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…

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…

The voices in my head talk over each other, a multitude of conversations all happening at once. I press the palms of my dirty hands to my temples, willing them to shut up, but to no avail.

Little iridescent beetles scuttle over my feet and through the …

"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…

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. …

[To go to the main stairs, please visit this page: https://ficlatte.com/stories/41127]

I don’t know when I stopped

the daily painting of my face

On a Monday?

Maybe a Sunday

or some other day between

-

It could have been deliberate

an attempt to feel more proud

But it's most likely I was exhausted

and my teenage fears just weren’t as loud

-…

The hidden thing inside the pipe twisted, thrusting deeper, spewing waxy slivers of ice in its wake – a fixed point around which their world revolved.

“It can’t be stopped,” he stated.

“How much further?” asked Srinin.

“A few hundred metres; a few …

This hallway stretches out on the left and right.

On the left side, the hallway ends soon with a large pane of glass that overlooks the front of the building; it is not blocked by metal bars or anything like that.

On the right, the hallway is longer…

The disaster happened. What I feared the most, really occurred. I lost it all, all I wanted to keep, and all the things that scared me the most were right with me to rip me asunder.

And they left me for dead. No, not for dead, but for finished. Nearly r…

(Temporarily taken down as it is part of a school assignment, I'll put it back later)

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 …

My dreams trace your laugh-lines

and sparkles part grey clouds between light lashes

Fingertips brush tensed lips to release breath

held within a chest hungry for my hands

...

My muscles clench at the rustle of my lonely sheets

Sticky with desire I cage b…

Months went by,

Since she left the only way of life she's ever known,

Simple life, hard life, workers' life,

City life she now knows.

Spruced up her wardrobe,

With 15 hour works days,

Not much better than before,

But the energy here- it keeps here alive.

…

A bright pink teddy bear was banished to the back of the closet

And its glassy eyes shimmer with painful memories

As vicious dirt stains its velvet heart

~

Tear-stained sheets lie crumpled upon the floorboards

While a silent bed frame dreams of past creak…

Strong's cat roamed their rented studio office space like he owned the place. Sarah found the matted fur ball curled on top of her desk, arrogant tail thwacking the keyboard of her laptop hard and steady, like a Sousa march.

"What, are you composing the…

Toria walked into the classroom and sat down at her desk with her usual grace. No one so much as glanced at her. That was fine. She didn't mind. She just sat quietly with all the others as the teacher talked. She took notes, and made tiny doodles in the m…

Captain's log, ship's day 8482

I, Fleance Conor Norton, hereby assume command of the generation ship Hope. Let the record state that Captain Kettering performed his duties with dignity and honor, and willingly surrendered himself to the recyclers. Ther…

The darkness ahead grew, looming over Malika like a physical presence. She couldn't see it, but she knew it was there all the same. She rushed toward to it blindly, cutting down any and all of the Lesser Dead who dared cross her path. Morduth burned hot w…

Elden was always such an obliging person: a foster mother to me, who took better care of me than my own mam, always had been. There was nothing she wouldn't do for me, no tear too small to wipe away, no threat too menacing to face.

At eleven I was plagued…

“In the event of a gravitational storm, please return to your seat and buckle your restraints as demonstrated by the hologram in front of you. In the case of decompression..”

I tuned out the flight attendant. I'd taken this trip many times recently as bo…

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…

Orthael gave her a smile and lifted a conspiratorial finger to his lips, then indicated the smouldering taper with one hand and the unlit candles with the other. Sparks flew, smoke rose and embers flared - the taper crumbled to ash, the candles flamed. He…

Everything seemed to happen at once. Stella lived at two speeds simultaneously. In what felt like it should have taken only a second or two, the moon sprang upon her back and spread out like an effulgent tarpaulin, pressing her skin into the pricking fenc…