He thumbed the keys upward so that they sprouted beyond his knuckles like metal spikes. Should he retread his steps back into the driving rain and try a different cross street or move through the alley that might house something in it? Straining his sense…

In my absences, the wreathes had dried out and disintegrated into sticks, fragments of leaf and broken needles. The rest of the house fared little better. Barely a half a dozen rooms showed some signs of use and half of those were furnished enough to make…

In fairness to them, the shot was quite a technically demanding one. Both the origin and the destination were moving platforms, and there were wind currents between the ships that made the opening shot a coin-toss for a hit and a miss.

Once I had the hit…

We are all travelers, drifting through the cosmic sea, floating between the stars.

Some of us fly through dense galaxies, basking in the light of a hundred stars. Others dwell in deep space, gazing longingly at the distant pinpricks of light. But still …

Ken tapped the bottom of his beer bottle against the table. It made the satisfyingly hard knock that only happens when thick glass meets sturdy wood. Stefano leaned back and rested his arm along the top of the red leather booth.

"What's up?"

Ken mumble…

[To continue, please visit this page: https://ficlatte.com/stories/41132/]

Her thought invaded me like a snake.

She slithered into my mind late at night when I was trying to forget the damage that the day had done to me.

It had done a lot of damage. More than I was willing to share, yet still she slithered in through the crack…

She cried silently on the video chat, tears running down, sniffles, and gasps for air. "I... n..know. I can... do this."

"Listen, it's not personal. It's just that the last time this happened to me, I lost a friend. We used to be close and then it ended. …

In the white room, you are there. The light here should be blinding, but we can see so much. We can see our imperfections and we love them. They are what make us recognizable and relatable. In fact, I know how to heal your hurts and where you have darknes…

Slowly, Grandma's frantic rocking petered to a halt.

"An ambulance is on it's way." Charlie announced. Lucy was bandaged with ice, but blood was already pooling again beneath her.

"She's getting worse." Paul's gaze shifted from Lucy, to their mother, an…

"We need to keep moving."

"It'll only be a sec. Which pocket is it?"

"Left." I hunch over as Ally unclips my pack. I feel like a turtle. I fit right in with the toads.

"You sure it's in here?"

"Try the right pocket then." A high pitched whine rises ou…

At the end of our speech we took questions.

"Why aren't you two a couple?"

"Have you slept together?"

These questions popped up often from giggling fans dared to ask, or brave souls wanting some drama.

This time I was ready.

"Run the bonus material!" I ca…

my melody started with bright and brassy horns

on a triumphant and unexpectedly quick note

But the timbre was muted by deep and violent percussion

cymbals crashing and drums beating the tune into the background

until these discordant notes edged towards u…

There she is; I'd recognize those eyes, that smile, the laugh that can melt steel.

Her eyes met me from across the room and I knew something serious was on her mind. It was foreboding and exciting at the exact same time.

She walked over to me with a str…

“No, I wouldn't say you're fat.” Trent said, his face pressed against my back. Despite the heat of the apartment, it was a welcome comforting warmth. “But both of us could stand to lose some weight.”

I stiffened. Now his face was too close. It was in my …

My life, in recent months, has been o'erfull.

There's too much going on, inside my heart

And head, to parse, to handle. As for art,

I've had no spoons to work. I'm gath'ring wool,

Bereft of words, o'ercome. I've been a fool

Both in and out of love. How ca…

"Umm, there's no shoes allowed in here." The girl said, stretching long over her legs.

I'd been in the same room at least two dozen times and no one had ever complained until now but I just nodded and said, "No problem."

As I started peeling off the hee…

Hours later, the space was enough for it to climb past me into the dusk.

Smoothing away soil, I caressed it; the eye followed me, studied me, compelled me faster.

As it slithered, triggering Ferris's mesmeric command, I gripped the spear hidden within my coat.

Shadows drew into Astarlane like the finest of cloaks, draping her form and reducing her blade to a sliver of the deepest dusk. Each massive, raining blow from the khopesh rung against a edge that was no longer wholly in this universe, or even the next.

…

All of us--Troy, Maxine, and I--made a solemn vow to protect the liter of wine from the biker gang. We set it down at the top of the stairs and kept a sacred vigil.

But then a hullabaloo started outside and the head of the gang, Sharpe, kicked down the f…

She was the kind of person who could spend all day talking about her makeup to a camera. After all, it was much easier than talking to a real, live human about... well... anything.

She could imagine that she was just sending the video out into a void. A …

I had cut through Liddell Park on my way to my girlfriend's flat. It wasn't the first time I'd tried to save time this way. Above the rounded tops of the trees, the summer sky was filled with wispy clouds like a cotton ball being stretched thin across the…

There wasn't much chatter to interrupt, nor people to stare, when I brushed the door open. This far out on the trail, there weren't many people left who could afford a night's stay.

I chose a quiet corner and waited for the barmaid to come over. Her eyes…