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…

Nine-year-old Timothy Lane sits on the edge of his bed trying not to look at his closet. The room is dark, but that yawning portal is darker and more terrifying to Timothy than anything else. He twists his hands in his lap, trying to find the courage to w…

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…

Abandoning my sandwich yet again, I dialed 911. "Sir? Are you okay?" I emerged from behind the counter as the operator picked up. "911, what's your emergency?"

"I need an ambulance at Rotten Tomato's souvenir shop on Presley."

"What is the nature of the…

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 …

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…

"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…

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…

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…

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…

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 …

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…

"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…

"Carte noir?"

The label is white.

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

Story is marked as mature

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…

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…

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…

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 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 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…

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…

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…

"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…