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…

Story is marked as mature

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…

"You're afraid of me."

"Afraid? Afraid? No, I'm not afraid of you. I pity you. Pity that you sold the best parts of yourself for power. Pity that you lived eight more meaningless years. Pity that your family will never know what happened to you. My famil…

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I feel like I'm trapped inside a box. It might be a coffin. The air is oppressively stuffy and it's impossible to move so I can't tell where the walls are. I appear to be laying on fabric warmed by my own body.

It occurs to me that I should be breathing.…

You know it's damn difficult to focus these days so you don't. You distract yourself with Youtube videos and Netflix, focusing on the new Dave Chappelle special and reruns of Friends or the Office. The outside world can burn without your help. It's beyond…

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…

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

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.

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…

“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 …

Michael's tribe was one of warriors. Their magic was rooted in guttural blood-lust, the feeling of knife ripping into flesh and the enraged satisfaction of wound infliction, the tear of teeth in sinew. Their magic made them strong and fast and unafraid. T…

And now, like a spirit, your voice rings once more


How confusing to put them together:


Your voice, and your words, I could never expect


You would speak this way to me. Can we reconnect?


With the return of hot, muggy weather


Comes a new conversation. …

"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…

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…

Sadie straightened and cast around for Astarlane. She spotted her bracing against a rock a few dozen metres distant, getting to her feet.

In the distance, there was unmistakably orcish shouting. Sadie motioned for close formation and advanced slowly.

Gu…

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…

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…

Sadie dodged Tenever's second blow, instinctively returning a feinting hit that caught him in the side. He collapsed under the force of the strike, grabbing her shoulders instead.

"Sadie!"

She twisted her shoulders to throw him, reaching for her combat …