She was getting used to running and climbing. Climb up. Find the light. Climb down. Run.

It was like System Management. It was easy. She could do this. What she couldn't do was understand the pain. It was this entirely new sensation and it was overwhel…

The world had disappeared. In the brightness, there was no longer light. In the sound, there was deafness, and in the heat, there was nothing to feel.

Had I lost myself?

I wished for the fog back. At least fear was something. I wished for the wall, some…

It's always sad when you lose a loved one. More so if you're there when it happens. And the how doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter if they're suddenly struck down by a heart attack, or spend years wasting away from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The los…

My heart exploded today

With a pain most exquisite

Like acne under digital pressure

>

A face cruel and beautiful appeared above us in the bright afternoon sky interrupting our picnic. James and I hadn't had a moment to ourselves for months thanks to a sleep stealing tax audit and the one day when we are nestled against each other like two …

The room was not large, and the softly beeping machines seemed to dominate it in ways that were all wrong. I fought against the drugs, knowing it would be the same old memories again, but it was useless. Just like all the struggles that had gone before.

…

Story is marked as mature

Lurking in the corner of Michelle's basement, the partygoers gathered in groups all around me. My eyes followed him as he mingled.

"I love that dress!" he said to Sara.

"Hey, the pass you made was awesome, bro!" he called to the quarterback.

He chugge…

I don't know why I bother

I struggle thrash and flounder

I pitch my tent at Deva Station

They're streaming me the information,

And on the darker side of the stream

I glimpse the ones who made the team

The roots of lilies clutch my feet

My kind of girl has…

A wolf I will claim

yet a dog I became

there was no other way to describe

I did all that you said

as your little pet

ignoring my pride

I lavished affection

at your beck and call begging

for your hand upon my furry hide

At the time I confess

that I love…

I had folded the last messed up t-shirt in the souvenir shop. No one had come in for at least 30 minutes. It was probably safe to take a lunch break. Since this was my cousin's shop, and he was out doing whatever, there was no other person to relieve me. …

Everyone told us that tectonic instability had created the Furrows. Volcanic activity eventually emptied the magma chambers under the crust, sealing the earth and leaving deposits of obsidian everywhere. We could recite those facts like multiplication tab…

There's a side hallway ahead and to the right, leading to classrooms.

There's a set of stairs on the far end of the hall, opposite the classrooms hallway, leading both up and down.

You can see a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall, and several …

I dreamt you cried for me.

"Everett!" He was going to be the death of me, but not before he was the death of himself. "Everett, where did you go?"

"Sasha, chill, I'm over here! Come check it out!"

"Keep talking! I can't tell where you are!" I was looking at a wall of boulders, po…

He didn't say anything. Really, there wasn't much he could say, not then and certainly not now, standing in his doorway bare to the 3 am chill.

He stepped back into the apartment and lead the way to the kitchen, as if his visitor had forgotten, as if it…

I don't sleep with the lights off, anymore.

A little over a year ago, I worked as night security at a psychiatric institute. There was one guy who would freak out if the lights were off. On nights when I was on my own doing a walk-around, I would stop by…

"It's only a scratch." She says, and she stumbles. We both know that's not true, since we both are aware of what a head wound can do.

She inspects him, and I know she's trying to find any claw marks or bites that punctured skin. If the mutants came into …

"Do you know War of the Worlds?"

I pulled my eyes off the screen parading footage of the rolling convoy and its cargo of spacecraft. Harlan sipped his coffee. Thunder rumbled in the dark beyond the windows, making the fluorescent lights flicker.

"With the…

Her laughter broke the silence. Nervously she looked around, probably hoping no one had heard. She shouldn't have worried, it was, after all, the middle of the night, and normally no one would be out at anyway.

Unfortunately I had also decided to take …

I ignored the vibrating cell phone in my pocket. My eyes were still locked in helpless battle with the vixen's golden glamour. She had released my hand with the ring only to take my waist and lead me to an open section near the speakers. I didn't register…

Before I had known her

Before I could see

Before we had met

Before there were three

Before she had run

Before she could tell

All had been good

All had seemed swell

and then...

Clearly I saw it

Surely I could see

It covered her face

The way she smiled…

The mark was a sign of sin. Every person was born with it on the back of one hand. Through generations of living, a book was conceived to describe what actions caused the mark to fade, and which caused it to darken.

The holiest became priests who held the…

Story is marked as mature

I hate being a slave to my feelings. I don't know how not to feel something. Shit, feeling something on command isn't something I can do either.

Try not being angry

Try not to be sad.

Stop being depressed.

Don't like her.

Don't feel bad for him, h…