_gracie_

paramedics gathering in a halo around me

shouting

flash of red and blue

the Mercedes sedan is stained with my blood

my back against the asphalt

the sky is a new shade of blue above me

a figure looms over the clouds

it peeks at me behind the sun

death floats down towards me

gathers my bloodied body into its arms

_minho_

the bullet slices through my skull

outside my body, I watch ...

I crack a joke with the bartender

Kiss a woman

Shrug my shirt off

Clap my friend’s back

_Nothing matters_

Whiskey warm in my throat

My brain fuzzy

My smile permanent

My phone buzzing in my pocket

Perhaps my wife is texting me

_Nothing matters _

I kiss the woman’s throat

Push away the looming darkness

Take another gulp and hope

That the warmth will return

_Nothing matters _

I am indest...

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 _...