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…

She rolls over, the first rays of sunshine dawning in the room. There were flowers in the corner. Simple, blue things. The tye-die in the curtains sent 3, 4, Who knew how many colors blasting over the wall. Art.

She rolls over onto him. In those colors a…

I dreamt you cried for me.

Elden was always such an obliging person: a foster mother to me, who took better care of me than my own mam, always had been. There was nothing she wouldn't do for me, no tear too small to wipe away, no threat too menacing to face.

At eleven I was plagued…

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 …

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…

Story is marked as mature

“When we walk, we put one foot in front of the other. Each step forward we take is one that matters. If you are able to advance a yard, a foot, even an inch, then congratulations, you're still alive and doing us proud. Holding the line is good and it has…

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…

My name with foul insinuation's tarred

By people who seek easy victims meek

To charge with crimes in public. Life is marred

And razed for me. Now, everywhere I seek,

.

I picture enemies in friends I knew

Before this whole fiasco. Do they now

Believe tho…

I hope, through all of this, that I have learned

Some lessons to apply to later life,

So I may save fond friends from future strife,

And loathe myself a little less. I turned

My eyes upon myself, at point of knife,

From others' viewpoint: hard. It changed…

My life, in recent months, has been o'erfull.

There's too much going on, inside my heart

And head, to parse, to handle. As for art,

I've had no spoons to work. I'm gath'ring wool,

Bereft of words, o'ercome. I've been a fool

Both in and out of love. How ca…

The energy-opaque bubble triggered to protect us from the primary plasma and secondary thermobaric shockwaves from the orbital strike, the same hazards raising the projected casualty rate in the concourse to around ninety-five percent.

I reached into th…

I reach. I fumble. My fingers renew their acquaintance with that smooth black stone of yesteryear. I remember the knit cap, with Donald Duck on it, and gasp in wonder. How have you been, old friend, old chronicle, old heart? The rhetorical echoes send…

"So, my intrepid friend. I think I'm quite ready for another adventure. Care to follow me once more down the rabbit hole?" Phoebe asked her friend across the table. She watched over the rim of her glass as Casey downed her fourth ale of the night.

Casey …

I used to be a medical technician, until the mass murder. It was a regular Tuesday afternoon, I was having my coffee – two creams – and reading the paper. My job was relatively easy, but my boss always made me strive for more. I snorted into my coffee as …

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 …

"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…

One night, when I was nine years old, my parents and I were working on packing things into our cart. Then we heard screaming, and saw fire, and smoke.

"Noleka, get down!" my mom hissed, shoving me under the cart.

I couldn't do anything but watch as three …

Story is marked as mature

There was a short click on my headset. Captain Resa didn't even twitch, eyes glued to the laser designator's sight. The radio clicked again, then buzzed with static-laden speech.

"This is Uriel 3-1, checking in. Flight of three F/A-18Es, on approach west…

My left leg's been through surgery--ah! Twice.

I'm walking nearly normally by now,

But that was taxing. Very. I'll allow,

My limp's a minor thing, one grain of rice

Within a heaping bowl.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Oh, I would splice

Tho…

I joined my papa at the top of the hill. Intertwining my fingers, I stretched again, slowly pushing the sky away, reminding my muscles that they too must wake and ready themselves for work. The pleasant ache started in my upper arms and flowed both up and…

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…

Inside the safe was a rack of thin metallic briefcases, bearing coded nameplates.

Badger, Dragon, Efreet… Raven.

I tugged on the case, but it wouldn't come free. Then I noticed the warning placard inside the door of the safe.

"NOTICE: Secure Files wi…