I wake up in a strange room, unsure of how I got there. I don't remember going to sleep. I feel sluggish. The walls are beige and the floor is immaculately clean white tile. I've never seen such clean tiles. I'd heard about floors so clean you could eat o…

I feel like I'm trapped inside a box. It might be a coffin. The air is oppressively stuffy and it's impossible to move so I can't tell where the walls are. I appear to be laying on fabric warmed by my own body.

It occurs to me that I should be breathing.…

Story is marked as mature

There are experiences and ideas that we have as children that are vivid and real. Some stick with us for a while before we shed them like dead skin cells. Others live within us dormant; lurking. In my neighborhood, every kid's parents warned us not to go …

After standing alone for days in the emptiness of the Grey Room it was impossible not to notice the sudden presence; the sleeping body of a girl lying in a heap on the floor. Harold noticed too but stayed obediently by my side.

She opened her eyes. My he…

I dreamt you cried for me.

There was no immediate response; the others looked at each other warily. Mornington spoke first, shaking his head.

"There was some kind of Roman ritual. A massacre in Caledonia... a senatorial edict. What does this have to do with the patient?"

Osterley…

She promised she'd meet me here. It was our favorite place in all the world and it had the benefit of being a place that no one would think to look for us: a small cafe named "Kis Nyúl" in the remote town of Zics, Hungary. Nothing about our separate and s…

Winters here are not bitterly cold, just barren. The acid rainy season drives everyone underground as the leaves melt off the trees. Harvest was good, we will survive until the leaves sprout again, but the council meets every day to craft more rules.

The…

"What's this ring about?" he rounded on me with accusation, hurt, and anger in his eyes.

"This is a promise ring."

"Promise!? You took VOWS to be my wife!"

Patiently, and without fear, I patted to the cushion next to me. He sat, but his hands shook. "List…

Being adrift in space in a rescue pod is freaking scary. First, you just lost your HOME in space in some disaster, all your stuff, everything that kept you alive. Second, you were floating out there after you ran out of fuel sending a distress signal out …

In the white room, you are there. The light here should be blinding, but we can see so much. We can see our imperfections and we love them. They are what make us recognizable and relatable. In fact, I know how to heal your hurts and where you have darknes…

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…

I drove 3 hours to find your boat pushing barges up the mighty Mississippi. You were not supposed to be on your phone, but you coordinated with me your location so I could stand on the bridge and wave.

The moment you passed, I smiled and waved like a mad…

At the end of our speech we took questions.

"Why aren't you two a couple?"

"Have you slept together?"

These questions popped up often from giggling fans dared to ask, or brave souls wanting some drama.

This time I was ready.

"Run the bonus material!" I ca…

She cried silently on the video chat, tears running down, sniffles, and gasps for air. "I... n..know. I can... do this."

"Listen, it's not personal. It's just that the last time this happened to me, I lost a friend. We used to be close and then it ended. …

"We need to keep moving."

"It'll only be a sec. Which pocket is it?"

"Left." I hunch over as Ally unclips my pack. I feel like a turtle. I fit right in with the toads.

"You sure it's in here?"

"Try the right pocket then." A high pitched whine rises ou…

It had been fourteen days five months and one year since her last Ficlatté. She'd nearly forgotten how to write one. Most pieces she had been writing were Tweet length, capturing and enrapturing a new audience. Then there was the collection of short stori…

Story is marked as mature

Egg shells feel like feathers - softly, gently ground beneath behemoth tongues. Leviathan laughter echoes.

Abstract butterflies take the brunt, wings turning to kaleidoscope dust in the nuclear wind.

Eyes see strangely through scorched sclera, strands o…

It had been fourteen days.

Two weeks.

A fortnight.

It didn't feel like it had been that long.

It felt like it had been much longer.

I remembered it like it was yesterday, yet it felt like a lifetime ago.

I remembered clearly, the looks on their faces, …

A silent journey home.

Foxglove came over when she spotted us. "Noleka, what-"

"Please don't call me that."

Foxglove tilted her head. "What?"

"Don't call me that name. I don't want it anymore."

"But Noleka, that's your na-"

"Not anymore. Please. Call me T…

"Who are you?" she asked after several moments of silence.

"N-" I realized I didn't have to keep going by that name. I had a chance to tell someone something different. What I'd been thinking was... "Tourmaline. My name is Tourmaline."

A few more tense mo…

Several years later, I was sixteen. Life had continued much the same, although Verux was now hesitant to send more people. We'd been pretty successful in beating them back, especially with Nochra on our side. She was an incredibly skilled fighter, with a …

I can see the stars, but I don't have the fuel.

My trajectory is set, but I'm gazing off to the side.

I'm going somewhere, but not where I'm looking.

The possibilities are limitless, but my choices finite.

I started too early, and I'll be too late.

W…