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His head was throbbing.  Thomas had never been more grateful to go home to his bed. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel to avoid drifting into sleep. The painkillers made him feel drowsy, but he had to get Aubrey home safely. She was staring at her palms and hadn’t said a word since they had left her house. He tried to make small talk to ease her nerves, but it felt awkward since they had...

“Hello?” “I know your secret”, came the distorted voice from the other end of the line, sending shivers down Delia's spine. “Who's this?” she steadied her voice, not allowing the fear she felt to reflect. “Someone who knows what you did two nights ago” Delia's heart pounded in her ears, blocking out every thought but the one that tried to figure out who was on the other end of the phone and how th...

Jimmy grew up behind locked doors. His only access to the real world, before he struck twelve was the TV and a window in the attic. He hated the attic.  He wasn't a recluse by choice. His parents hadn't thought they would be turning their only child into a recluse either. They hadn't thought of him at all.   When Jimmy's mom had him, he was a bouncing baby boy with the widest of smiles and happy g...

"Surround the perimeter!" The commander's voice echoed through the earpods placed in Dorothy Lane's right ear and swiftly she slid out of the police van along with her colleagues. This had to be the best night of her life! For someone who got stuck with pansy jobs like writing tickets and parking duty, she was immensely grateful to be on a heart-pulsing mission. She adjusted her helmet and clutche...

Derrick hated springtime. He hated the constant rainfall that vacillated between heavy downpours and a drizzle. He, however, enjoyed that the weather gave him an excuse to sit in his office all day and smoke. Sadly, he received a call that he had to answer based on the severity of the situation, snatching him from the comfort of his office. With a coffee in one hand and the other shielding his eye...

The lights from the building across the street were on. Kyle gripped his blue ceramic mug fiercely, standing by his window. The tea in it had grown as cold as stone and tasteless. But that didn't bother him. He wasn't going to drink it anyway. He had a job to do.   One job only. A job that had to do with the tall skyscraper opposite the hotel he had rented in the past two months. Well, not the ent...

It was raining cats and dogs outside. The rain was torrential, giving the patrons in the local dive bar an excuse to stay and down another pint. The bar was bubbling with the excitement of those who found shelter from the rain, those who were there to watch the hockey game, or those just there to have a good time. Irina sat at the end of the bar, sipping on her beer bottle. She noticed the glances...

I remember the first friend I had. The memory is vague, distant, long lost in the sea of nerves and neurons that make up my brain.   It is a bit mystifying. The way friendships dissolve like salt in water, either adding flavor or saltiness, or perhaps a bit of both.   My first friend wasn't chosen for any specific reason. We were kids, tiny and three. One minute I was toddling around my mother's k...

This is not a love story. If you’re in search of a love story, this isn’t the one.  Don’t be fooled by the way you see him making me laugh, or wish you had what we have when you see us playing together in the park. Don’t wish a man could make you smile with his words the way you see me smiling, don’t do any of it, don’t fall in love because it will only hurt you.  This is not a love story, but it...

She never liked to fly. She hated it but she also saw the irony in it. She had been in active service for years and still had motion sickness. She opted for more land-based military activities and tried as much as possible to steer away from all sea and air travel. Family visits were strictly by road, and Gerald begrudgingly went along with it, bless him. Heck, before this recent expedition, she c...

One more step would mean certain death. Literally. I do not mean this figuratively or as any other form of speech. I mean that if I dared to take one more step I would be a pile of meat lying in the woods for a vulture craving barbecue. If all the movies I’ve seen before now were anything to go by and if all the warnings we had been given at camp were real, and if the click I’d heard a while ago w...

Fifty Cent Roses  Jemima was having a bad day.   First, her two-week-old boyfriend had broken up with her. That didn't bother her as much as the fact that he stole her microwave right before he left her apartment. She hadn't noticed until she wanted to make breakfast and there was a huge space on the counter where the microwave used to be.   It was her fault anyways, for trusting that a homeless m...

I never thought I'd be one of those people. You know, the ones who get all choked up over a pet. But here I am, trudging through the desolate streets of New Chicago, with my zombie, Fred, limping along beside me. The sun’s setting, casting long shadows over the ruins, and I’m on my way to see the necromancer. It’s time to put Fred down. Fred wasn’t always a zombie. When I picked him up, he had a l...

A Night At The Museum  Something moved. I could have sworn that I saw something move from the periphery of my eyes but turning around to inspect it, nothing seemed to be out of place. Nothing except the glass box that was at the entrance of the museum. That had not been there before, I’m pretty sure I would have noticed if it was there. “Bryan!” I called out to the guy in his late 40s with whom I...

The Gas-N-Go off Route 57 wasn’t so much of a destination as a necessity. Passing through Americana fields of nothingness, the stretch between the southern border of Illinois and the forested hills of Western Tennessee offered some of the most desolate stretches of interstate in the country. Gas stations and diners were few and far between. They were the kind of spots that you only stopped at if i...

Fatal Passion  He unlocked the front door and walked into the apartment. He looked around the spacious living room with its elegant and tasteful design, the perfect balance of minimalism and modernism. Nicole always had great taste. Heading straight for the kitchen to get something to eat. I'm so famished. He scanned the fridge for something good to munch on. She didn't have much in there. A carto...

KARA The snow fell on Kara's face as she walked down the lonely streets. It wasn't exactly lonely- people buzzed past her, lost in their tiny bubbles, oblivious to anything else outside their sphere of existence.   That was the way humans were. They saw other people as an extension of themselves. If she were friends with any of them now, perhaps she would matter. They would notice that her eyes we...

I could kill someone right now. That's the thought going through my head as my sleep is interrupted for the second time this morning. The first time, Audrey, my roommate, was preparing for a gym date with her new boyfriend and forced my eyes open to help her pick a gym wear. And now, it seems like she's responsible, again. I get out of bed ready to yell at her as I charge out of our room. I'm stop...

As I listened to the incessant ticking of the clock on the wall in the reception area, I actively repressed the urge to vomit. There’s just something about office spaces with their reflective linoleum tile, fluorescent lighting, and cheap Renoir knockoff paintings hanging on eggshell-painted walls that makes me physically ill. The tapping of my shoe against the floor could surely be mistaken for n...

Luther hated his job.  He hated that it necessitated him sucking up to people, putting on a façade of interest or a faux liking for whatever topic interested them. Whenever people asked him what he did he told them he worked in public relations.  He chuckled internally whenever he’d say it. It was a public relations of sorts. He never really got into details about his job though, and he realized o...

The Weird Couple The rain fell heavy that morning.   I remember climbing down the stairs in twos, my eyes fixed on the house across the street. Mother did say I had a manic obsession with watching people.   Perhaps she was right. Right now though, it doesn't matter.  I had seen the Turners across the street while climbing down the stairs that led up to our home. The newly wed couple that had moved...

The woods were cold and silent baring the quiet murmurs of the expectant crowd. A handful of teenage boys were gathered in an opening at the center of the small thicket of trees, away from the prying eyes of adults. Some of them were first timers who came off the recommendations of frequent attendees. They congregated with eagerness to catch a glimpse of the oddity they heard tales of. The small t...

On a greasy corner of South Philadelphia stood two iconic culinary institutions. On one corner there was Dimarco’s –– a 200-year-old neighborhood staple that proudly claimed to not only be one of the oldest restaurants in the country but the originator of the “Philly Cheesesteak” a legendary sandwich that accounted for nearly 1/5th of the city’s economy.  On the adjacent corner was Russo’s – anoth...

The Eclipse Warp “Tell me you got them!”  Those were Colin Monroe's first words to his father that afternoon. The older man narrowed his green eyes as he stared down at his fourteen year old. He had barely walked through the door. To be clear, he remained one foot in the house and the other out.   “That's all you care about? There's no greeting, no welcome, just—” “Welcome Father,” Colin said in a...

The offices of Lundquist Capital were always buzzing with activity. The bullpen of cubicles was a seemingly endless depressing row of gray and beige walls in front of beige desks where the fervent soldiers of capitalism duked it out in the trenches.  Phones were constantly ringing. The endless scroll of ticker symbols and prices circumnavigated the office space like a train. The price of pork comm...