This is a work of fiction. All characters are eighteen and older. Chapter 1: Worst Day Ever My name is Izumi. I am forty years old. I have three children who are all grown up and out living their lives. I am also divorced. I am an executive at a local law firm, and frankly, I work a little too much. Every day, I return home absolutely exhausted, and drench...
Exterminators September 30th, 2009 Mr. Joseph Blattaria 1232 Ingleside Cocoa, Florida Re: Infestation at Building 55 Dear Mr. Blattaria, In the past when we discussed the need for some type of quarterly schedule for insect control at Building 55 you directed me to cancel our service and simply let you know when the problem got serious enough to send ou...
Do you have any idea what it's like to genuinely feel afraid of death after existing for thousands of years as a nigh-invincible Immortal? Welcome to my life. My name is Makeda, although I go back by Mark Cedars these days. Even after walking the earth for many centuries, I am still in awe of what modern man can come up with. That's why I'm studying civil en...
I awake with a startle when I feel something crawl across my bare skin. Letting out a strangled yelp, I sit up completely, scurrying back against the peeling white paint of the apartment wall, and throw away my moth-eaten blanket. In the dim light of the single browning, guttering lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, finding the culprit is difficult but possi...
It doesn't take long for life to unwind. One day cock of the farm-yard, the next a feather duster. It took more than a day for me, just over a year. I had turned 50 when they moved my company abroad. I was a junior manager, more a supervisor really, having worked my way up from the shop floor. My wife and I had a house in a good part of town; our two kids we...
Balik has good timing today, he has finished sucking and I hear the train. They are early, Dan has only just headed for breakfast. Putting my son down I get a feeling and head for my belt. It is a good day to wear my belt, the first time since our last hunt. The guns in the holsters jostle as I pick it up and strap it to me. Grabbing Dan's hat I heard for th...
Brandon Tolman sat on the well-used toilet within the confines of the dingy, yellowed bathroom. With sickened thought, he wondered how many prostitutes and how many illegal drugs had passed through the small motel room, located off the six-lane main highway running through Salt Lake City, Utah. As he sat, trying to empty himself of the many liters of alcoh...
Residence Life: off campus. Women 18-35. Live-in position, expenses paid. Pay negotiable. Contact Mme Anne. That was all the ad said. I know what it looks like, and if I'm honest, I may've known, deep down, what it looked like back then, too. But it was the summer of 2009-I had graduated in 2008, at the worst part of the Great Recession. I'd spent the bet...
Jessica waved warmly back at any of her colleagues that would greet her as they walked past her in the hallway. It was either “Hey, how’s it going?” or “Good morning to you as well!” But it was all an act. She so hated each and every one of them with a passion, ever since she was hired a little over two weeks ago at the soup kitchen. But then again, even...
**Fear moves nations, but kindness moves hearts** (This is pretty much character conversation with some 'comforting' near the end; just warning you.) * Joe had picked us up and we were driving home. For the longest time no one spoke. Joe was never one to be gregarious with strangers, I was fucking tired and bleeding, and ... I don't know why Melinda held...