Absent.
Absent. The perfect word to describe the situation. Paul and Maria Strickland sat at their kitchen table eating brea...
The episodes were getting more frequent. I'd forget where I was. Friends looking at me strangely as I carried on conv...
He was absent. Again. The kid would only show up on test days - on which he performed well enough. But that wasn't th...
He stood outside the castle, looking in. That little fence was all that separated him from the world of imagination....
Billy was steadfastly unimpressed. "Can we go home now?" he asked. "But, Billy, don't you want to see the top of th...
My throat ached from a barrage of overpriced, fried abuse. My voice was hoarse, having spent most of the day screamin...
Hats
I don't like hats anymore. My friend from camp always wore a hat, and so did I. We would switch hats sometimes, weari...
Never leave the house looking less than your best. It is this way that we show respect for others (paraphrased from T...
Sometimes I am shocked at the state of America today. The young people just have not respect - no decency at all. The...
Potatoes.
"Following up from the fight we had last night Darren" "I don't wanna talk about it Judy" I can see the fear in Darre...
I spent days in the field, hoping to see something bloom. The desert surrounded me like the ocean that surrounds an i...
I got beans, greens, potatoes, tomatoes, lamb, ham, hogs, dogs, beans, greens, potatoes, tomatoes, chicken, turkey, r...
Two men entered, wearing respiratory masks. They came over to the register and looked at Martin, who just looked back...
Officer Malone stopped at the doorway of the house. "Do you smell that?" she asked. The rest of the team paused as ...
The young boy ran for his life, the giant monster of a dog chasing after him. The boy didn't do anything wrong, he th...
Wooshy Wooshy and futuristic Just out of the corner of my eye, that thing I had been running towards, to, seeking It...
Running from the swarm of bees, Roger kept his eyes firmly ahead knowing he'd be able to jump into the river, swim un...
Gradually.
Gradually, Houdini slipped out of his handcuffs. He unshackled his legs and wriggled out of his straitjacket. He was ...
Slowly it built, piece by piece. The atoms of its essence compiling line after line, upwards and outwards, exploding ...
"Big wheels keep on turnin'..." Paul's hands beat on the steering wheel in time with Lynyrd Skynrd as he drove down t...
Idyllic farmhouse? Well, appearances can be deceiving, I suppose. If the For Sale sign in front had said, "Abandon a...
The day it burned down my mother locked herself in her room and wouldn't take any visitors. "Mom, come out of there...
The zombies beat upon the door to the church. The flowering vines clung to the brink walls like dead man's fingers, w...
Knives
Knives. Knives. What was she going to use them on next? The silver blades shimmered in the sunlight streaming thro...
He was a walking arsenal with knives strapped to his armor at forearms, biceps, chest and back. Two smaller throwing ...
That was the last thing she saw. It was headed straight for her chest, a glittering blade, and she saw it in slow-mot...
He was always a weird kid.
Words were labels that he had never paticularly enjoyed. Words were lazy, letting you lapse into not thinking about t...