Things are only ugly when they have no purpose.

And even then, useless things can be beautiful.

I knew one once—an undisclosed, discolored discard—

who was beautiful despite her lack of worth,

and isn't beauty inherently valuable?

One can argue either way…

Sadie nodded at Gulmar, but her instincts were still fired. She turned - and threw herself backwards to avoid being hit by the wide sweep of a massive sickle-like weapon that she identified as a khopesh as she landed and rolled to avoid being trampled.

A…

The preparations were brief and to the point. Broadview insisted that Newkirk take a pistol, which the wizard took with distaste before tucking it into an inner pocket of his jacket.

After a few minutes, Beckton appeared in the company of two military po…

It's difficult to grow up. Shoot, it's difficult to even figure out what that means. I suspect that the act of growing up is rooted in pain. Pain that is unfair, unique to you, callous, and solely your responsibility. From the white-hot shard of ice whose…

We watched from inside as Bob mowed the lawn. Then one moment he saw something through the garden fence and rushed to the gate. He looked upset, and quickly took his phone out to make a call.

„Hello? Yes, I’d like to report an intrusion of cockroaches. W…

The Old Man, holding his gaze on the computer screen, raised his hand and curled his finger. Come.

Vargas didn't need to be told twice, but he hesitated nonetheless. Is this a trap? he wondered.

He steeled his nerves and brought forth the briefcase. "…

In the dark, the falling snow outside looked like ash. The flurries that spun around the ruddy polluted glass of the oil lamps became the warm colors of a shattered rainbow. They didn't have the inner brilliance of fireflies or the sinister playfulness of…

I love you

But I want you to hate me

For loving you

.

I hate me

And I want you to love me

For loving you

.

I hate you

For not loving me

When I love you

.

I love me

For not hating you

When I love you

.

I love you

Even if you love another

And don't love me…

Last year I wrote an essay on edible fish; during a performance of an Elizabethan play this evening, I suddenly got the news that I had won a huge award for my Cod piece!

Marcos massaged his temple with a thick thumb. "Good party last night."

I offered him some of my Water Plus. "You never know which one will be your last."

He didn't grimace or laugh, just nodded as he accepted my canteen. He knew the stakes. We all did.…

Suspects entered the building at 10:19. We arrived twelve minutes later...

"It's locked!", said Matt Quyen as he gingerly tried the office doors.

"Move away from the glass," said the team leader, "We're going to smash it." The squad backed up as the cap…

Roll, Roll, ROLL down the hill

'how far along are we?' Asked a small voice in his cart.

'about a mile.' The farmer answers.

Oh no! a road block!

'Just where do you think you're going in such a hurry,' Says the guard.

'Escaping the city! The army is coming…

If only, if only, the broken mom cries

You chose to look up and not text while you drive

My shattered bones ache, but my heart always screams

My time with my daughter now locked in my dreams

-

Beware the invincible, foolish, and young

Their mistakes are s…

I don't get you. I don't get me.

I should give up, as you can see.

Thanks for the friendship; thanks a lot.

I'm here, where ev'ry day's too hot.

.

Don't follow me! Don't hold me back.

My kindness changes to attack.

Please save yourself while you still…

This isn't just to say

That I have eaten the plums

From the icebox that you unwisely left unlocked

.

Like, you didn't even install a lock

What were you thinking?

.

Any butthead could come along and steal your plums!

You're damn lucky it was me.

.

They wer…

Newkirk and Beckton appeared in a cascading flash and swirl of short-lived white particles as if teleporting in from an immaterial snowstorm. They were surrounded by a thick fog that stirred in a somewhat turgid manner, as if just a touch heavier than the…

It feels like hatching.

Closing my eyes and letting the words flow from my fingers like they once did is terrifying, but some part of me is starving and certain that the alternative means death. My creativity is at stake.

I'm answering the call of a 9-…

Heading to Starbucks for some writing, I turned on to Fernando Valley Road. It was one of those four lane roads where the city speed limit is upped to fifty. Across the median, I saw an old man on foot. Behind him a blue van sat defeated on the shoulder. …

It wasn't a gate.

Those were the bars of a cage - that house, my prison.

Could I not open it? Of course I could.

Could I just leave? Any time.

Could I break free?

Could I break free?

What is freedom? Nothing but a pair of wornout boots.

There I sto…

I am so mad right now. So freaking flipping wawbsqeeaqs-ing MAD. Laughably mad. Like, I want to scream-and-punch-something mad.

And the best part is I can't tell anyone. How the heck is that even remotely fair? And I really want to curse cuz I'm so mad. …

Younger me was a stronger me, I think. There is a determination, I have always suspected, to convince oneself that the passage of time has given at least as much as it has taken away - youth for wisdom, for example. Naivete for experience, perhaps.

But i…

Cerian was silent while the coach spun silently towards the dock structures. She was pale and expressionless, and watched me carefully as I wiped off the knife.

"So this is who you are, now."

I sensed the many layers to this not-quite-statement, and hes…

My high school art room seems a bit different. I'm not sure if it's just me or if the kilns aren't in the proper place.

I've got something in front of me that I'm supposed to eat. It sort of looks like a thing of Dunkaroos where you dip something into so…

There were things we worshiped before the new gods. Things of the dirt. Things of the dark. Things that moved and swarmed and crawled in the spaces beneath our feet. We feared them, even as they ignored us. To them, we were the worms. And less than worm…

King Cynric looked down on the three men kneeling before him. "Arran, former head of my father's guard." Arran looked up, his expression showing open contempt for the man before him.

"You and your co-conspirators are guilty of the murder of my father, yo…