There was a sound like a small thunderclap in Simon Melnikov's apartment, as several cubic metres' worth of space were replaced by vacuum.

Agent Irving was, for all intents and purposes, in a featureless black void without air or gravity. He spent a few s…

Ms. Nolan, my English teacher, asked me to stay after class.

It'd been 30 days since David died.

She smirked, "What were you reading under your desk? I just have to know what book has captured your attention so fully." Some teachers would say that with…

I sit up, clutching at my chest. Christ, it hurts! The last thing I remember is... What is the last thing?

I was at the cabin. Gina and I were arguing. What did I do this time? Think, dammit!

She had a gun. She screamed and cried. I remember that much, …

Today, I was hit with a ton of bricks. Killed me outright... stone dead.

I never even saw it coming. I was just walking along with a friend, talking about something trivial just to make conversation. Then, suddenly... right out of the blue, wham!

So wha…

"What happens now?" asked Woost.

"Nothing," said the faerie, landing on the pillow next to the infant's head. "Now we wait. And make plans. And hope for the best. Nothing can happen until the child comes of age, anyway, not now that she is bonded and sea…

The echo of my boots attracted the silent judgment of every deluded man in the Hall. Under their disapproving gaze, I was glad to be wearing armor. Well judgment could go both ways and while the Order held temporal power, I was now a peer to a different k…

Laying inside a field of wildflowers, Lana stretched out luxuriously, feeling every blade of grass slide along her skin. She felt so intimately connected with her surroundings, not just the flowers but the tree in the distance, and the vast pink of a dawn…

"Kalovay, Kalovay..." Brad muttered to himself over and over as if it was an activity that would help the process of decoding the language.

He had mastered many dead languages in graduate school. It was something of a specialty of his, but he was never t…

There once was a girl,

Who loved her family,

To the depths of the ocean,

And to the top of the height mountains.

Content she was not,

In her life at the foot of a mountain,

And in a house at beachside,

Her heart longed for more.

Seclusion was not in h…

Lenn hated the way her spasms, electrified her face in pain. “Oh my God, Liv.”

“It sounds worse than it is.” Liv said with a wan smile. Lovingly she scritched his thigh.

“I hope so.” Lenn unzipped the mouth of his backpack and fished out one of the ther…

I tapped the mute key on my terminal.

"Boris! Where's the QS-19 document safe?"

The sleepy NCO looked up from his morning tea. All our shifts had been rearranged by the crisis.

"Nineteen? Sub-basement. In the vault."

"Seriously? Okay…" I unmuted the m…

Osterley and Beckton exchanged a practical, functional look. She took a step back, while Beckton made ready his weapon. There were no theatrics, no heartfelt exchanges. Those prone to those gestures were no longer around.

Newkirk nodded, muttering the la…

Together they walked into the softly lit apartment. A half of dozen candles offered warm light and Lenn could feel some heaviness lift off his shoulders. After a moment the front door closed behind them and Ruger's footsteps followed them.

“You'll have t…

“Come on, man. Just move. I'm not leaving the cat out here in the storm.” Lenn said. “There's no food, it's wet, and it has nowhere else to go.”

Ruger hunched down. “I told you, I'm not letting you bring your damned cat inside.”

Lenn didn't move any clo…

So it's all about the first line here, as in many other forms of writing. Use it, in a narrative-type scene, to either set the scene or establish reader interest. A good trick is to start with dialogue, as it immediately and naturally brings questions - t…

Osterley took a much more compact weapon of French design for herself, slipped it into a leather shoulder bag and then they moved straight to the teleport circle for transport. The watch had changed by now, and a fresh-faced youth who looked like he was b…

The glass door of the lab slid open, and Tom walked in.

The room was quiet.

He swallowed the pill the Doctor gave him, and sat on the edge of the bed. He waited patiently as the nurse applied electrodes on his chest, his forhead and his temples.

It was…

The duty watchman waved them out of the circle sharply. It flashed white, the challenge and countersign were exchanged, and two men in arctic uniforms appeared. A third was supported between them, furs dark with blood. Medics rushed forward.

Neatly stepp…

"But they don't have heads!"

"As I understand it, that's voluntary."

"That's ridiculous."

"I'm telling you, 'Haunted City' is a democracy. Its real name is 'Crossroads Hill', and it's perfectly safe to visit."

"But there's a necromancer overlord, and…

My snow is grey and never white

It glows and slowly drifts from sight

I watch it fall and breathe the scent

And never wondered where it went

My fog is thin and never fills

It floats and swirls where e'er it wills

I watch the clouds and trace the streams

…

I don't know why this time things are different. Maybe it's because I finally stopped hoping for my fantasies to become reality. I gave in. I gave up.

It doesn't sting anymore, doesn't hurt. There is only a hole. I'm halfway in the hole and halfway out. …

9:30PM

The house is silent and dark except for the light above the couch. I sit with a book, trying to disappear into its world so my dreams will be more full of fantasy and less full of reality.

10:30PM

I yawn. My arms and legs weigh a million tons, my …

Damion stands at the edge of the woods, just inside the treeline. His attention is focused on the house 35 yards away, the house that is surrounded by a teeming mass of the living dead. He hears screams from inside, cries for help from the poor souls trap…

There aren't many frogs out and about now, being late autumn and all. By this point, most have already burrowed into the mud to hibernate for the winter. As the ground around them grows colder, their bodies will eventually freeze into solid blocks of ice …

I vented to a friend, relatively new one but on the whole levelheaded and sympathetic. Basic advice is talk to them, tell them to quit, or else just block them

which would be good except I'm anxious about telling anyone so directly that they're bothering …