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...

I walked along the flat stones that made up the busy road and let the bustling crowds swallow me whole. My heart poun...

Walking towards the light, the people wondered if they would be provided clothes or would they have to keep walking i...

Gavin was gloating. "Enjoy your final moments, Kevin ... maybe use them to wonder how I found you. Good-bye ..." He ...

The building I lived in was old, rusty around the doorknobs, the 14th floor was still half under construction. The we...

My word muscles are stiff. My writing bones ache. The prose reads like a bruise. I burst bored air through my lips, ...

I lay siege to it. This was war and a fast and furious assault seemed the surest course. There was a front to push fo...

He led me to the spot and I gasped. "Alex...did you seriously build this?" "For us." He took my hand and I blushed so...

As I gazed across the lake at the empty gazebo, I realized I wanted to be there. To stand in the center, surrounded b...

The dock at his grandfather's pond always reminded him of Imladris, the land known as Rivendell in Tolkien's The Hobb...

The pistol was cocked, ready to go. Aiming at the highway man was easy, pulling the trigger was the problem. I couldn...

The pistol was cocked, ready to go. “Your turn” she said, as my hands trembled in fear. Why was I here? Who was she? ...

The pistol was cocked, ready to go. I was going to show him. I was angry, no, furious. He cut me off! In this city, t...

I remember when I was a kid. I sat on the edge of my father's car, waiting for him come home from his walks. I would ...

I remember the smell of wet snow on a blinding morning. Squinting through glare and steam. Battleship twigs wobble in...

The winter of 1970 in the Bay Area was not something I ever expected to experience- especially since I was born in 19...

Words were labels that he had never paticularly enjoyed. Words were lazy, letting you lapse into not thinking about t...

If you ever pass this house on 23 silverdores street, your sight will be mesmerized. A red checkered pattern clock ha...

The border. He had. To find. The border. He'd made this trip a hundred times before and each time the damn thing move...

You know damn well the head is in the box. You know damn well how this movie will end. But her legs are across yours ...

Once upon a time there was a bug who wanted to live on my finger. I called the little fella over and asked him to sta...

It was a swarm. They were trying to get in. Surrounding the house. I was running frantically throughout the house, ma...

He didn't know what to say. No one did. It had never landed on anyone's finger before. The fabled winged bug, unlike ...

I am Luciana "Answer the phone" My boyfriend Marvin shouted across the room. My life was horrible. Being the boyfrien...

Marvin lunged towards the stand upon which sat an old, analog phone. He almost made it. Melinda tackled him from be...

He was lucky when he found that nickel in the bushes, that'll show up again later. But it wasn't luck that brought hi...