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…

I wish I could tell them how beautiful the funeral was. The things everyone said were so touching. Even Aunt Agnes, though I know she was full of shit, talked sweetly about her "beloved nephew" (that she hadn't spoken to since I was 5).

I wish I could te…

I found it hard to sleep. Worries chased themselves around my head. What was I doing, leaving alone in the company of a strange man? What if I couldn't make it this time either? What if I am wasting my life? What if it wasn't worth chasing anyway?

Frustr…

"Do you guys always have to show up with such inconvenient timing?" she asked the monster, not that it could answer or even understand her.

Aria slashed it with her axe, the monster emitting a strained cry as she made yet another gash in its side. Elect…

When you get to the main stairs, you see a cloud of black smoke rising before you. Moving cautiously closer, you see flames leaping up the stairs!

Good grief, this will never do!

However, though you are frightened of the fire, you see that it is still on…

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…

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…

Aria jumped and slid down the roof, doing another small hop to get over the rain gutter, and landing on the soft, wet grass. She gently shook off some of the water, wet from chasing the monster through the sprinklers. Her least favorite part about fightin…

A spirit stood less than three feet from her door, waiting.

It was the old man again, the one she supposed had drowned. His wispy hair and long white beard were matted with sea water. Salt crusted his bloated blue lips and his tattered clothes were drip…

As the shade drifts by one particularly large oak, its glow momentarily illuminates a small, bulbous husk. There's just time to see a seam in the husk pucker before the shade glides by, returning the husk to darkness.

But then, a low, sustained intake of…

"Autumn now," Grandma spat, rocking in the tired oak chair. A graying cat sat in her lap, wide eyed.

Sure enough, the trees had become rusty red.

Grandma's children affirmed her assessment with a grunt. They were rooted here by obligation only, and pass…

Hunter didn't know where she was. It was hard to make anything out. Impossible, really given how exceptionally dark it was. There was nothing but the cold, wet floor underneath her, almost slick from condensation. Walking around proved useless, as it se…

"Morning, Aralis!" The blonde girl bounced into the shop, effortlessly slipping behind the counter and slipping an apron over her head.

"You're late," the other teased.

"By like, two minutes! The shop isn't even open yet!"

"I know, I'm teasing. Jeez Kri, …

The walls never change. A sterile, indifferent white; not comforting, yet not hostile either. Completely neutral in the observation of the clinically insane. Of course, he wasn't denying it; that’s what he was, after all.

James smiled. The chair was almos…

I talked to my boyfriend about my feelings of jealousy for my best friend's relationship.

"I get that you are protective of him. You've been really close for a long time."

"We were close, then we got together. It's all I know. It's a pattern, one that …

As soon as you get to the opening of the back stairs, you can see that it's no good. The ceiling has fallen down and there's a pile of burning textbooks blocking the entire stairway. You'd better

go back to the elevator, or try the main stairs

The trail here narrowed and dropped steeply down; one side a sheer cliff cut by the rapids and the other side a wall of rock. The base of the trail widened and flattened beside an old, sturdy pin oak tree.

From here I watched a family carefully pick thei…

One minute.

It struck me, toward the end, that every disaster movie had been too optimistic. Deep Impact thought that we'd have around three years to save the world. Armageddon predicted a few weeks. But Asteroid 409233 Megiddo was discovered and tr…

"The cooks will not take such abuse from the swabs!" Chef's face was red, and he slammed his ladle into the round table.

"Your soup is little better than our mop-water!" screamed the chief swabbie.

"My steersmen and engineers can't stay awake, living off …

The house appeared abandoned. It was spacious, boasting of what looked to be a dozen rooms, but falling apart. Broad windows, glass gray with dust. An iron plate set into the brick walls proclaimed the house as belonging to F. The massive front door was b…

The day of the Cow Rite had arrived, like a lover who had blacked out overnight and had finally come home from the pub. As the day dawned, a mauve haze like a spill of off-coloured milk on the dairy floor of the horizon, the fields blossomed with daffodil…

Venus, powers in space, wind and light, lit the candles in the room and swung the door open, 20 feet away, "Well, dear sister, the party isn't until the shop is closed tonight. We open right about... now."

Fashionably retro 70s era, her go-go boots clom…

You cruise to a gentle stop at the red light. It's the end of the work day. You're looking forward to leftover lasagna, two hours of Netflix, and if the heat sticks around, a shower before bed. Traffic has been lighter than normal for a Thursday which is …

As water flowed, it washed me all away:

The elements that made me what I am;

My hopes and visions, first. Behind them swam

Awareness, leaking ’til there’s no today

My pride in my accomplishments went next;

My puns, non-sequiturs–my treasured words.

Rel…

The flash of… cameras? Visual capture devices, brighter than the lean lines of the universe speeding past in technicolor. The roar of voices like the atmosphere, vivid, orange, and angry.

Amplification.

Alien.

“My name is Champion-”

Human. Translat…