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…

Each morning, the master wakes us before dawn. We are given a bowl of cold gruel to eat before being herded into the Great Hall. That is when our work begins.

All day long we sit folding paper cranes. Our fingers move with the precision and control of…

I dreamt you cried for me.

“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…

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 …

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…

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…

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

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,…

"which flavor cheese?"

"the yellow one."

.................................

It had been fourteen days since he left. It was my choice, but, I couldn't help but think that this isn't what I signed up for. It had been a tumultuous twelve years and I knew I had to say goodbye, but I couldn't help but feel like I was ruining my life.…

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…

Story is marked as mature

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…

Tap tap tap tap tap tap.

The pink girl darted across the rooftop, jumping gaps and dodging arrows, crystals, rocks, and all manner of magical projectiles.

"Talu, wait up!" The little weasel-like creature followed after her, much slower on its short litt…

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…

Prunella turned from her novel and rolled her eyes in copious disgust.

I don't know how I made it through what came next. The next days were a blur of pain, both physical and emotional, and fever dreams, in the rare moments when I slept.

My first task was to split the figure of my father in half, carefully using the tools o…

I held that piece of flesh up before me, bitter distaste filling my mouth. If what my father and I had done before had been blasphemy, this was surely something far worse, to desecrate the body of a god in such a way.

And yet it was necessary. This war b…

"Okay, so... Yeah. We've got this." Captain Gaia looked us over. "Hero Corps, let's..."

"Uh, question." Even I couldn't believe I had spoken up, never mind that I had just interrupted Captain Gaia!

He stared at me for a moment. "Is this going to tak…

I can see the stars, but I don't have the fuel.

My trajectory is set, but I'm gazing off to the side.

I'm going somewhere, but not where I'm looking.

The possibilities are limitless, but my choices finite.

I started too early, and I'll be too late.

W…

A silent journey home.

Foxglove came over when she spotted us. "Noleka, what-"

"Please don't call me that."

Foxglove tilted her head. "What?"

"Don't call me that name. I don't want it anymore."

"But Noleka, that's your na-"

"Not anymore. Please. Call me T…

"Autumn now," Grandma spat, rocking in the tired oak chair. A graying cat sat in her lap, wide eyed.

Sure enough, the trees had become rusty red.

Grandma's children affirmed her assessment with a grunt. They were rooted here by obligation only, and pass…