War General Baria sits in deep thought in the midst of the strategy room, encircled by maps of battlegrounds scrawled in black ink and armories of greatswords and axes. Stark portraits of each general that’d come before her.
All around is the bloodied history of the Ashen Lands, beckoning at her to make a decision.
One would lead to nothing. A decision leaving two empires still at war for another...
18 hour shift and an empty stomach
She took the public bus home in a hurry
Nobody waited back home of course, but,
Perhaps if she imagined there would be
Weekends were a blur of work and sleep
She was too rough for friendship yet she longed for it
There was no time to recall past memories
Another glass of cheap whiskey washed it down
Every day was a repetitive cycle of bleakn...
She sat on her porch in a daydream
He mopped her mansion’s marble tiles
She pondered upon the past she once had
He lived for a future he could never have
She was chasing and forever craving
He knew nothing would fill his cup of satisfaction
She cried out at the cruelety of humanity
He only strove to change himself; not the world
And yet despite this
They found an odd comfo...
a ballad of crimson and black
a dead king and lone queen
for only one could engulf the throne
the heart longing for her spade
a tale of lovers eternally apart
spilled blood and infinite tears
but eventually, the queen stood
steeled her heart
her lover of spades only a mere memory
along with her love
she bathed her kingdom in red
letting her rage echo down the darkened sky
_perhaps_, she...
There is a small space wedged between reality and death, teetering off the edge of our dimension like a glass cup daring to fall off the edge of a table.
The quiet space has been a home to me for as long as I can remember, an endless horizon of diamond blue speckled with bolts of lightning. Although they are sizzling with heat, they don’t dare to come near.
Although I am nearly always alone,...
It’s always been this way.
The heady scents of softener and soap gripping the air and spinning me into a fever dream as I worked. _This isn’t anything new._
I know the atmosphere of Molly’s Dry Cleaners far more than I know my own self. The number of each rusted, whirrring machine lining the room’s walls. Each plastic bottle of solution and their chemical aromas. Each sweat-stained woman working...
_“Thirty minutes, starting now for Owen Chen, Sector 25–“_
The automatic voice drones on through the speakers of the Entertainment Room, the device at my desk thrumming to life as I take a seat.
After fifteen years of waiting, I am finally allowed access to the Epitome of Entertainemnt, a platform said to withhold infinite information.
I smile at the sight of a wide screen glowing with artifici...
I’ve been locked away for too long
Perhaps I don’t know what freedom is like
Luminous lights of gold falling against me
My feet planted against glossed grounds
The chants from the audience grow louder
Beyond is an echo of glory awaiting me
I rise like dawn from the curtains
My heart was once locked in a vise
But now—
_It’s free _...
_This is it. This is how I’m gonna die. _
My hand slips from the safety of the seat, flinging out through sharp, cool midnight air as we storm down the highway. My scream feels shrill through the air amidst the screech of tires against the road.
I squeeze my eyes shut, waiting for the moment until my body hits the asphalt with a final _thud_.
Until he grabs my hand.
“You sure love to be dramati...
Inside my tube, I am safe
I am unfamiliar with human touch. I am unfamiliar with the pain and thrill of skin against my own. I am unbeknownst to feel of sunlight and fallen raindrops. They are mere tellings through words the scientists tell me occasionally.
The words teetering at the edge of my lips are never spoken nor heard.
I am a simple corpse breathing artificial air and watching a mundane a...
