Lorelis woke up with a start. Ugh, not again. That same dream again.

She rubbed her head before getting up out of bed. She went through the usual routine of getting dressed, eating breakfast, and heading off for a day at school.

...

She didn't go to sc…

I checked the hurt on my tongue. It was hard not to respond in kind, a struggle to not spit red-hot knives aiming for the open wound on her heart.

No.

I wouldn't do that. She's hurting enough already. Even through the internet I could feel it bleeding o…

Story is marked as mature

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…

Laying inside a field of wildflowers, Lana stretched out luxuriously, feeling every blade of grass slide along her skin. She felt so intimately connected with her surroundings, not just the flowers but the tree in the distance, and the vast pink of a dawn…

Our words are fragile incomplete things. Stuttering, their half-shapes try to convey ideas. They fall short, as short as the silhouette of a chair falls short of being the chair itself. Even if that shadow is crisp hard edges from perfect lighting it can …

They had taken the light. All lights everywhere were gone. First the stars winked out one by one. Then the Sun grew dark before vanishing. Without the Sun there was no moon. It was probably still out there in that deep darkness but we couldn't see it.

We…

When the cliffs came into sight, I found that I wasn't ready to see them. Their vast dominance of the sky, those dizzying heights, even from this far away, toyed with my body's perception of which way was up. The sensation that I was about to fall sideway…

The last of the movers maneuvers the hand truck with the last of the boxes through the front door. I close the door behind him. Through the living room window, I watch as the movers finish loading their truck and drive off. For the first time in a long wh…

The medic paused for the span of several breaths, staring into the distance while he thought.

"The chances of survival if I operate now are not high. We should take every chance we can to get him to a situation better suited for surgery."

Beckton flipp…

He is already there when she arrives, waiting for her on the other side of the glass, holding a red, early summer rose. She watches as he mouths Hello.

"Hi," she says.

He holds the rose out toward her, touching it to the glass. She reaches for the ros…

“Why are you here.”

Wasn't it obvious? There were lines around the block to sign up for the E.D.C. and had been ever since the attack that melted southern California. “To fight aliens, same as you.” I tried to keep the irritation out of my voice but knew…

I saw the fat man with a beard again today. He had been a stranger kind enough to lend me half of his table at Starbucks. People are never that nice and honestly I thought it was a ploy to talk to me. Nope. He didn't interrupt me once while I was studying…

My dad has aged a lot in the past few years. It was probably as gradual as the rest of us but I'm noticing it more now. His walk has become more of a shuffle but he's strong enough or perhaps willful enough that he doesn't want any help. That's fine. It w…

Pyretta! Dear Pyretta, Sapphic Fire!

Of all the souls I've known, I love yours best--

Affection and compassion fill my breast

Whene'er we are together. I admire

.

Your courage, perseverance, and your power;

Your gentle reassurance when I'm stressed

And in…

Story is marked as mature

I shall not end my life and hurt you worse,

Despite the ideation in my mind--

How cruel an act! If reason I can find,

I'll fix it in my head, beguile the curse.

.

No healing comes from lying in a hearse,

I know. There is no need, so don't remind;

If we ca…

Today I broke a friendship once again

It lately seems to happen every day

I try so to be kind, but what I say

Hurts lovely people, causing grief and pain

.

How come? It truly goes against the grain

I long to be a nurturer, and pay

Respect, attention--Sadl…

Today my nails are red; so are my shorts,

And, as I shaved my arms at CCH,

That colour flowed again. And, glad to see

My blood come dripping down, I slashed again.

Oh, fire-engine red looked fair to me--

.

But then I thought back, and I bit my tongue,

Rec…

I did my best. I did my worst.

Somehow, these two were one.

"I'd never wish to hurt you, Dear,"

I call, and aim my gun.

.

Oh, can I even learn from this?

Or will it still recur?

I try to analyze my sins--

They scatter, melt, and blur.

.

Perhaps self-love …

I don't get you. I don't get me.

I should give up, as you can see.

Thanks for the friendship; thanks a lot.

I'm here, where ev'ry day's too hot.

.

Don't follow me! Don't hold me back.

My kindness changes to attack.

Please save yourself while you still…

Max stood at the edge of the curtained window and stared out into the dark of the garden, searching for any sign of the creature. His eyes darted here and there looking for more substantial motion than the shivering of hedges, or the swirling interplay of…

Sloughing off the tide of years, Ixcar came to his senses very slowly. There had been darkness and now there was light. Such light it was, appearing first as a horizontal line that separated one darkness into two. The line widened and grew in intensity un…

There aren't many frogs out and about now, being late autumn and all. By this point, most have already burrowed into the mud to hibernate for the winter. As the ground around them grows colder, their bodies will eventually freeze into solid blocks of ice …

"Give back my magic!" Ruta called. She forced herself to get up.

"Oh, no. I won't. I'd much rather keep this. Look at how lovely it is!" She twirled.

Ruta attempted to catch her, and the girl bounced away.

"Let's try out these new powers, shall we?" She…