through Spire's water, but now they're hot, steam against Spir…

My dreamcatcher failed.

Saw mommy again.

The party was for Valerie. She was departing for warmer weather. It made sense. Despite being a programmer and board gamer, she loved to surf.

Me? I was a quintessential nerd and living proof that making a girl laugh, doesn't mean she will be attracted t…

The problem with locator spells is that they can go where humans cannot. Not having form, they can travel through and air and water for far longer than those using them can follow. Spells need to be tethered on a sort of reciprocating line so they see whe…

Story is marked as mature

Forswear sesquipidalian garrulousness, communicating antidisestablishmentarian memoranda.

When I was younger I used to sneak up into my grandparent's attic to where they kept the old records. Next to the old wobbly bookcase was a wooden crate that held all of my grandparent's favorite songs. I would sit up in that attic listening to the reco…

Malika nodded slowly. "Very well." Her voice hardened. "What be next... Reliath?" She stumbled over the holy man's name, unaccustomed to addressing one of the clergy so casually.

"That... what did you call it? Malylech? That Malylech. Why were we unable …

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…

Orthael stopped by a small crossroads, the signpost and its accompanying shrine to the Fire covered in a sick, black tar. It oozed away from the point of Judgement, peeling back wetly when he swung it close and returning when he lifted it away.

Distantly…

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 …

I'm one person.

So many people talk about how they're all smashed to pieces, losing bits of themselves, lamenting like Humpty Dumpty at their inability to be pieced back together. I've been that person, but as time passed I learned that it's not about di…

"So this is it?" she asked, "one drop in here and it's all over?"

A short pipe stood up from the floor of the dark warehouse, twisted metal piled haphazardly around like so many broken bones. She peered through it into an incomprehensibly large tank. The…

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…

I drove by the bar at least once a week, but never stopped. It was too painful to think about the memories.

I wasn't sure what to do next. Should I wait for him to come to me or should I go? I sent a few texts, funny stuff I knew he liked. Sometimes I go…

I get up and dust the bits of asphalt from my ripped up pants. Five feet behind me is Viv. I pinch my eyes closed as I turn, trying to control my accelerating heartbeat. Five feet behind me and five feet below rock, to be exact. I force my eyes open and …

Story is marked as mature

"What were the specs that didn't work?" asked the purchaser. He turned to gaze out of the high rise window.

"At 2% vectoring and 5% elasticity the data remained firm," my boss began but he was interrupted by the bored purchaser.

"But you found that to b…

Kam used the afro comb to pick out his tight and curly black hair occasionally patting it softly as he stared at himself in the mirror above his bed.

Today was the day. Kam scrambled around his bedroom floor for articles of clothing choosing ones of all…

An explosion echoed outside. The pair, seasoned veterans both, were in motion without a word. Beckton drew his pistol and ducked behind a workbench. Newkirk joined him a moment later, handing him a Springfield rifle which he took gladly. Both men watched …

You were at my side in an instant, an angel of light and beauty so magnificent that even now I cannot put it to words. You fell to your knees and cradled my head in your lap. I barely heard the slight pop of a vial being uncorked, but a second later a liq…

The hidden thing inside the pipe twisted, thrusting deeper, spewing waxy slivers of ice in its wake – a fixed point around which their world revolved.

“It can’t be stopped,” he stated.

“How much further?” asked Srinin.

“A few hundred metres; a few …

The house was silent and dark. It was the dead of night after all. Something woke me, but I knew it wasn't a sound, nor a smell. Something deep inside me told me it was time. Time to arise.

I felt it in my bones just as clearly as I felt the soft carpet…

I saw my therapist for the last time today. I expected to cry, but I only felt numb. I expect that the rougher emotions will come in time. I gave her a card with my words of gratitude, and she gave me a journal so that I can keep writing words.

Over fou…