Hurrying to the bathroom, I felt like I was going to burst. I prayed that no one was in it and reached for the handle. It was open. I locked it and rushed to the toilet, dropping my pants as I did so.

I had to bending down to raise the seat up. My face…

I couldn’t help but groan. Standing up had not been a good idea. Everything hurt.

“Do you know that guy?” the girl asked.

An icy spike shot up my spine. Panic swarmed at the edge of my vision like beating wings. I hunched down and grabbed her arm. “What…

What would it be like to break into a hundred different worlds? A thousand? Would he ever get used to it, the way you get used to the routines of a new job? Ray looked at the device he held in his hand. Abruptly, he tossed it up, sending it spinning end o…

I awoke with a start to noise from downstairs: a series of thumps punctuated by broken glass, as if someone had tipped out the contents of my liquor cabinet.

Throwing on my camisole, I slipped through my bedroom door and crept among the darkness of the u…

“Your hair looks nice.”

It slipped out of his mouth into real space. What had he done? Stupid, stupid, stupid! He tried to throw his headphones back on and lower his eyes before she felt the need to respond. One of the fat black ear cushions fell off an…

She tenses, starts to pull away, then relaxes. I'm still holding the towel around her injured hand, but I feel her left hand on the back of my neck. I must be doing something right.

Suddenly, there's a soft, warm breeze. We pull back. "What the hell was …

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…

The house on the hill looked like an aged porn star. Enough work had been done to make it superficially attractive but the closer you got, the more you could see the lived in lines of time. Knowing windows watch relentlessly and people who have stared dee…

My cell hadn't rang in days. I no longer cared where it was.

I lay looking at a wall four inches from my face trying not to think. The thin covers kept me warm enough and as I stared at the wall, committing my entire being into a single-hued landscape of…

Do we orbit or dance? An orbit

is a dance

of gravity, energy, mass.

Are you afraid of collisions?

honestly, I'm not sure what you could fear.

I'm afraid--afraid of missing.

Afraid that the twisting shadows,

strangely posing are deceptions

wit…

Chains, heavy ones from the sound of it, rattled in the basement, undercut by heavy snuffling. I didn't want to go down there but it was the one place we hadn't checked. My imagination conjured horrible beasts and wicked demons in that awful place.

Behin…

I think I've been bullied.

Maybe it's just that the person who complains about the speck in my eye needs to remove the plank from theirs.

I need to stop wanting to please them.

When they say something in a subversive manner, hint that this new way is …

Running. For years now, it has seemed that all I have been doing is running. Running from my life, my friends, my family, my job. Finally, a time has come when a break seems almost feasible. Slower and slower I ease up on my pace, until I am all but left …