Taking your hanky in hand as if it were a potholder, you push against the handbar more carefully. The door resists.

You can feel the heat rising up the stairwell as you go down to the landing. With trepidation, you turn to face the first floor's back hallway, and it is quite a sight. The floor itself seems to be on fire! What's more, it seems to be following a pattern,…

The door opens a couple of inches, then stops. A motion detector must have noticed your efforts, because a light comes on in the doorway outside.

To your shock, there is someone's body blocking the exit from outside! You could not see them before.

Well,…

Eric strode out the front door, determined to put this whole messy business behind him. Thomas wasn't about to make that easy.

"What the hell was that for?!" Thomas yelled.

Eric stopped, turning on Thomas with a suddenness that gave the movement more …

I wake up, and find myself in bed. My head hurts, and there's a cold compress on my forehead. I try to sit up, and she's suddenly beside me, pushing me back. "No, lie down. You've been out for a while." She looks seriously worried.

"How long was I out?"

…

She looks at the clock. "Is that the time, already?"

I see what she means. "4:58." I turn to her. "So, I guess we need to find dinner. Do you know any Korean?"

"I know 15 languages." She seems quite proud of herself. I don't blame her. "It seems I'm not…

"You brought your briefcase from work along. I think your laptop is in there."

"It should be." I head into the bedroom, and pick up my laptop. I sit back down, and ask "Do you know the hotel WiFi password?"

She winks. "I can do you one better." She touc…

"Well, then, Mrs. Sinclair." Her eyes light up at hearing that. "What shall we do, now that your husband is broke and homeless?"

"Well, about that." She gives me an impish grin.

"Should I be scared?"

She looks thoughtful for a moment, then says, "No.…

"We'll start with your first question." She's making a point of not looking at me while she talks. I'm not sure if it's nervousness, embarrassment, or something else. "We've been here for 3... No, technically, 2 days, I guess. International date line. Lik…

The cellar room I once called home

Far out of sight, a site alone

Cannot remain a haven now:

This mouse’s nest now fears the plough

My life’s disrupted, cleft in twain

Will ever I find home again?

I am uprooted, limbs are pruned

My misery no more entombe…

“Here.”

I barely caught the stranger's phone as he waded against the crowd flowing past us. “The password's zero five five seven, record everything that happens.” I rolled the phone over in my hands. Top of the line and brand new, it was a beauty, worth …

"Whoooo!" Jackie whooped into the night, swaying drunkenly to Tiffany's rendition of “I Think We're Alone Now.” Her hair was poofy and just the right amount of wild. She was young and beautiful and this bonfire was going to be the best night of her life.

…

[To go to the back of the hallway, please visit https://ficlatte.com/stories/41132]

You seem so happy with us

What we are

Where we stand

On this slippery icy slope

.

I don't know how to tell you

About my growing fear

That this is too good to be true

That this ethernet of safety

Won't hold our tangible weight

.

We can dive so deep

That I…

"Did you actually read my email?" I asked, apprehension building a bubble in my chest.

"No, I haven't had time. It was long."

My bubble popped. Embarrassment washed over me. What was I thinking? "Oh, well, nevermind."

"Sure, so about this story..."

I li…

“Well at least this place has a real bed. Stay comfortable, I'll be back.” Lenn said to Liv. He stepped into the dark hallway to the staccato hoarseness of Liv's muffled coughs. She sounded so miserable. He needed to get his hands on some kind of cough su…

Well, life proceeded, in the standard way--

I lived the dream I thought that I should dream.

But little else occurred from day to day;

New friends weren't made. I just ran out of steam.

-

The art of dance is the art of the fall.

It's the trace of your face as you race down the hall

In grace you may trip, you may flip, dancers all

Though I never shall reach you, I'll turn when you call

.

Locomotion may carry you down the canal

Past esop…

It makes me angry to think that I can never have you and angry that I'm acting like a child. I'm angry that my dreams are crushed and angry that life goes on and you can go on without me.

That's what hurt the most; knowing that I can be forgotten in the …

When dusk descends, the waves draw near,

And gravity holds sway.

I hold the moon within my eye;

I hope I'm drawn away.

I raise my hands

Above the sands

The moon commands me: Come without delay.

I joy! Her Majesty has heard!

I hasten to obey.

I wrap mys…

"Well, it's like this, kid," Igor murmured to the wasted figure, tapping out his cigarette and musing out the window. "This is just a tiny matter of nomenclature; you needn't fret so over his name. You act as if it is some holy judgment over you.

"But rea…

There's something broken inside. It rattles with every breath. It weighs down my lungs, curving my spine and slumping my shoulders. My heart works harder than it should, slightly panicked at the change inside. It knows that something is wrong and it can't…

I hear her words, but I'm listening to their interpretation, screaming liar in my head.

Words are all shiny and sympathetic when they are sarcastic as well as genuine. It's hard to tell the difference. She was so much like someone I used to know, I co…

The medic blinked upon re-entry into normality and had to repeat himself, louder, in order to be heard over the groaning of metal, the rushing of waves and the screams of men. Still dazed by the impact of being reduced to one reality, as if waking from dr…

There was dead silence in the cockpit except for the click of controls and my own laboured breathing. I pushed the control stick as far right as it would let me, holding down the countermeasures release as if my life depended on it - which it probably did…