I was teaching English in Malaysia when the black spot first appeared overhead. It seemed small, barely larger than a fifty sen coin but without any real context it was hard to tell how much higher over the trees it was. Was it small and close or huge and…

Yellow flakes spiraled down from above to settle on the city like the ash of some great holocaust. The yellowness that filled the air wasn't the pure color of a sunflower but rather a corrupted yellow like rancid butter. Near the ground, the dancing motes…

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…

"This is my garden, now," explained Sarah, gesturing expansively at the tiny fenced area. "Mommy said so," she continued, pointing back towards the ivy-covered house set back across the pasture, in a stand of trees.

Gus, her equally-young companion, sh…

Story is marked as mature