So by now we all know that there’s no logical explanation why honeybees can fly, weight and wings and stuff, it shouldn’t be possible, but bees fly anyway. Perhaps bees are magical creatures, then. And the drop in bees’ quantity is alarming to the wizardi…

It would be quicker to go through town but Grims didn't want to carry the corpse through the streets of Eggtown South. He already had a reputation, hard and bitter, but there was a difference between being rumored as a child-killer and toting a dead one d…

Grims surveyed the horizon moving only his eyes. He held a long butted rifle against his shoulder, barrel hot enough to warm the air near his neck. Nothing moved. The jamperscamps and mooncats had vanished at the sound of the first shot. In the ruddiness …

Grims slung his rifle then bent to the body. Blood dribbled from the kid's mouth, but not much. Three shots center mass had assured the kid died quickly.

A little blood, but it was enough. The yips and yowls sounded closer. Death was on the air now, and …

Please move along, he said, as he climbed over the fence. It is easy to think that what he was doing was untoward, after all, on the other side of the fence was a pride of hungry lions.

At the sound of Grouse's shout Beckton turned - pivoting on both feet and dropping to one knee at once, just as an older man in a dark-grey overcoat and (somewhat incongruously) a German-style steel helmet came around the corner in pursuit.

The private,…

There's a darkness in you. It hides in our whole family. It's a sickness that must be fought and accepted in equal parts. I know it. You won't, not until you look inside yourself without flinching and recognize that your darkness shares your face. It's in…

Beckton brought them to a screeching halt in a cloud of acrid-smelling tyre smoke. Both agents left the vehicle immediately, taking cover behind their open doors and firing from behind them in the manner of policemen.

The headlights threw long shadows th…

Osterley cocked her head in an inquisitive manner.

"What have you seen?"

Newkirk closed his eyes, his voice assuming the deep tones of prophecy.

"I see... spinning electric equipment in numbered rows. Spellcasters exchange fire at close range. A figure…

The laboratory was a large and blocky building. It was set back from the road, but no fence surrounded it, nor was there a checkpoint outside. The entire assemblage was dark, however, and slightly forboding in stillness and silence.

Osterley gave it a sh…

Screams, hundreds of them, howled in waves. Sometimes they joined together in choral unison, almost like a hymn, sometimes in overlapping layers clashing to be heard. It was as if the tortured voices from every hospital and from every war zone that had ev…

A hush dropped over the battlefield suddenly. Those with firsthand experience or a larger degree of common sense stayed down, while those of a curious nature were transfixed by the sight of Newkirk stepping out into the road.

Or rather, they watched a wi…

The knife cut through her throat like it was butter and her blood spilled all over my hands. It had a certain beauty really. I knew I couldn't stay long though, so I let the body drop and walked away.

I crawled back into my bed and fell asleep, knowing …

My steps make little noise as I move gingerly between the bushes. As I survey my surroundings, my thoughts wander.

In the village, hunters are respected. We risk our lives to provide food in this hostile land, where killing animals is our only option. Our…

Later that night, I came back from work my shirt covered in blood, just itching to take a shower. I was just about to open the bathroom door when I heard a thudding sound. Cautiously, I walked over to the light switch, only to trip over a large squishy o…

Her laughter broke the silence. Nervously she looked around, probably hoping no one had heard. She shouldn't have worried, it was, after all, the middle of the night, and normally no one would be out at anyway.

Unfortunately I had also decided to take …

A sudden and violent attack of nausea hit Osterley without warning, almost doubling her over, and by the time she had recovered she was interrupted by the arrival of Private Carson and another soldier with a medic's armband.

"Sarge... ma'am. You all righ…

Bombs.

.

.

.

Rain.

.

.

.

Down.

.

.

.

Trembling, we breathe.

.

.

.

The thing that spoke to me had the face of a dead god but used the voice of my father. I had known to expect this. It was a by-product of the bonding ritual that gave a semblance of life back to this former deity. Not that any of the gods ever truly died,…

Start with a knife, a tree, a candle, a corpse. Start with a dead bird and its dead feathers spread out about it, mites crawling across it.

Start with the spark of a match being struck; the brown honeycomb scraping, smudging phosphorous and chlorate toge…

Grims reached the outer fence, a rickety wooden thing with a large gap in between the top and bottom beam, that kept in the dumbest of the livestock. The gate was clear on the other side of the property and he didn't feel like circling the house just to u…

Newkirk felt Osterley grab at his sleeve as she fell, but before he was pulled off his feet she let go and rolled to a halt. She sprang up seconds later, letting her heavy woolen cloak fall - already going up in flames. The agent threw it aside and ran th…

Thinking of you.

A summer dream. Violently happy.

All the love... Absorbed in you, Oblivious.

One time, Red light means go.

Sudden death! Passenger.

Nobody’s fault but mine.

Oh, no!

Pray for me. Save me!

Roads: Relentless Reminder.

The family. The funera…

With one socked foot, Rachael pressed against the glass door tentatively, listening hard. Her eye was scanning the glass of the door, or the room beyond, perhaps; her eye kept being drawn to the misty gray form of the silver backed hairbrush--if that was …

Grims pulled the corpse of the kid from the post, allowing it to flop to the ground. There was no dignity in death, not that the Korpskys had any dignity in life, either. Once again he heaved the body over his shoulder and made his way among the weeds and…