“My names Lennart Larsson. I'm looking for the occupant of 163 C.”

“Goddamnit, Lenny.” A disgusted voice said.

Lenn's gut twisted. The voice belonged to Liv's brother, Ruger. What was he doing here? He didn't even live in Japan. Still, he rallied gamely…

Three-hundred twenty-three mind-numbing steps later, he had crossed the second street, and followed the labyrinthine path through the body of Liv's apartment complex. There must have been stoppages here because the water flowed slower and he didn't have t…

Threading through the streets, past storefronts that still had power, Lenn kept one hand on his wallet and used the other to hold his poncho's hood closed. The rain had been hammering the city for five unrelenting days and it wasn't scheduled to let up fo…

At the restaurant, I sat across from him, fidgeting with my straw wrapper. What was I supposed to say to him? Up until five minutes before, I had never even seen him in person. He was just a name in my phone contacts, a person I'd texted a few times ea…

I stared at the ceiling. I couldn't sleep. The bench/cot…thing I was lying on was built of brushed steel and the padding was torn up. The holding cell wasn't much better—the front wall was constructed entirely out of reinforced glass, and the sterile, off…

Beckton applied pressure to the wound through Newkirk's wadded-up coat, leaning in and using both hands. His attempts were met with no success, even after Silvertown joined him.

A noise came from behind, a rhythmic thump of boots against a wooden floor. …

There were over five thousand individual signatures in the KGX/STP Level 4 concourse. If I had wished, I could have called up gender/age group/life expectancy graphs for them, or details on any single individual. I knew everything the city knew.

I also k…

You wait, but there are no lights. The elevator doesn't seem to be working, and you can't stand to wait any more. You get moving.

"I am glad to see that you survived!" C:\ said, hugging me warmly.

"Who's this nut?" Acrylic asked, an annoyed edge to his voice.

I ignored him for now. "We lost one."

C:\'s brow furrowed. "Fetus?"

I nodded.

"We tried, boss," noted Hard Drive, quietl…

Nervous but needing to do something a bit dangerous, you decide to take the fire extinguisher off its hook and carry it with you. But where will you go? Back to the window, or to the end of the hallway ...the one with the classrooms to one side and th…

It's a chocolate kind of day.

I went to work, even though I felt physically ill. I'd already been to the restroom 4 times and I was hoping that was it. I had to work, because of the 3 of us in charge, one of us was already gone. I couldn't bail.

I moved…

My brother Sydney, Doctor Ferris, and my darling Annabelle mourned me....but I'm not gone.

It faltered; the gash I'd opened enveloped me as we both smothered in muddy ichor.

If you ever feel empty,

Tell me, please.

I have bountiful love

I’m hoping to help you

Fill the gap and help you feel whole.

And because I have this love,

I have another offer for you:

If it’s not me you need,

I’ll willingly help you to find

The things you…

The house on the hill looked like an aged porn star. Enough work had been done to make it superficially attractive but the closer you got, the more you could see the lived in lines of time. Knowing windows watch relentlessly and people who have stared dee…

You press your face against the glass of the door, obviously NOT one that is on fire, and try to see if the fire truck is here.

You can't see much, but evidently, the truck is indeed here.

You realize this when the glass door smashes open suddenly, dest…

Tory was staring up at the slanted mirror hooked to the ceiling; Pips's gaze was fixed on the shattered remains of his mocha flagon, in twenty-three pieces on the floor. As the CD unit restarted with "You're my Everything," their eyes started in towards e…

Story is marked as mature

A shameful smile lurks in the corner

of every fold of fat

and widening waistline

gleefully posted by narcissists everywhere

To serve as personal justification

for one more cookie

Story is marked as mature

"HELP! Help! Help...."

There is nothing you can do for whoever was calling out. It's probably too late already. You never realized that you weren't alone in that building.

Feeling obscurely guilty, you stumble to your feet and move away from the rema…

After browsing for almost twenty minutes, the customer looked ready to leave. Eric put the phone down, and walked over. "Sorry, sir," he said. "Can I help you find anything?"

"I don't think so." The man looked around one last time. "This establishment do…

I sat in front of the television. It had been a long night & a long day full of things in my head that most people probably wouldn't be able to fully understand.

That was ok though. I wouldn't want them to be able to understand what I went through every …

The Priest lifts the lid away from the box and sets it to the side. The smoke inside the box swirls before him like an angry storm but remains in place for the moment. He dips a finger into the smoke, drawing out a long tendril of grey vapor. Then, with h…

The reeds outside swayed, swept by a breeze that I couldn't feel. The candles never wavered so it wasn't just me. The two mountains known locally as the Two Sisters stood high and dark against the star-filled night sky.

“Why do we still wait? It's dark e…