Haven’t seen you in some time, eh? Matt just nods, and starts trembling. He looks pale tonight, but that’s probably the beer playing dominos with my retinas. Say something, Matt. He just shivers and whispers — Cold. I’m just so cold, Ian. I try to put my arm around him, but he moves away. Geez bro, relax, no homo. He ...

The tortured always finds the tortured. Somehow. Someway. These three sentences wagged their way through Juniper's head as she raised her head, wrinkled her nostrils, and whined. She smelled it desperation, hopelessness, agony, hurt, and the need for help and just couldn't do anything about it. First, it was the beads of sweat she got as the breeze brought the ...

Alain watched the sun become smaller and diminish. Just an evanescent orange bubble, he thought. That was the poet in him always trying to make normal things in life romantic. And depressing. Depression. Ah, that's something he knew well. His brain had its own way, and directed him towards that unpleasant business, which took place a few weeks ago. The ...

The slow strain of piano chords started to play, and he felt the tears well up from within his eyes. They sure did well up, and he finally allowed them to part through his eyelids and trickle down to his burning chest. Not tonight as well this thought whispered through the halls of his mind as he considered what needed ...

I just closed my eyes and kept telling Sally — No. It went on like a broken record: me saying No. But damn, this girl sure is persistent. She doesn’t know that there’s a war going on. Bombs away!! She doesn’t know that food is in short supply. Or maybe she does. It hurts when she licks what’s left of ...

Vikas walked towards the portal and placed his thumbprint. His brain started a thought which started with ‘Dammit, I really…’ and completed it as he appeared at the offices of Quantum Manufacturing — ‘feel old’. He shuffled to his workstation, and as he was just about to sit down his supervisor appeared and beckoned him with a smile. The gist ...

A second chance is a bit like a divorce: it’s an opportunity to hope for a happily ever after again. No second chance for these folks, though, Ian thought, before he walked down the winding staircase and picked up a flute of Chandon and sipped it thoughtfully. He’d been planning this day for years. So many years. From the day ...

Daphne cuddled up next to Mummy, and pleaded with her eyes for one more story. And Mummy sighed and with silent acquiescence opened up the tablet so that they were both blanketed ever so softly with the ambient glow of the screen. But before Mummy could open her mouth and recite line after line of some fantastical journey, Daphne whimpered. ...

The residents of the Home Care Nursing Home watched as Claudine walk up and down the tea room. She seemed to sniff the aroma of de-caffeinated coffee (caffeine leads to a jolt in blood pressure, and for the old timers here that could mean cardiac arrest in a sip) and then appeared to change her mind. She seemed drawn towards ...

Not too long ago, Dad started growing a beard. It was only later did I realize that he used it to hide a smirk that reeked of cruelty. I used to glimpse in wonderment at the upward curves of his lips behind that beard as he lay a path of blue abuse across my face with his leathery hand. Mum ...

They are plotting against us, Mum used to say. One time she called the police, and I heard through the keyhole; my Dad explained that she’s suffering from auditory hallucinations. Schizophrenia, everyone whispered. Throughout the years, Mum used to stand near the bathroom window, grit her teeth, laugh, cringe, cry, and threaten. Dad of course always shielded me and said ...

That Mista Dubald sure is creepy, right? I mean the dude always leaves his house at 9 am sharp, runs two blocks down, bursts open through Dusty’s Coffee Stop, grabs his espresso, runs back home. The kids always laugh and throw insults his way, the neighbors stay a mile away, but everyone unconsciously ignores that Mista Dubald smells like ash, ...

Mr. Stearns walked into the classroom, and shut his ears off to the cruel giggles and whispers his students threw his way. He shuffled up to the chalkboard and wiped away a nasty caricature of him giving head to a dog. He sat behind his desk, and called for attention. That led to all his students to start a cacophony ...

All Marian could do right now was dig into her cup of nut brittle, and settle down on the park bench to read Paulo Coelho. Then she got distracted: the sun shone through maple leaves, and burnished her white skin. She adored the warmth. A squirrel ran up near to her feet, and cocked its head, and sniffed the air, ...

I froze, because I smelled it on her. It was a sweet sickly stink that pervaded my nostrils, and made my eyes water. She is smiling and patting my head now. It has already spread; she’s got 3 weeks tops. All I can do is lower my head, whine, and wag my tail in sympathy.

What do you do when your man brings home a green Corvette after a hard day’s work at the steel mill? Well, you hug him dearly, and go for a spin. You notice a hastily erased streak of chocolate decorating the window sill, but you’re too busy singing to Three Doors Down on the radio. Your man halts to a ...

Once we got home, Dad said that we could choose any room we liked. So I beat Laura to the room at the corner of the north wing. We are decent kids, which is why we shook hands over it, and moved towards the kitchen. Imagine my surprise when the Hitachi 6-door fridge had cans upon cans of ice cold ...

So this is what death looks like, Zilphia thought: blue-tinged lips; blood-matted hair; green eyes staring into space; a dislocated shoulder; and, a stab wound to the heart that has welled up with coagulated blood. The only source of life was a molecule of winged annoyance hovering near him portending an immediate invitation of decay. This body at the morgue ...

During the summer of 1989, Kelsey and I, became brown as berries. While I sipped apple juice, she tried her hand at knitting and pricked her thumb, which then bled a badass crimson. I thought it was pretty cool. I guess we all bleed the same damn color, eh? And it was that color I was reminded of this autumn ...

All he did was stare at the fan revolving fast. He liked the cool wind caressing his baby face as he lay in his cot with his mother smiling down at him. As the days leeched into weeks, he continued staring at the fan turning blindingly fast. Happiness is this, he thought. The only thing that changed ever since he ...