You poked a hole in the box. I can only imagine what that did to your fingernails, wearing them down to the quick the way you must have to wear an opening into the cardboard. But I can hear your voice a little louder now. It makes it difficult to sleep at…

Story is marked as mature

He looked over the scrolls. Perfectly preserved, even after 8,000 years!

The script flowed like no other writing system, past or present. Since their discovery in the 1800s, no one had been able to decipher the language. All that was known about the 'Wri…

I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. A petite woman in her mid-30s answered. When she saw my uniform, she began to shake, and had to grip the door frame to keep from collapsing.

"You found his body," she whispered. It was a statement, rather tha…

We are a feeble, short-sighted people

We cannot pretend to know even a fraction of reality

We are incapable of being able to fathom the possibility of life itself

We, with the collective mindset, are as unintelligent as motes of dust

The expanse of life …

Each morning, the master wakes us before dawn. We are given a bowl of cold gruel to eat before being herded into the Great Hall. That is when our work begins.

All day long we sit folding paper cranes. Our fingers move with the precision and control of…

My professor's tears stream down her face, her voice shattered with emotional distress. We sit across from each other aside a table shocked with streaks of pale yellows and oranges that marble its veneer surface. Our yellow chairs are ancient, and the vin…

"Hero. Hope for us all."

Funny. She didn't feel much like one anymore. Nor did she have any hope for herself.

Not after everything she'd done.

"Not your fault."

But it was. Like a lie of omission, it was her fault for inaction.

"Uncontrollable. Dange…

I'm lonely, I'm lonely

I'm drifting away

If only, if only

Friends weren't far away.

I've wandered much longer

Than I thought I would

Forever I ponder

If my choice was good

I want so to reach out

And touch someone's hand

Before thoughts can leach out

The…

Just one more choice and destiny is yours. The universe whispered like she might hear.

When Kimber emerged from the employee lounge she was wearing her apron stocked with straws, stirrers and napkins. She got too many looks with her hair down, but bett…

“Don't be so sure of yourself. You killed a man and blew up a building, you did not kill F.A.C.E. Honestly, you did as much as you could have. Impressive work for a pair spies."

Jacqueline felt the familiar punch to the stomach that happened every time s…

I've been gone for far to long

No typing have I done

No stories written, No poems penned

No reading others prose

A year has passed, Life changed for the better

I've moved away from the pain and strife

Back to a place of peaceful rest

Back to the roots o…

"Paw that just can't be him, maybe his son or nephew, but that just can't be him."

"Shut up boy,"the old man sneered to his son who was fifty years old if he was a day, "yeont reckon' I'd forget the man who stole your maw now didcha'?"

" Now listen here p…

Graceful, sad queen of the swimming birds

covered in tulle and leaping-

your sickness was hidden so well.

So bloody your nails, so clean your face,

your mind tilted into a broken Arabesque

and split like a hologram projected from a shattered lens.

Lik…

The group of three turned the corner slowly, as to not disturb whatever was making the heavy breathing sounds they had heard from down the hall.

"I don't think we woke it..." whispered Lynnia, putting her dagger back in its sheath. "... what is it?"

"Le…

"I'm a bird, you know," Jessica said without any sort of sarcasm.

I wasn't quite sure how to reply. It wasn't the most random thing she'd ever said but it caught me off guard since it was midnight and we were on the trunk of my car behind a McDonald's …

Sigh. Scream. Cry. Maybe wordlessly, certainly breathlessly. My jaw is locked, my lungs crunched up like paper bags. My fingers dropped off one by one. By rights, my brain should have shut down too.

And yet it moves.

Matter in motion. And a universe wit…

I sobbed. The Dragon saved me from myself. I got lost in the fog. I was stopped by the wall of despair and I caused the explosion that gave me the pieces to build my fortress, all so I could stay hidden deep inside myself. The Dragon refused to le…

Gulmar vaulted over the rocks, and the orcs shouted some kind of activation rune. Tenever looked at Sadie, who nodded, and the wizard muttered something in Elven that made Eraeon glance sharply up -

The teleport formed them into a close circle around G…

Power hummed through Rahmi's veins. Each pull of the thread brought a fresh surge of energy that threatened to break her concentration.

This time, she told herself. This time, she would not fail. This time, she swore it, and she would swear it again and a…

I finished the last line with a flourish, dropping the quill back into its pot and shuffling the pages together. Tucking my chair under the table, I made my way to Katy while weaving past pot handles and trays that dangled and protruded over various surfa…

The next year passed in a blur, the two friends and lovers filling it with all the experiences they could, knowing that Keshintai was nearing the end of her studies. This would mean they would see each other far less often, so they made up the difference …

Wallowing in loneliness and sadness, I sank in it, deep, up to my chin. Candles burning in effigy surrounded a warm bath of my misery.

I thought I had gotten past this. I thought that the first time you took a piece of my heart and smashed it that I had …

"Mayfield? Let's have the suits, and a weapon for the lieutenant please."

"That's not necessary, there are suits -"

Nyquist's other guard appeared from nowhere, passing me a dense package that was far heavier than fabric. Seeing my reaction, he comm'd o…

The record turned, the sound of white noise held my attention more than the music. I wanted to drown in it, like waves of the ocean. Suddenly it was too overwhelming, the music, the ocean of static, my restlessness. I turned it off, the record needle gri…