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…

"Hey, Mitt."

Lost in my recollections of our initial experiments, I was startled when she broke into my thoughts.

"Mitt. You there?"

"Just finishing this sentence. Is something wrong, Katy?"

I looked up when she didn't respond. She sat opposite me at …

Story is marked as mature

"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…

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 …

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…

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…

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 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…

Story is marked as mature

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…

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…

I can feel it happening again.

It's been a while...

Of all the worlds - I've lost count - that have truly captured my soul, only two stand above the rest.

One is a world of masks, the other is a world of monsters.

The rest, whether created by others or my…

They fought on. Orthael gave ground again and again, knowing that he could not - would not - strike her. She threw him a dangerously open slice, daring him to show her that Fire destroyed without meaning or mercy. But that was not the case. He caught her …

Story is marked as mature

"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…

"Swift..easy," <kapow> "Dead."

The spotter located the next target and started, "Swift..easy," <kapow> "dead!"

A crisp cadet followed by an older officer called the sniper and spotter to attention," Platoon Guide Chapman and Assistant P. G. Gutierrez?"

Th…

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…

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 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…

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…

"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…

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 …