Malika stepped back, spinning to her left as another creature lunged out of the darkness. The sword in her hand sang with need, and she swung it up in a swift, arcing motion, ramming it into the creature's chest. Its momentum as it slammed into her knocke…

Grims reached the outer fence, a rickety wooden thing with a large gap in between the top and bottom beam, that kept in the dumbest of the livestock. The gate was clear on the other side of the property and he didn't feel like circling the house just to u…

The doorbell chimed.

Confused, Mina rose from her chaise, disturbing her cat, who airily strode off to preen. She wasn't expecting anyone, nor any packages. Frowning to herself, she turned the deadbolt, twisted the knob lock, and slid the chain lock back…

I woke up flat on my belly, a rocky and uneven ground pushing uncomfortably into my stomach. My body was stiff and cold. Just out of reach was a familiar meat cleaver, its handle rising out of a puddle.

The world seemed to be two places, overlapping echo…

With one socked foot, Rachael pressed against the glass door tentatively, listening hard. Her eye was scanning the glass of the door, or the room beyond, perhaps; her eye kept being drawn to the misty gray form of the silver backed hairbrush--if that was …

A friendship gone

Forever lost

Indiscretion

Brought the Frost

So much in common

Yet years apart

So many differences

Lies of the heart

Deception takes on

Many forms

Resulting in

Abandoned norms

Out of sight

Not out of mind

Ease of pain

A Difficult fin…

It had been fourteen days since he left. It was my choice, but, I couldn't help but think that this isn't what I signed up for. It had been a tumultuous twelve years and I knew I had to say goodbye, but I couldn't help but feel like I was ruining my life.…

“You seem off,

Is everything okay?”

“Yea I’m fine,

I just need to pray.”

“Are you sure?

I’m here to talk...”

“Yes, uh, of course..

There’s no need to balk.”

...

I should be worried....right?

I shouldn’t just let them be.

Because it’s the middle of the…

"Swift..easy," <kapow> "Dead."

The spotter located the next target and started, "Swift..easy," <kapow> "dead!"

A crisp cadet followed by an older officer called the sniper and spotter to attention," Platoon Guide Chapman and Assistant P. G. Gutierrez?"

Th…

Doctor Tanner waited until the clock read 8:00 before approaching Darlene. She was munching on baby carrots while watching some kind of colorful cartoon on the wall screen.

“It's time for bed.” Dr. Tanner said gently.

Without looking, Darlene replied, “…

Beckton lit a cigarette himself while Newkirk scribbled down a long note for his factory chief.

"It is a shame. I was almost finished with this. We put Fireball in a Bofors cannon - quite a lot better than Firebolts coming out of a Browning machine gun.…

Wand'ring through the glade like a lost Womble on speed, I sought refuge in the cleft of a sycamore tree.

Friday. Sunny, cool under the shade of tall oaks. Breezy. The park was calm in this early hour where most are just starting their workday. Perfect for running.

Not perfect for crying alone at a picnic table.

He saw her halfway through the first lap. The…

Malika's rise to consciousness was agonizing. She needed more sleep, but her shoulder was like ice. The deathless' grip, it seemed, had not entirely relented, dragging her from the brief respite of unconsciousness.

She looked for Morduth and panicked mom…

I wanna write on fire.

Not with fire like a sparkler in the night.

Not like some imaginary, magical way of literally writing on a fleeting flame.

Writing with abandon, with freedom, with vigor; that's what I want.

No more tiredness, mental fogginess, …

He hefted the axe, testing its balance. The razor sharp edges of the bronze blades glittered in the sunlight. Abruptly, he tossed it up, sending it spinning end over end before catching it again.

Father would have been furious with him, to risk an inju…

"Shoot me," she screamed.

He did.

........................

Orthael felt her blow crash into his guard with a stunning violence. He spun to deliver a pommel strike and felt her duck under him before his shield caught two quick blows. Judgement came back around, its edge silently hunting for the gaps and holes in h…

The wind gusted across the dusty peak, nearly blowing Zachariah off his feet. He pulled his weathered duster closer around him, pulled his hat down further over his eyes in an attempt to keep debris out of his eyes.

The townsmen had said the climb would …

Nothing.

A vast expanse of unknowable darkness.

I saw it. My feet may have even dangled towards its embrace. Tiny shards, the whole of my heart broken long ago, tumbled easily down the well. Perhaps I should have grasped for them. Perhaps they will …

Grims dropped it with a single shot. The bullet entered through the cat's open maw and exited through the back of its skull, causing the creature's head to vaporize in a mist of blood, bone, and brains. The mooncat hit the ground barely two feet from wher…

Devra picked up the completed Lego model of Big Ben. She had to be careful, the pieces weren't glued together--never that!--so putting pressure on the wrong point could lead to disaster. Looking at the minute, pixelated, shape of the iconic English monume…

Polishing her well-fingered nails against a strip of garish colored sandpaper above the visor, Ossie tromped her best L'Oeil and went gangbusters, head for leather, on her hurtling passage of Rite. She would need no rite aid today!

Bucksnifter Lentilsgree…

Grims slung his rifle then bent to the body. Blood dribbled from the kid's mouth, but not much. Three shots center mass had assured the kid died quickly.

A little blood, but it was enough. The yips and yowls sounded closer. Death was on the air now, and …

"You've got to stop yawning like that."

"I can't help it! I'm bored."

"Well, yawn any bigger and I'll be able to see out the other end."

"Ugh! You're gross. Keep your voice down."

"Why?

"Because the last thing I want is for everyone to remember me as the …