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…

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…

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…

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 …

"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…

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.…

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.…

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…

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

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, …

“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…

"Shoot me," she screamed.

He did.

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

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…

Vexedly, I tapped the glass whose sloping walls warped and elongated the bookcases and fireplace of my study. It was dishearteningly thick, the Lessening having worked exactly to my specifications. Previously, when placing the bottle horizontally in it's …

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…

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 …

Dana gasped as Don rose up off the floor, power and presence radiating from him like light from a sun. Despite all their efforts, the Azure was sill in him. Had the parasite fought off all the poisons that were now running through Don's veins? His right h…

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 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…

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 …

Moments later, Malika stepped from the forest and stopped at the top of the hill looking down over her village. She could see fires burned throughout the town, set not by the deathless' attack but rather remnants of household hearths and ovens left unatte…

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