I have become suspicious of everyone. It is not something I particularly wanted, but it has become this way. I’m an inventor, you see, and I have invented a machine that everybody wants, especially corrupt, paranoid governments and dictators. They all know about it, and all want what I’ve got. Even normal people want it, from teenagers to the elderly. It can make me rich if I knew how to market it properly. If I knew what...

David Thompson was the type of person whose IQ was nowhere near three figures, who came across as someone who was not quite a simpleton, but oafish, who fell for any scam and con that came his way. Ask him the time, and he would stare at his watch for a while whilst he worked it out. Directions were also a problem when he knew where the place was. Yet, to this day, he always managed to be quite wealthy, and kept himself n...

The prospect of decorating never appealed to Derek. It was always a case of putting it off until later, but later never came. He would make excuses that he would often believe himself, such was the conviction he told them with. Yet, today, he had actually made a start, dampening the wallpaper to make it easier to strip. His wife was no help whatsoever. It was her constant pestering that forced him to make a start if only...

Part One“Does iron really burn you?”Waelon swiveled his head to look down at the tiny human girl as she stared up at him with big, unblinking brown eyes.“You see me,” he stated.The girl nodded thrice, her caramel-colored locks bouncing around her face. She could not have been older than eight. “Does it hurt to touch it?” she asked.Waelon rotated himself where he sat on the edge of the stone wall, so he fully faced her. “S...

He absolutely hated meetings. They never seemed to have much point to them, but each week he would find himself in two or three which always descended into a beverage sampling, back slapping jamboree, as too many of his colleagues for his liking spent most of their time on golf courses and in restaurants rather than actually doing any work. They earned more money than they could spend. For Philip Drake, a public sector ac...

Small against the black nightEyes wide reflecting the moonlightTheir copper color wet with fearContorting in the shape of a tearDanger silences the thick dark woodMenace and ill will is understoodFear pinched on a face soft and roundShe runs her fingers through curls red brownThis little sprite with tail plump and whiteTakes off in a sprint afraid to fightAs she tears off in this fearful flightHer position is revealed wit...

Once upon a time, there was a great big flower, she had survived terrible droughts and floods. But now, wanted to plant her own seeds in the planting season. She planted her first seed. She kept it close so she could shade it and shelter it as it grew. The seed grew to be a beautiful flower. She was dainty and very close with the great big flower. The dainty flower became a great mother flower herself, spreading her seeds...

"These things suck!" I turned and looked at the girl who stood beside me and raised an eyebrow in question. She gestured at the garishly decorated gymnasium. "This! It sucks!" She pointed at Jessica Wheeler, the head of the junior varsity cheer squad. "These things are designed for girls like her to have a good time." She then gestured between the two of us. "And for girls like us to be reminded of what losers we are." Th...

He wanted to buy a gift that would be completely unexpected. The type of object that could never be guessed. His father was the type of person who had it all. The type of person who it was difficult to buy for. It wouldn’t matter if he bought him something ordinary and perhaps traditional, like socks, or a bottle of whiskey, but he was always doing that, so his father was probably expecting something along those lines. No...

I frowned at the scrap of paper that fluttered to the ground as I opened my locker. My locker was immaculate, so there was no reason for paper to fall out. That could only mean one thing. Robert Munroe had been breaking and entering again. With a barely stifled sigh, I leaned down and picked up the note from the floor. Jesus! – Practically every damn day! Why couldn’t he just accept that not every girl in Crestview High S...

The man’s punch could make an ox fall to its chest, flat on the stone, head black in and out. Wouldn’t put him above it neither. His feet moved side to side, creating his bounce that he carried with every step, with every day. When his feet went forward sparks surrounded the ground and his ankles were in a daze of stars, staring up at the tripped ceiling with awe and magnificence. Soon the other man would be put in a simi...

Rising strings of violins wretch in my head’s empty chamber and descend deep into the chasms of my throat. I can feel them tremble and whisper, “We will shake hands with Heaven the day all of this rubble turns to light and returns to stars.” Mallets strike my eardrums without any pattern, rhythm, or beat. Sympathy possesses either any man or God, for God is sleeping now, heavy and guarded. His comatosed arm is thrown as h...

The two firecrackers flew through the hot, dry air and exploded with almost simultaneous BANGS. The report echoed off of the surrounding woods and just as quickly as it came, it was gone again. Steven reached into the brown paper bag that lay at his feet, withdrawing another two M-80 firecrackers that he had bought when his family went to Myrtle Beach the previous summer. He handed one to his friend Rob and both boys used...

Staring out into the falling sun I was reminded of the colors that it used to hold. Such reds, yellows, and smears of the infinite shades that lie between. I often imagine them at all times of the day, not just at this one, when the sun lowers itself somewhere it can hide for the night. I only wish that I could do the same. The nighttime is when the Mysteries come out. I think that they do. We are always told to never loo...

Part One A red strip of sunlight snuck in through the window pane and splashed against the mirror I faced. Cringing away from light, I continued getting ready for school. I spent what I considered to be too much time with my makeup: covering up blemishes whose red marks still showed through the powder, picking black chunks of mascara off of my eyelashes, and giving up on the unevenness of my eyeliner with a frustrated sig...