She heaved, great, gasping, shuddering sobs, still clutching the sword in her hand. Her tears that fell on the blade glistened and glowed blue, etching fine, dark lines into the metal as they traveled along it. She was oblivious of the carnage she had lef…

Go to the hospital

To check on my friend,

Receive Error 410:

Gone.

Please move along, he said, as he climbed over the fence. It is easy to think that what he was doing was untoward, after all, on the other side of the fence was a pride of hungry lions.

I'm trying to care less about what other people think of me: trying not to perpetually perform for an imagined audience, trying to forget all the invisible eyes on me.

4am in the dark lair of my study, two locked doors between my face and the world...

…

I broke the mountains majesty

To get beneath her skin

To show the truth of buried beauty

And the gold that lies within

-

But she wont thank me for my effort

For she does not understand

How her pain could be called “progress”

And her rape could have been p…

Jeremy knelt, his breath catching at the beauty. This find was proving to be an even greater treasure than he'd ever imagined. Using a tiny brush, he dusted up and down the length of the axe. Once this was polished up, it would outshine every other piece …

I'm heading on a trip soon. I'm trying to be excited about it. I've got Pinterest boards, my suitcase is open and slowly being filled, plane ticket is paid for, nice people waiting for me when I get there... Honestly I should be thrilled!!

But then I get…

I hope someone that can help, reads this. I stop by now and then to read all of your works. Normally I'll flick through the most recent stuff, other times I'll browse deeper. Today I saw a piece by PrincessLapis, titled The Morning Before. I noticed that…

It would be quicker to go through town but Grims didn't want to carry the corpse through the streets of Eggtown South. He already had a reputation, hard and bitter, but there was a difference between being rumored as a child-killer and toting a dead one d…

You knew each other in school, you were neighbors, but it wasn’t until years later that you become friends. You would meet, make each other laugh, have fun. You needed that in your life; there wasn’t anyone else you could hang out with.

But suddenly he…

I can see the stars, but I don't have the fuel.

My trajectory is set, but I'm gazing off to the side.

I'm going somewhere, but not where I'm looking.

The possibilities are limitless, but my choices finite.

I started too early, and I'll be too late.

W…

"I ask you again," Malika said. "Who be you, and how be it you come to be here, just at this very moment? Be you a final test, holy man or not, to confirm my resolve, to baptize me in the fire of purification against the forces of Ashmar?" She could feel …

We had no neighbors. That was by design. Dad didn't like people. I didn't much care for them myself. So it was our livestock that died first. Dad hadn't even had a chance to step off the porch with that second post before the cows started keeling over. Th…

Captain Iremond paced the length of the bridge. He knew it wasn’t good for the crew’s morale but he couldn’t stop himself. Today he was in charge for the first time. He’d be a fool if he wasn’t nervous. Even if everything went to plan, men were going to d…

I can feel it happening again.

It's been a while...

Of all the worlds - I've lost count - that have truly captured my soul, only two stand above the rest.

One is a world of masks, the other is a world of monsters.

The rest, whether created by others or my…

He is a tiny man. Under four feet tiny. Balding pate. Small eyes. Round, tortoiseshell glasses. Tattered brown suit. Nothing to look at, certainly, not that anyone is looking.

He glides through the crowd, clearing a path without word or gesture. People m…

The story first appeared in an issue of National Geographic. It chronicled a journey taken in the 1970s by a small band of backpackers. While travelling through the woods of southeast Alaska the group stumbled onto a ghost town.

The community appeare…

The forest lay in perfect stillness around her, the bodies of the beasts she had slain strewn haphazardly all about. She stood, head tilted forward, listening for the next attack. It never came. She held the sword aloft, the blue raging flames towering ov…

I carried my father's post on my left shoulder as I walked back to the front of the property. I took care to avoid the golden post, though I knew it would not harm me. It was merely an omen, a message from the gods, but it was better not to tempt fate. In…

The little girl entered the forest, armed with nothing but her courage, her grim determination, and the rusty sword strapped to her back. There were monsters in those woods - she could hear their howls, their cries to one another - but she was not afraid.…

The man strode rather than walked into the forest. He had the mass of his Church behind him, and so he had nothing to fear. The creatures of the night howled and cried to each other, but he was unmoved. His defenses were stalwart, and any attack would bre…

Crush fresh melancholy with a pestle dusted with self doubt until a paste forms. If paste is too watery, add more self doubt until desired consistency.

In a small bowl, whisk your favorite sad melodies vinaigrette with two handfuls of uninterrupted time.…

It's one of those mornings--an anything-is-better-than-pretending-to-sleep-while-I-actually-just-worry sort of morning.

It's the third morning of its kind this week. I'll be into work two hours early. Again.

I've flipped through the radio stations, a…

Story is marked as mature

"Not who you were expecting?"

The snake dropped from the branch, out of view before emerging mere heartbeats later - as a wolf. Its cold yellow eyes weighed heavily on Rahmi's neck.

"I doubt there are any other shape-shifters here, so I'd wager you are e…