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…

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…

"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…

Sleep... eludes me.

I am not the master of my own time.

Events occur around me, unbidden, unwilled. Control is an illusion.

Do not believe, children. Do not believe what your elders taught you. You exist only as an instrument of entropy, your will is not…

"Ain't natural, Karl."

"'Course not."

"Fog's 'sposed to burn up in sunlight, not pile up against the edge of a man's property like it's beatin' on a wall."

"Ever'body knows that, Carl."

"Yeah? Well somebody 'parently forgot to tell ol' man Hemp. Ain't n…

CRACK!

All magic comes with a price, and Taka was regretting the drawback of the particular protective potion she had just imbibed. While it dulled the sting of her opressors' whips, it bound her to the Earth, slowing her movements. Already slower than…

The pair continued much as before, though their time spent together grew more intimate and more frequent. Taka tried to split her time evenly between spending time with her family, helping Fakura with the fireworks, and enjoying Keshintai's company, but t…

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…

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

I reach. I fumble. My fingers renew their acquaintance with that smooth black stone of yesteryear. I remember the knit cap, with Donald Duck on it, and gasp in wonder. How have you been, old friend, old chronicle, old heart? The rhetorical echoes send…

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…

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…

The girl whimpered in pain as a man made tiny incisions in her arm. Or... what was left of her arm, anyway.

"Sh, it'll be alright soon," the green-haired girl nearby said softly to her, taking a break from what she was doing to stroke the small girl's hea…

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…

That's how I became a part of the Cold Hail Battalion (Give 'em Hail!). I was never carried into battle but I was often carried out of one. My dad, the one who accepted me, tried hard to get me transferred to an orphanage or a host family, but there was n…

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.

Two white ears poked out of the sand, followed by a fluffy white head, and then a body popped out. The little white rabbit shook off the sand. It failed to understand why the world had to rain sand, and then suddenly, inexplicably, it would turn on its he…

He pushed the door open and stepped in without ceremony. There wasn't much to see - a dusty cloak, warm and practical. Nice boots, made well and well worn. The shape of a weapon underneath as his cloak slid back.

But that wasn't what caught my attention.…