She was one of those monster people Ruta had heard of. She'd never actually seen one. She prepared an arrow and let it fly, but the small girl easily dodged.

Ruta shot several more arrows, but the girl dodged them, too. "Just let me hit you, you stupid th…

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…

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 …

Ruta stepped through the portal and onto one of the scattered little islands. Her golden hair, clothes, and tiara all shimmered with each movement she made. She summoned a golden bow, and pulled back the string, and a golden arrow appeared.

She let it fly…

"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…

He can see her there, standing just on the other side of the glass. She's next to him, of course, there but not here. He can reach out with a hand and touch her shoulder. She smiles at him. Warm. Affectionate. But also sad. Because he is not truly there. …

There's no experience quite like it.

The rush of being free...

...

She'd done it. She'd actually done it. That lingering pressure in the back of her mind-- gone. She didn't have to worry about the fight being worth it anymore, because it was.

...

Ri…

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…

Story is marked as mature

"Hero. Hope for us all."

Funny. She didn't feel much like one anymore. Nor did she have any hope for herself.

Not after everything she'd done.

"Not your fault."

But it was. Like a lie of omission, it was her fault for inaction.

"Uncontrollable. Dange…

She sighed. Exhausted. Exasperated. Emotionally drained. More than a little demoralized.

And yet. All this and yet she was alive. She was both physically and mentally here. Not absent. Not somewhere else.

She was capable of listening. Of feeling.

Or at…

"You're afraid of me."

"Afraid? Afraid? No, I'm not afraid of you. I pity you. Pity that you sold the best parts of yourself for power. Pity that you lived eight more meaningless years. Pity that your family will never know what happened to you. My famil…

Her family. Her friends. The reasons she hadn't given up yet. They'd all be hurt if she didn't succeed.

Or worse.

She had to.

She pulled on her magic and focused.

...

She'd done it, sure, but it took her too long to figure it out. She couldn't br…

Arden Waithe never wanted to be on the boat. Or any boat. His experience had taught him that sailing was misery cubed. The rolling of the ground that never stopped, rising and falling, clenched his stomach inside an iron fist even as it spun his conscious…

There are no sensory nerves in your brain; you cannot see, feel, smell, hear, or taste anything that goes on there. By the time you first became aware of the Story, it had already insinuated its tentacles throughout your brain and it was far too late for …

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 ins…

Five men stood around the pool of greasy black tar that used to be Zach Cho. Everything had happened so fast. Even with their suspicion, no one could have foreseen human flesh blackening and sagging like hot taffy. There weren't any bones or organs. All t…

Richard stood at the stern of the ship, looking longingly back toward England. He had really hoped to extend his tour of the continent but the untimely death of his father dictated otherwise. His memories of the rough eastward crossing a scant month earli…

Roger had been in the cradle of the Marula tree's branches for three days. Muscles ached unevenly across the map of his back, and in knotty pockets in his thighs and arms. Below, the thick savanna grass moved in waves as if strings in a grand harp played …

Dana gasped as Don rose up off the floor, power and presence radiating from him like light from a sun. Despite all their efforts, the Azure was sill in him. Had the parasite fought off all the poisons that were now running through Don's veins? His right h…

I have a screen door that doesn't open. The sliding glass door sit between the kitchen and the backyard patio, little more than a translucent wall. At the edge of the property is a chain link fence that separates my property from a steep grass-covered hil…

I'm in a fun house. I've always like how the good ones play with perception. It reminds me of the Get Smart opening: expectation and subversion in a fun way. And they're so enthusiastic. Not the operators necessarily, who've seen this millions of times, b…

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'm tired.” she said.

Her words sent a jolt of recognition through me. Not just the words and their flat tone, but the familiar darkness they masked. It was so easy to rely on exhaustion as a crutch because it was so easy to be exhausted these days. Any…

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…