It had been fourteen days. The painting was gone and with it my heart. Authored by an amateur it had meant more to me than any museum in the world. Each day that passed felt like a relentless excavation into my chest, letting in the outside ice and snow t…

Brett Parker bounced along the dirt road to the sounds of Toby Keith's “Beer for My Horses.” Satellites had picked up movement in the area and it was his job to intercept the illegals who had made it across the border.

Just after twilight his headlights …

It's late and a thin, wispy fog has settled atop the streets. I don't know when it happened. Last I remembered, the sun was mid-set in a darkening sky. Now every street ended in a gray void. Did the fog creep in, floating like some otherworldly horror, or…

“How is this possible?” Marcela asked, her hand gripping the bare skin of the opposite shoulder and rubbing for warmth.

Here inside the house, it wasn't just cold, it was freezing. Every piece of furniture gleamed as sunlight from the open door ricochete…

Lenn struggled against currents of howling wind and driving rain so strong they felt like the spirits of speeding buses. Keeping the cat protected was almost too much for him. He tucked the arm cradling the cat further back like an American football playe…

“Goddamned cat, you're like a living jump scare.” Lenn muttered.

The cat meowed plaintively, tail up in the air. Matted fur clung flatly to its body outlining a starved frame.

“Yeah, I don't like this weather much either.”

Cautiously, the cat padded fo…

He thumbed the keys upward so that they sprouted beyond his knuckles like metal spikes. Should he retread his steps back into the driving rain and try a different cross street or move through the alley that might house something in it? Straining his sense…

The wind gusted this way and that, sweeping the rain away before slamming it back at Lenn in huge wet slaps. His poncho scudded away from his numb fingers and nearly strangled him until he forced it back under control.

He walked uphill toward the commerc…

His shoes and pants were soaked. Cold, they stuck to clung to him like a heavy second skin. As he turned the corner, he stepped down into water that swallowed his shoe up past his ankle before he touched the sidewalk. Somehow it felt colder than his feel …

My ring grew ice cold. I hid it under my leg. I wasn't sure if it would glow in the dark theater, but I wasn't about to chance it.

I leaned towards my boyfriend, laying my head on his shoulder until the ring warmed up. He knew I had it and what it meant,…

David glanced down at his bare feet as the blue liquid flooded the tank he stood in. It had the consistency of glue, and felt cold. Very cold, as if it was seeping into his bones, freezing him from within.

The rest of his squad stood outside the tank, th…

She wakes up in the morning and can't go back to sleep. She attempts to move her blue frost bitten hands through the snow that surrounds her. With shallow breaths she takes drags of the cold air in, her lungs aching with each inhalation.

She wonders, i…

The snow blew violently in my face and tried to lift the hood of my coat off my stocking capped head. The dog pulled on his leash and jogged to the nearest tree trunk, forcing his owner, me, to jog behind him. He lifted his leg and marked the base of the …