“Don't be so sure of yourself. You killed a man and blew up a building, you did not kill F.A.C.E. Honestly, you did as much as you could have. Impressive work for a pair spies."

Jacqueline felt the familiar punch to the stomach that happened every time s…

Jacqueline, never Jack or Jackie, swirled the ice around the dregs of her mojito. It was her favorite drink, she had ordered them all around the world, from Mexico, to London, to China. Hell, she'd even taken a couple of barrels with her through the Andes…

The squid-girl resurfaced through the bleak waters. “Quick! Can you swim?”

I affirmed that I could and before I could do anything she had wrapped her cold tentacle fingers around my wrist and pulled me in.

The water was dark and as she guided away from …

Story is marked as mature

Reina browsed through the “curiosities” sure that everything in the store was junk. Wandering down an aisle between shaky-looking shelves, she heard the sound of a whisper, like a gentle shush or a snake sliding among tall grass but all she saw was an emp…

The cabin boy, now Master of the Ship, walked alone

stepping over the glass-eyed corpses of meat and bone,

men who had once been, the only fathers he'd ever known.

He cried for his own loss and the light-lost souls forever gone.

The ship shuddered and cr…

The ship heaved high, breaking through the waves,

the dark hell of night's clouds and the sea's spray

Stars cloaked by a devil's veil were hidden away

and the once mighty captain was lost and afraid

The crew revolted pledging their wails to the winds,

pa…

Story is marked as mature

Story is marked as mature

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…

I've got a monster in me.

A lazy, hungry one. A liar.

He's like the evil Pooh bear sitting on the kitchen counter, always beckoning. His voice is the most insistent at night, when I'm alone, or when I'm already feeling crummy. It whispers clearly, “Come…

The cylinders braced along the underside of Millie's forearms weren't heavy exactly, more bulky. For being small. they seemed to get in the way a lot. Whenever she stopped paying attention to them, they bounced off her thighs. Supposedly you could snap yo…

Birds, hundreds of them, squawked and chirped in a frenzied cacophony. Bigger ones used their wings to violently bat against their cages. I'd never seen so many in one place, much less in doors. All manner of birds in cages lined the cavernous hallways fo…

I don't know me now but I remember what I used to be. I was one of them, a super. Notice that I didn't say hero, though some people certainly thought of me as one. I was the Operator, named after the switchboard connectors of the first half of the twent…

The first had been a rock from the garden but it hadn't even quivered. The second had been a coin. The only thing it did was give off a noise like a muffled metallic scream. That shook me. For the third I chose a stick. It had twisted and curled, writhing…

Basil finished the first circle of words.

The chant wasn't fast. It couldn't be rushed or muttered. The pronunciations had to be precise.

When he finished the second circle, the base of his neck seemed to grow hot,

He stood up straighter and began the …

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…

As I returned home, I was stunned to see that my house was full of lights and sound of merriment. The wedding that had called me away scarce had as much excited activity. It had only been eight days or so but even from the road, I could see the house was …

I clenched my fingers around the chain link fence, using the thin metal to keep me standing. The wind rattled it rat-tattat-tat. Sluggish dark water moved through the canal below me. Looking through the forest of skyscrapers, I caught a glimpse of the s…

No invitations went out, none that I sent or saw anyway, but as the summer waned, travelers began trickling in. They stopped by with reasons to suit the individual: curiosity, rest, even for a cup of tea. They stopped and then they were gone. Each time my…

Each person of sound mind is fully responsible for their actions at all times. What then defines a sound mind? Is it the--

A gentle knock of metal on metal broke my concentration. Charles stood on the other side of the bars, telescoping baton in hand.

…

Story is marked as mature

The opium was strong and heady. It bore me on a tremendously vast, dark, wave and I felt a relaxing lassitude swim through me. If I died here, my life would be complete. The ache in me, that part that had been missing, was now filled to overflowing and I …

I pricked my finger for the third time and cursed myself for signing up for autonomy class. It sounded perfect for a nerdy guy who didn't know anything beyond his books. Want to learn life skills? Try Autonomy. Learn how to change a tire, patch your own c…

The house was still half-built, half-destroyed. It had never been completed and for every few hours of work I put into repairing it, it seemed like something new broke, or nature won another victory. Yesterday, a long brick wall that lined the dining hall…