Somewhere behind the wall of gray clouds, the sun sets. The wind rises. The grass in the fields outside town thrashes and writhes. The windows are shuttered, the doors locked. Trees bend beneath the oncoming storm, the leaves fleeing in disarray. Beneath the wind is a silence. Within the spasms,…
You lie in bed. You can see by the dim lights of the street lamp outside your window. It casts long shadows upon the ceiling, and you look into the black pools gathered above. You are not afraid of the dark. That is a childish fear. Your daughter is afraid…
The following is a flash fiction I wrote for the Children of the Wells web project. It connects to characters introduced in The Rules Change. “Delia Coonhill is asking to see you, Governor.” Governor Vac looked up from his papers. He was a man not often shocked, but the soldier’s…
It’s almost seven and the grandstand’s filling up fast. I’ve never been on this side of the fence, looking up at the crowd. Joe is next to me, elbowing Brad and saying something about Bethany that makes my face burn. I’d never say it myself, but she does look good…
I thought I’d try something new this week and submit an entry for the Trifecta weekly flash fiction challenge. This week, the goal was to write a story of exactly 33 words using this word and definition: worm – to obtain or extract by artful or insidious questioning or by pleading,…
Round and round I spun. Anne clung to me, laughing, her face pressed against my chest. I sped up. Her giggles bubbled up, and her tiny hands clenched my shirt. The room blurred. I stumbled about in a larger circle, nearly losing my balance. I gyroed my way to the…
The hallway was dark and full of hiding places. The black shadows halted Anne for a moment, but it was crawling out from its lair. She flung herself out of her room, crossed the great void, and smashed into her parent’s bedroom door. She fumbled with the knob. Scooting, scratching…
Josiah hunched over his table, etching out his thoughts in thick, straight, penciled lines. The dim fluorescent lent the page a sickly white that obscured rather than illuminated the words. The crank-powered radio choked static and strained gasps of music. The heavy scratch of No. 2 lead counted the seconds,…
For all the tests and needles, all the frantic whispered exchanges and phone calls, what it came down to was this: Richard was old, and he was dying of it. He protested little against all the useless activity rushing about him. He let himself be shuttled by car and wheelchair,…
He listened to Charlotte’s laugh from where he pretended to study and watched her from behind his notebook. The sun shone in her hair and on her cheeks, and the song of flowers was on her voice. He could pick it out distinctly from among the six of them jabbering…
The dome shook. The ground quaked; the battered alley walls cracked; the air pressed down upon Corban Priest. He widened his stance and waited for the blow to pass. Concrete dust billowed into the air, shrouding him from his foe’s eyes, and veiling his foe from his. He was close….
“Please take a seat.” Delilah sat, facing the tribunal. Her three judges studied her, sly intelligence in their eyes. “Delilah Thompson has asked to transfer out of her Society,” stated the center judge. His nameplate read Bailey. “Let the questioning begin.” The tribunal examined her. Delilah met each gaze. The…