The process had begun.

She knew better than to play in the Rhoka woods. There were evil things there. Magic of the worst kind.

It'd been many years since the town rose up against the evil Lord Bahlo but while he was gone, his curse remained in Rhoka.

S…

Hard Drive's sobs racked his body as he buried his head in his arms beside the still, milky white form of Fetus on the table.

I fumbled with the small cylinders I'd removed from her body without even pausing to consider how they were a part of her. I kne…

The girl was flipping through her notes on her phone one day when she found the words she'd jotted down months earlier. She remembered that little story she'd wanted to write. The details weren't all there, but some of them were.

She got up and went to si…

Yellow: the safety, a thing I can touch

White: it will burn, but not yet, as such

Orange: and glowing, inhale and beware

Grey: the remainder, exhaled into air

The key was engraved with MEMENTO.

"Undelete. What could he mean by that?" I asked the room in general. Hard Drive, looking depressed, did not answer. He was waiting for confirmation that Scroll and Locke were in fact compromised in our last mission. He'd…

Barris, commander of the Republic troops strode forward. No armour, no weapons.

Acheson turned to his troops. "No one fires a shot until I say." He stepped out from behind his barricade, meeting Barris half way.

"Colonel." Barris said. "I've been waitin…

(This was written under the influence of two bottles of wine and a complete disregard for grammar)

There is a belief that, if you look close enough at the bark of trees, you'll see yourself in the grooves.

You, who are made of flesh and blood and mushy…

Each Robin has a red breast, dripping blood,


And ev'ry beaten heart, a bony cage,


And still we sing and bathe ourselves in mud;

From heart to fingers, ink still stains the page.

The pump has sprung a leak for you to read:


A farewell note to say it's n…

Story is marked as mature

Glowing green magic flowed out of the green-haired girl and into the rocks, lighting up the etched runes.

Pain shot through her body, and she let out a high-pitched scream. It hurt more than losing the limbs in the first place. She grabbed the bed sheet w…

The small creature jumped up on her shoulder, faintly glowing, perfectly poised with its chest slightly puffed out.

Oh, that was actually a neat idea! The girl picked up her phone and typed a few notes, before setting it down and returning to homework.

Sh…

This i slovely

I was so hungry

I want more, but that was really nice to eat

Fresh bread would be even better though.

Thanks Ramon!

But I've no strength, no courage! If I must

Continue living, tread the steeper way,

Climb crises--impulse might o'erride dread; just

An instant could decide things either way.

.

"Well met, Gulmar of the Eldergreens. My name is Sadie, and in different times we were the III Section of Darkfall's Moonriders. We travel east to fulfil the last wishes of our late commander, and are grateful for your timely assistance."

The towering or…

Malika felt no joy at the destruction she had wrought, only a grim satisfaction. She had spent enough of her anger to bring it back under control, and in the process she had cleared much of the surrounding forest of the evil that had once lived here. It w…

To understand why Mike Green had begun to scream, one must merely look at the events of a few seconds earlier.

Then, an old man had sat in a windowless van, ensconced in soundproofing, and raised a small radio to his lips. "Begin," he declared tonelessly,…

We moved lightly through the corridor, which eventually opened up in a larger space, pocked with deep pools of the evil liquid. We paused, scanning the room, then looked to each other. Without a word, we clasped hands.

We moved quickly but carefully acro…

Cicadas sang in the heat of the day. Mostly. But it was well past sundown and the night was far from silent. It overflowed with strange sounds, as if the darkened woods themselves were awake and agitated. It wasn't just the pulsing buzz of the cicadas e…

Five men stood around the pool of greasy black tar that used to be Zach Cho. Everything had happened so fast. Even with their suspicion, no one could have foreseen human flesh blackening and sagging like hot taffy. There weren't any bones or organs. All t…

She saw him across the crowded party basement. Her heart swelled with euphoria. Her eyes sparkled. She was overly exuberant, but her friends thought she'd caught the party fever. They had no idea of her secret passion for the boy lurking in the corner.

W…

Beckton leaned out sideways and pulled the gun into his shoulder in one movement. He placed a little nugget of his attention right between the two burning coals that seemed to serve as the creature's eyes and pulled the trigger. The gun shivered a little …

Orthael breathed out evenly, nodding. He had known, rationally, the moment that Varreniel's Candle had snuffed out. But it was another thing entirely to hear that it confirmed, that all the wards and defenses of a cathedral of the Flame had failed against…

Transpacific diplomacy warming, like global climate.

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

The magnificent lines of the Core Expeditionary Force were on full parade formations, that day. Thousands of ships all arrayed in perfect arrangement, capital ships surrounded by droves of smaller combatants.

When the order came to fire upon the ragged a…

If I were to tell you, my darling friend,

That I think that I'm falling for you,

Would you feel I'd been lying? Would our friendship end?

What would you say; what would you do?

Well, I know well I shouldn't, I know in my place

I must only be strict…