I was surrounded. The priests stood before me, frowning. The crowd packed tightly behind the wall of guards. My family's faces had aged without grace and their hatred of me had only fermented with time.

I drew a breath and felt the sun hot on my skin.

"I …

Story is marked as mature

Everyone told us that tectonic instability had created the Furrows. Volcanic activity eventually emptied the magma chambers under the crust, sealing the earth and leaving deposits of obsidian everywhere. We could recite those facts like multiplication tab…

Katy fought down the urge to blush, taking amber-coloured jar and directing a spoon to coat the pastries. Mitaran took the tray with a light-hearted bow and spun it on one finger, firing up the underside in a dance of blue flames with his other hand. Pale…

It wouldn't stay on.

I tried several different sized of bandage but no matter what, after moments, it would detach on one side and I wouldn't be able to get it to stick again.

It taunted me. I couldn't help but pay attention to the nuisance either becau…

Captain Adriana Milosovic felt the deck tremble beneath her feet. It was subtle, barely even there at all, and yet it was enough that her senses came to high alert. She glanced around the bridge at her crew, but they were all engaged in their own tasks. N…

"I hope this is worth it."

I finished the last rune on the page and looked up at Katy. Like the other Necromancy undergrads she wore traditional-looking heavy black dress robes. Unlike the pasty-faced teenagers of her year, though, she made it look good…

Story is marked as mature

I don't want to change anything, don't get me wrong. The more time passes, the more I see how it couldn't have worked. The more I see how much I would've suffered for you. Because I loved you and I love you and I would take so much pain for you just beca…

Three strangers crouched around a small fire, warming their hands. Despite that earlier two of them had come to the third's aid, they were keenly aware they weren't friends but momentary allies; strangers linked by their strangeness. None of them were su…

I sat in front of the television. It had been a long night & a long day full of things in my head that most people probably wouldn't be able to fully understand.

That was ok though. I wouldn't want them to be able to understand what I went through every …

The elevator stopped. Between floors. The doors remained firmly shut. Gregor groaned. He pushed the help button, but nothing happened.

"Are you here for the convention?" asked a smiling man in a lime green chef's uniform.

"No," growled Gregor.

"Seems w…

The Priest lifts the lid away from the box and sets it to the side. The smoke inside the box swirls before him like an angry storm but remains in place for the moment. He dips a finger into the smoke, drawing out a long tendril of grey vapor. Then, with h…

We climbed to the top of Memorial Hill. I didn't think too much of the flag flapping above us. My mind was totally on Nataxia. Her hand glowed inside mine, warm against the Autumn night.

Stone benches ringed the flowerbed and the block of bronze emblazon…

Katharine Espin Tarnath III let the door slam and dropped her bag to head upstairs. She slipped off the heavy black ceremonial robes - how anyone was supposed to wear these in the heat of summer, she didn't know - and pulled a long T-shirt over her head i…

"Popcorn!" she announced, hurdling over the back of the couch, microwave bag securing the salty, buttery snack from spillage. She landed next to me.

"Ready?"

"If you insist," she sighed and pulled open the top of the bag.

"Star Wars is a classic and yo…

Mom left for work. Sienna rode her bike to band practice. Me alone, left to read my book, do the dishes, then call on the neighbor boy to play.

Ha. Any other day, I'd be happy to boss Jeremy around in a game of pretend until he got bored and started hit…

You sometimes lost your way, but when you make it to a place like this, arriving without knowing how and why you arrived, you know you're not lost anymore. The air has an inimitable quality to itself, seemingly contained with the light of a day beginning …

A face cruel and beautiful appeared above us in the bright afternoon sky interrupting our picnic. James and I hadn't had a moment to ourselves for months thanks to a sleep stealing tax audit and the one day when we are nestled against each other like two …

The moat had not yet been filled the day I crossed the drawbridge. The main structure was standing tall, but not all the wings and towers and battlements had been completed.

Hammers, saws, welders, and all sorts of construction beeps and hums rang for we…

"Uh, ok."

He sat down. Normally he would have walked a bit first to avoid cramps. The blond girl served two small slices, chocolate with chocolate frosting. That was a thirsty combination. He accepted the plastic plate and fork gingerly, taking a sticky b…

It is a moment of pure Zen, true transcendence. It is not something I plan, or expect, but it is not something I resist, either. One moment I am sitting in my personal, mobile zen-do, sitting zazen in meditation. The next I feel myself myself lifting off …

After lunch we had recess. As we exited the doors, most excitedly bolting for the best kickball and the honor of choosing their teams, a small group of boys hung back behind me. I was walking, not running.

The yard teacher had stepped into the middle of …

The trail here narrowed and dropped steeply down; one side a sheer cliff cut by the rapids and the other side a wall of rock. The base of the trail widened and flattened beside an old, sturdy pin oak tree.

From here I watched a family carefully pick thei…

(Blame the rum). God damn, I dreamed that I swallowed a pin. And the point took my throat and my voice all at once. And I lay in my bed as my own brother hammered out my beleaguered brains. And the blood made the walls the sweet colour of Autumn, and ab…