The Sound Of Duty
The silence wrapped around us tightly, even as we fought against it. There we tears, the quiet kind, and anguished expressions. More than one person collapsed to the ground. I’d been through this...
View ArticleJust A Game
Paul steps to the line and takes a deep breath. Were he to sink the next two shots, he will be celebrated globally for the rest of his life. Women will worship him. Children will be named after him....
View ArticleCommunal Sin
The fever spread through the village so quickly, everyone was sick before the first child died. The wise one said they’d been forsaken by the gods. No one listened. They were too busy dying. In an...
View ArticleNew York City Runaway
Crystal hid from the crowds of people by darting from shadow to shadow. Luckily, everyone was too busy to notice. The tall, hairy strangers in suits and uniforms were frightening, yet nothing scared...
View ArticleThe Monster That Never Sleeps
They called it the monster that never sleeps. Hundreds had been killed before scientists determined it needed light to survive. The problem being, in a city as modern as Tokyo, there was always light....
View ArticleThe Final Indignity
At the start of every year, the Kingdom of Urbania elected a new monarch. Of course, the old royals had to be disposed of in some way. They were driven away from the capital in an old cart owned by...
View ArticleOur Understanding
Will you wait for me? I was distracted in the company of voices. Remembered you when I realized the time. I race, feet positioning haphazardly over cobblestone. Last narrow lane weaves through a city’s...
View ArticleStaking A Claim
It started with his touch and before that the way he looked at me; clear blue eyes that knew how to take me in, how to see through my quiet, my fear. We explored city streets that summer, always...
View ArticleRoad To The Suburbs
Her house was situated next to a busy route. A road which connected the city to the southern parts of the suburbs. The whole year, living in that house without wired broadband, with the incessant dust...
View ArticleRegret
I freeze at the crossing, not because of the cold, but at how a stranger walks. Even the musculature of her legs reminds me of Sandy. For a moment her profile ensnares my heart. Then she looks in my...
View ArticleMatch Light
The flame exploded into being as the match head dragged across the sandpaper. It might have seemed magical, but really it was just that the glass-on-glass friction generated enough heat to kindle the...
View ArticleShe Liked Avocados
It wasn’t the flying that alerted her. That seemed natural. It was the complete lack of context that confirmed to Shirlene none of this was real. There was very little this version of herself knew with...
View ArticleHell’s Kitchen
We were the grounds crew at a minor league ballpark in the city. “I was about a hundred feet away. He lifted the gun and just…” Gerry looked away. “That’s never happened to me,” Harry thought. “What do...
View ArticleGarage Sale Books And Modern Lovers
Barbara poked around the stack of discarded books, hoping this would be their last sale for the day. What joy Joseph derived from driving across the city scouring garages for bargain antiques eluded...
View ArticleNever Forgotten
The eerie sound of rumbling and cries coming from the street as the day turns clouded with dust and debris. Sirens blaring, chaos ensuing. A day of sadness and a city coming together in the face of...
View ArticleTony
Tony sat on his Camaro at the corner of 14th and Lexington every weekend night, hollering at girls across the street. Some would ignore him but others flirted back. Occasionally, they’d drink Miller...
View ArticleMiss Plum In The Bedroom With The Candlestick
Crime was common back then, and the law itself often criminal. Nobody was safe from the thugs prowling the city. It took constant and wearying vigilance to survive. If I happened to fall asleep, I’d...
View ArticleThe Swans On The Seine
“O ugly ducklings grown into beauty, are ye homesick too?” Thus I, standing in the shadows of the House of Quasimodo, watching you glide upon these placid waters, O snow-winged sisters of my soul!...
View ArticleHis Girl
He returned to their place, behind a shrub. Where they as teenagers watched practitioners exit a church. Where he kissed away her tears after her father walked out, showering affection on a stranger....
View ArticleKingly Pursuits
Every spring, King Tolliver traveled with his retinue to the ruins. None of the official historians had an explanation of what city once stood here, all of the stories offered contradicting...
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