At first it had caused surprise and alarm; now it was simply part of the normal flow of life. At around midday, two trucks full of guards would materialise in the square. Quietly and efficiently, they would fan out with their weapons drawn.

After the fir…

A few heads turned to look at her. She ignored them, focussing on Nick. "Put this on," she said, handing him an identical suit.

"What the hell?"

"We don't have much time. Quickly!"

He looked at the hazmat suit, dropped it, and ran to the front of the bus.…

Home was so close. Dahlia stumbled down the overgrown path. Lights from nearby houses dripped through the leaves of birch trees and cast eery shadows on the ground, scattered as it was with shards of glass and discarded fast food wrappers. She slurred the…

Story is marked as mature

Story is marked as mature

Same city, different station.

Enter Nick Llewellyn, coming into stage right at about thirty klicks an hour. He's looking at his hands, and turning over in them a sheet of pink paper.

He's been fired. Specifically, he's just been laid off from his job, wor…

I was wishing for October today:

Summer heat in the crooks of my arms;

On my cheeks and my neck,

And the weight of long evenings heavy

In my hammering head.

I longed for the cool of the Autumn time,

For the turning leaves and their crispness

Beneath my b…

The cabin boy, now Master of the Ship, walked alone

stepping over the glass-eyed corpses of meat and bone,

men who had once been, the only fathers he'd ever known.

He cried for his own loss and the light-lost souls forever gone.

The ship shuddered and cr…

The ship heaved high, breaking through the waves,

the dark hell of night's clouds and the sea's spray

Stars cloaked by a devil's veil were hidden away

and the once mighty captain was lost and afraid

The crew revolted pledging their wails to the winds,

pa…

You reach the landing for the second floor. The fire is building up higher. If you stay here, it'll surely reach you soon. But you're not a fool!

You go into the hallway just outside the landing.

She had a flicker of sadness as her ship pulled away from Lorentz Station.

She didn't pay it much mind though as the adventure ahead was far greater than anything she could have imagined: A posting on the USS Elena Pitjeva. It was the first Orion class s…

“This place looks like it got puked on, Viv.” I chuckle to myself, putting on my sunglasses so I can take a better look at the rotting lumps of detritus that once was a city.

I can imagine Viv’s smart aleck comeback about not hurting the city’s feelings…

The sky over the city was still pitch-black, even at five in the morning, with forty-five minutes to sunup and a clear sky. They made their way to a parking garage downtown, a few blocks from the scaffold-ridden visage of the Megaspire, with forged securi…

A bell rang in the distance, and Malika rose from her cot, plucking Morduth up from where it lay beside her. She knew the sound of that bell because she had heard it regularly most of her life. This was not quite like the bell in her village, though. The …

The lantern swung indolently from its fixture, casting skulking shadows around the stone cell. The only sound was the steady drip, drip of water between the stonework, falling gently onto the figure strewn out on the cold lockup floor. The woman bore mark…

The man was always watching. Bryant almost couldn't leave his cubicle as he always felt those eyes on him.

It started the very day the man was hired. Bryant was asked to show him around the building.

"So, is this your first job in the big city?"

The ma…

Sun up, tools down for the day, it was a good time for a walk through the oaks. A learned man might sink down with a book, but a man of little learning who needs to settle his thoughts must leave that job to nature.

He took a leak against a tree. The st…

"More on the rise of red algae and what that means for the apocalypse at 6, but first; Why should parents be watching their pediatricians closer than they watch the presidential election?"

Steve threw his half-eaten biscuit at the TV, "Oh for Chr---, J…

"Night, Larry," called the shift manager. Larry was the last to leave. He pulled off his white cook's hat as he pulled on his long duster coat. Turning the collar up he dissolved into the crowd heading toward the subway all intent on getting home to a hot…

I drink wine from cereal bowls.

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

At last Malika leaned away from the stranger, shrugging off his embrace like a cloak. She wanted her pain, needed it in order to do what must be done. She reached down and plucked Morduth from the ground where it had fallen.

Mistress, are you alright?…

The Lesser Dead in all their varieties watched as the swordmaiden passed, followed a moment later by the holy man, now made impotent by their master. They allowed both to escape unscathed. Indeed many still held the swordmaiden in fear, for the way she ha…

Grafham Road; left into Cable Street.

The sun was sinking. The flow of people on the street ebbed as people sought warmth and the company of their families.

Tessa drifted onward, the sound of cracking pavement filling her head with every step she took. …

"Excuse me, little boy." Tommy jumped at the sound. He thought he was alone in the backyard. He turned around, seeing a large, heavy set old man behind him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you," the old man said, smiling.

Tommy looked over his shou…

He gazes up from his desk

At the pencil-slanted rain

A myriad little stories

Creeping down his window pane

As his hand fondles his pen

Potential from within

He wonders what to write

What they will think of him

Too many to catch

With his flimsy net

Ideas w…