If there was hope, it lay with the proles... or something like that. Winston, the character from that stupid book he'd been forced to read for English lit, had been whinging on about how the proles were stupid or something, but yet he seemed to find hope i...   [Read more...]

The medicine man had always talked about the circle of life that continues unbroken like the circling stars in the heavens, but Mousaf had never been very religious. His village was small, but he was happy with what he had - the woven cloak on his bac...   [Read more...]

Once, in Beijing, a young girl in a red gown huddled in a doorway. She hugged her shoulders and shivered in the form fitting dress. Too little cloth and too much cold collaborated to goose-pimple her flesh.

The man on the bed behind her called her back. S...   [Read more...]

Balanced on the line, he told her again, "Put it down!" Danielle wouldn't listen. She had never listened to her master.

She held the wand in trembling fingers, pointed end toward herself. "Stay back!" she called. "I'm g...   [Read more...]

The zombies beat upon the door to the church. The flowering vines clung to the brink walls like dead man's fingers, while the sun gazed relentlessly upon their torn and damaged limbs. The daylight didn't detour them. Neither did the cross, holy water, or re...   [Read more...]

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Harry had taught her well. Any failings during the performance would be entirely her fault, but she wasn't worried.

Harry had taught her well.

She felt her hair drift about her head...   [Read more...]

Her new glasses were magical. She saw the world in a whole new light. Literally. The lenses transitioned to pink shades in bright sunlight, giving her world a rosy glow like the unbridled optimism of youth. Indoors, the tint faded - though not t...   [Read more...]

"No, absolutely not!" Mama Tiger told her cub.

"But Moooooom! All the other cubs get to bring down a gazelle at my age!"

"I don't care what all the other cubs do. I'm not their mother; I'm yours. And the answer is no...   [Read more...]

The only sound that broke the stillness was the sound of the horses' hooves as they struck the ground. Garth took off his hat and waved it in front of his face.

"How can you see like that?" asked Becky, motioning to the endlessly ...   [Read more...]

One foot in front of the other. He had to keep going. There was no turning back.

They almost caught up with him several times. In the woods he'd tripped over a branch, sprawled, and felt their hot breath on his back just before he kicked off and escaped. Now he...   [Read more...]