Story is marked as mature

There was a still silence. Orthael exhaled with a still patience, keeping Varenniel's presence with the same careful grip he used with Judgement: firm yet loose, secure without being crushing. It was exhilarating, to wield power that was beyond men.

Eno…

Some people think of troubles as burdens. Like their only purpose are as inertia against life's upward progress. But I preferred a different outlook. I would look out from the wide, bright windows of the coffee shop on Fifth Avenue and look at the people …

He wanted something.

Didn't get it.

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

I'm pretty certain now

That I just can't do this anymore.

It's not some talent I found,

But a skill I had forged

In a fire of restlessness

And self-doubt.

Somewhere i found a voice

Instead of lines on a page.

So I made the choice

To put aside this way

Of…

The young woman staggered backwards into the wall – the people in the room idly glanced over at the sound of the impact and got back on with their business – and slid into a sitting position. Elbows on knees, arms crossed, forehead on arms, she sat, tremb…

"Son," he rasped, laying in his bed, sweating through the sheets.

"I'm here, Dad."

"Son, I need you to make the delivery."

"Dad, I'm not part of this family business! I made my life elsewhere!"

Coughing erupted from the old man and lasted for a full 30 se…

The rippling shockwaves and blinding detonations battering at their senses were in turn briefly overcome by the new and incredible din of piston engines starting up somewhere above. Mornington riffled through his knowledge of the Navy's carriers: this had…

I would like to suggest and invite people to intentionally give this a try, especially as Ficlatte is so well suited to this.

I (anyone though, but I'll give it a try myself) write the beginning of the story, and tag another Ficlatte person to continue it…

And three heartbeats later she was back.

"Impossible," I breathed, my voice barely audible. This shouldn't be happening. She was so weak. She shouldn't have been able to resist my attempts to banish her. And yet...

She was here. Again. In defiance, it s…

It wasn't possible. I put the block in the Vena Cava of Chakra No. 4. There should have been no energy-body link for her to be there.

I knelt beside her and arranged her body in Vitruvian fashion. She needed a scan. I lowered my hands over her until they…

The next time we'd scheduled a meet-up, my best friend's girl suddenly had a work emergency. She posted pics online of her out drinking with friends and my best friend, late, after work.

We rescheduled but I got sick, and while I got plenty of "that's to…

"Anything?" Bantu asked.

"Gimme a sec," replied Shari. With a gloved hand she reached into the mist hovering before her, dipping a small test tube into it and filling it as best she could. With the other hand she stoppered it before withdrawing it and ge…

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…

Anyone who has moved house before will know the way it goes.

You walk through the old house, flooded with nostalgia, reliving the memories you shared there. All the stories you shared. The romances, the fights... the ice cream.

And as you pass once more…

It was not a technically challenging shot to make, not in comparison to some others. A stationary firing position, to a stationary target. Wind conditions were calm, and I had calculated yardage well in advance. That the target was nearly third of a mile …

The lights flashed red and I raced forward. Car horns and the screech of tires blared at me, scolding me. Careening towards the woman that stood opposite me on the crosswalk. She registered me with a look of surprise, then she smiled and spread her arms …

"Where are the time travelers?"

Excuse me?

"Where are they? Shouldn't they be crawling all over us?"

Oh, you're worried about the Temporal Fermi Paradox?

"Like, 'where are the aliens' but for time travelers? Yeah."

The same things apply, but it's wor…

I push, I pull, I dig my nails in, anything to make the solid wall move in any way. I had to get out of this eternal fog. Shadows pressed in close, but I couldn't tell if they were urging me on or trying to stop me.

I began to hear some sort of anguished…

A tundra of clouds whizzed by as I watched from the airplane window. It was a stunning show, a glimpse of heaven. But, the radiant clouds did little to soothe my nerves. For the first time in years, I was going home. No, not home.

Back.

A bit of turbul…

Story is marked as mature

The name given to the ship of Gwen and Bass is The Sound of Silence. In drawing the picture, I took inspiration from the Simon and Garfunkel song, and from the story of Sleepless Domain

The Inner Barrier is from the night that Alchemical met the ele…

"Carte noir?"

The label is white.

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

I've got a monster in me.

A lazy, hungry one. A liar.

He's like the evil Pooh bear sitting on the kitchen counter, always beckoning. His voice is the most insistent at night, when I'm alone, or when I'm already feeling crummy. It whispers clearly, “Come…

Egg shells feel like feathers - softly, gently ground beneath behemoth tongues. Leviathan laughter echoes.

Abstract butterflies take the brunt, wings turning to kaleidoscope dust in the nuclear wind.

Eyes see strangely through scorched sclera, strands o…