Bliss.

Lovely summer day, I could finally read undisturbed on my favorite bench in the park. Until suddenly...

„Here, this is for you.”

I looked up from my book, startled. A large, round plate appeared in front of me, with a huge chocolate cake on it.

„Uh…

Underneath the floor, the adventure commences.

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

(Blame the rum). God damn, I dreamed that I swallowed a pin. And the point took my throat and my voice all at once. And I lay in my bed as my own brother hammered out my brains. And the blood made the walls the sweet colour of Autumn, and abuse, and ali…

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…

She turned around and saw the stars. It was a carpet of deep velvet with pinpricks of beautiful light shining above her head. The only sounds were some night birds and the slow ticking of the engine of the car as it cooled down.

This is the place she ca…

"And on that day, I will be here to turn you back. This truce will stand, this war is over, whether you wish it or not." I approached the god-post and jammed my blade into the wood just below the loathsome face that peered back at me.

"You are releas…

Realistically it wasn't going to happen. The lighter dark of the road seemed to go on forever, winding through the greater outer dark of the forest around us. More than anything we were hungry, so hungry it made us weak. Hungry, filthy, and unprotected--t…

"Sophie Claire, my darling, you were always bereft of deliverance," he said, as he took the last drag off her cigarette before extinguishing the remaining embers of redemption. She tittered at his cheekiness. "Always a Tybalt!" Just be satisfied!" she wh…

"Fetus said we could reboot his memories," I said sadly staring off in the direction of her body.

"If we can find his backups!" C:\ declared.

"I've never been to Acrylic's hideout," Hard Drive confessed.

"I have." I said quietly.

"Good! Start there!" C:\ …

Everyone, at some time, has played the "What if I were immortal?" game. Pondering how it would be to see loved ones grow old and die, or how it would be to live through history being made.

Well, I am immortal. And I don't mean Highlander movies immor…

"You're dead."

The bishop nods sadly at me and swigs his pint. "Sorry about that," he says, "I held on as long as I could."

"I had hoped for more," I say, unable to keep the anger and disappointment out of my voice. I had hoped for more, but cancer ha…

It was hard to swallow her pride and her real feelings. Seeing that huge smile and those two brown eyes so crinkly with joy warmed her heart. She loved Mr. Brown Eyes. Seeing the two blue eyes above two rosy cheeks and a line of baby teeth was supposed to…

Reina browsed through the “curiosities” sure that everything in the store was junk. Wandering down an aisle between shaky-looking shelves, she heard the sound of a whisper, like a gentle shush or a snake sliding among tall grass but all she saw was an emp…

There are comedies, there are tragedies, and there is Fate - who enjoys a laugh as much as the next man, and has a lot more power to make it happen.

That, and a sort of quiet fuming, was what was on my mind when I stepped out onto the glass concourse. I …

I think I'm about to cut loose from these troublesome people

I need to take care of myself and prioritize myself and my mental health above others'

hard as that is

and did you know

that at some trying times

the heart will grow

and cross the bound'ry line…

NASA has predicted that in 15 minutes, the sun will have reached the red giant stage. While temps have already forced all humans underground for centuries, in this stage, the Earth will change orbit even more than it has in the last 100 years, and all li…

The first day I saw it, it was just a little spot. Right over my left ring-finger knuckle. I thought maybe I had not washed well, or I got some ink on it from work.

The next morning my whole knuckle was green and looking a little fuzzy. I considered a tr…

And pretty soon I, being a suave sort of kid, I said to the chick, I said, those aren't badgers, and she lets off slappin my thigh like it was henny bloody youngman, are you following? and smiling we took off the seatbelts and hung onto the hand straps an…

"Whatever happened to that 20 minutes of decluttering thing you used to do?"

"I gave it up when you signed me up for hot yoga. The class time overlaps with decluttering by 15 minutes, and who can get anything done in 5 minutes?"

"Very funny." She moved…

Jacqueline, never Jack or Jackie, swirled the ice around the dregs of her mojito. It was her favorite drink, she had ordered them all around the world, from Mexico, to London, to China. Hell, she'd even taken a couple of barrels with her through the Andes…

Story is marked as mature

Aidra played gently with the necklace she was wearing. A beautiful, raspberry-colored gem made up most of the pendant, held in place by ornately woven strands of silver, a small ring connecting it to a thin silver chain. The boy who'd given it to her said…

"The limes? I thought we were going to try this batch with oranges."

"Oh... right. Sorry."

"Focus, Mitt! We can't afford to make mistakes."

He couldn't help but flick a glance up at her, just as she did the same. A silent exchange, completely deniable …

In the fog, shapes are unclear. Shadows move in and out of wisps of gray; darker spaces undulate close and fade back into the swirls. My senses are alert, but every soft breeze sends panic down my spine. I close my eyes and put my hands out.

There is no…

The flutes surrounded me in a way that, despite ideas of reality and sanity, made complete sense. Notes fluctuated, voices trialed in and out, distanced claps, all-enveloping smiles. It worked in the same sense drowning in a pool solves every problem you …