My lover is slim and lean, a tall woman with tan skin. Her eyes a deep chocolate, sprinkled with gold. Her hair was as deep as her eyes; it’s fairly long and wavy. Her smile, laced with dusty pink lips. Today she wore a deep blue blouse with white bell bottom leggings; a common pairing for her. Her brown belt was studded with silver buttons, shining in the sunset.

The sun cast an array of purples to pinks across the sky; clouds looking translucent against the horizon. The clearing we sat in on this hill has tall trees that never brown. The grass a dirty green, sprinkled with tulips and daisies of all colors. I picked a boquet of them.

Our picnic blanket is now old; we use it for every sunset date. The reds and whites are faded with joy and love. Grass stains from the hill fade into the fabric. It was always well loved.

Our hands cross each others and our fingers intertwine. Her hands are soft against mine, a feeling that gives me butterflies. Her palms a soft silk and her fingers a satin. I blush a pink.

I turn to look into her eyes, my deep forest against her soft dirt. I get lost in her beauty. Her soft face lulling me to calmness as her smile grows larger. Oh how I love my lover. The sky as beautiful as my heart and love for her.

My cool hands slowly drift to her face, cupping her warm cheeks. Both ours shift a deep rose as we embrace each others lips; soft and still. My deep red against her dusty pink, melting into a sea of reds.

The sun starts go under the hill, dusk is awaiting. Stars can be seen through the curtains of the clouds and light sky colors turn deeper. Trees and grass cooling with the breeze of night.

With the last bit of sunlight I stare into my lovers eyes and realize there’s something wrong. Her eyes, supposed to be a deep brown, are now a hazel type. Flecked with green and gold. A change I’ve never seen before.

That’s not Andrea.

The faster he ran, the longer it look to reach the end. His ocean blue hair looked like a blur of sky against his grass green skin. His tail swished behind him as he hopped over logs and streams. His cat-like ears tried to locate his enemy over the vast forest he was stranded in. The creatures clothes seemed to float with him, his hood always staying close to his head.

The creature suddenly stopped and looked around. He could sense something was hiding in the shadows of this dark and musty forest. The thick trees and overhanging leaves were the perfect spot to hide away and escape, he would know.

Swish.

The creature whipped around and saw nothing; just an endless void of brown and green.

“I know you’re here! Show your face already!”

The creature ventured deeper in the forest. He knew this place like the back of his hand, and it seemed like his enemy did too.

Ever since he was little, him and his best friend would escape into the woods to get away from life for a while. They would play and dance and climb. They laughed and smiled. Where did the years go?

“You’re right where I want you.”

The creature froze. His enemy was right behind him.

But that voice. He had never heard his enemy speak before. But it sounded familiar. Almost, too familiar.

“Long time no see Alister.” His enemy spit onto the ground as he said this creatures name. As if they had met before. As if.

A tear pricked his eye. Then another. And then another. Alister slowly turned around to look his enemy in the face. “No, NO it can’t be you! I watched you die, I watched the life leave your eyes and you cried, I WATCHED you say you loved me over and over and over again. Why are you doing this Nova.”

Nova gave a sinister smile. They lowered their hood and gave light to the glistening green of their skin. Their violet eyes shimmered and glowed in the dark forest night. Their long blue flowing hair was let down in a tight braid. The braid had various flowers intertwined.

“Because I could. I watched as the others brutally murdered our species for days and days on end with no sing of stopping. I watched as my family crumbled at the hands of these murders. I saw the chance I had to escape and I took it. And you. You just watched. You watched as my family died by the bloody hands of these people. You watched as i was hurting and did nothing. You watched as i cried and cried and cried over and over again. And you did nothing.”

By this point, both Alister and Nova’s eyes were filled with tears. Their violet eyes stared with knifes and Alister’s silver eyes darted everywhere, refusing to look Nova in their eyes.

“I- I’m sorry.”

“Don’t fucking say that you’re sorry when you did nothing,” Nova drew a sword from their belt. They held it up to Alister’s throat. “Don’t make make me do this. Join me and take down these murders, or refuse and I will slice this sword, clean through your skin. So choose Alister. Choose wisely.”

“I don’t want to murder people Nova.” Sweat dripped from Alister’s brow. He started to back away slowly but tripped and fell backwards on a tree root.

Nova looked down at Alister. Their longest lasting friend and longest lasting enemy. Everything has come down to this.

“You leave me no choice,” Nova’s eyes once again filled with tears as they bent down to meet Alister’s face.

“I knew all along that this was how it would end.”

The world will burn.

They sent a raging fire across the country. No one knows where it came from, only that it kills everything it touches.

I ran with my family, out of our village to the next one over. We barely escaped, most of our belonging were burned as we fled. I watched my friends die, I watched my house burn, and I watched everything I loved disappear.

As we drove off, I could see the fire following up, like a serpent stalking its prey.

We drove faster and faster, not seeming to loose the trail of fire.

Then, it caught up.

The fire reached our car and set everything aflame. All our possessions gone. The only thing we had left was each other. We all raced out of the car and started to run. The fire kept on running with us.

It caught up to my dad first. We heard his screams but we had to keep on running. Then it got my sister. She was crying and yelling, but we couldn’t stop. Not for anyone. Next it grabbed my mom. She screamed so loud and so much. Lastly, it caught up to my brother. My most trusted family and bestest friend. He tried to out run it, but he was too slow. The fire ate him whole. He was gone

I stopped in my tracks, not caring if I was ravaged by the raging fire.

I fell to my knees, sobbing and traumatized. Everyone is dead.

The fire caught up to me, and right as I thought I was going to get eaten, it started circling around me. Sparks flew up from the fiery serpent in every direction. The fire circled faster and faster until everything in my sight was an orange blur.

The fire started to close in around me. I was shaking and scared and crying. I wanted someone, anyone to get me out of here.

The fire closed in. I was alive.

I looked down and everything was ok. The grass was green, and the trees were blossoming. But something was off.

I touched the ground and it was scorching hot. Everything I touched felt like it was burning.

I looked down at my hands. They were on fire. The fire looked exactly like the one that was consuming everything.

Intense flashbacks of my town, my family, and the fire swarmed in my mind.

I knew what I had to do.

The world will burn.

My life is pretty boring. I wake up, look at my bed while contemplating life, and get some breakfast. Today I had some leftover corn. Boring. Everyday is the same.

Some days, my friend brings me food from the outside world. Sometimes she brings me ingredients to make cake or pie, and sometimes she beings me the fresh produce she bought. God I love her.

I walked over to the entrance of my home; a lovely cerulean waterfall. It has vines and flowers growing on the outside. My water purifier is right next to it.

I love in the middle of the waterfall, on the ledge of a cave. It’s actually super beautiful.

I grabbed some cups and scooped some waterfall water into my purifier.

I actually didn’t grow up in this waterfall-cave. I ran away here after my country declared water a controlled resource. There was this legend about a waterfall in the huge cave system thats under the country. The only reason I knew it was real is because my family has a history with this cave. I’m a water nymph.

I heard a zip and knew she was here.

She yelled that she was here to let me know, so I opened the water for her.

She’s the only one who knows I live here.

She has red long hair that reaches her lower back. She has bright, sage green eyes and pale skin. She’s absolutely perfect.

We exchange goods. I give her clean water, and she gives me some food and ingredients. We kiss. We do a little more. We cook together. We have dinner. She has to leave. I’m sad.

My day is boring.

The space between stars is best described as…

 A vast nothingness

A chance to lay down in darkness

 A way to forget all about the future

A way to forget all about the past

 Space is nothing at all

Space is everything at once

 It is vast, lengthy, and huge

It is compact, short, and small

It is the space between stars

Ding!

I stood up from my chair in the living room, put down my phone, and headed to the door. It was strange that my doorbell dinged, I didn’t invite anyone over or order anything.

I opened the door and looked around. There was no one here.

Then, I spotted a gift. A brown box with sparkling red ribbon and matching bow. However, the strangest thing was that there no labels that said who it was from, nor any address.

I picked it up and brought it inside. It was like I picked up 100 bricks. It didn’t look like anyone had misplaced the box at my house since it had no labels. I figured it was safe to open and keep it for myself.

I shut my door, locked it, and sat back down on my chair to open the box.

The ribbon unraveled when I pulled it, and the bow was easy to take off. After I did that, I carefully opened the box, not knowing what was inside.

A cloud of smoke puffed out, as if it hadn’t been opened in a long time.

I saw a book. It had a red and gold leather cover, and was bound by brown thread. The pages were an off-white color, a sign that this book has been on this earth for years.

The cover had the words “A Tale of Sirens; A Short Story Compilation” in fancy gold lettering to match the gold designs on the cover. Sirens are a wide-spread myth among my community so I thought it would be fun to read it.

So I did.

The next day, my doorbell rang again. I received a red cloak. The day after, I received a stopwatch.

Everyday after that I received something else connected to the Sirens.

The Sirens wear red cloaks to stand out in the forests to lead lost souls to their death. They would give a stopwatch to their victims to let them know that their time is up. Sirens are magical beings that wield very dark magic.

There was also rumors of a Siren Queen, ruling the Sirens, and the most powerful of them all.

I received an item one day that set off everything.

I opened the box after 3 weeks of someone sending me gifts. Inside was a crystal ball, however it wasn’t an ordinary crystal ball. It was filled with black smoke, swirling faster and faster the more I held the ball.

As the smoke grew, I could feel power surging through me.

The black smoke started to flow out of the crystal ball, circling me till I couldn’t see anything but the smoke.

I woke up surrounded by people in the Sirens Cloak, watching me intently.

As I opened my eyes I could hear them whispering “she’s awake!”

I shakily stood up, trying my best to not fall on the floor.

I looked down and I could see that I too, was also wearing the Sirens Cloak. I felt my pockets and the stopwatch was there too.

Then, I realized. I, was the Siren Queen.

I sat on my chair at my desk, with a glass jar in my lap. The jar was clear with the company label imprinted on it. It had dirt inside. I was waiting for something to grow.

I stared at it, waiting for something, anything to grow. Nothing did.

I closed my eyes and concentrated harder than I ever did before. I visualized plants growing out of the jar. Vines, flowers, and leaves all sprouting out in all different directions.

I head a scream and whipped my eyes open and head up. Then I saw it. Vines with flowers and leaves all over my room, but also outside of it.

My door had been opened by the vines and had stretched throughout the whole house.

I ran outside my room and down the stairs to see where the scream had come from.

My mom was being held my the vines in the air.

I ran up to her and tried to pull the vines down, but they held tighter and tighter around my mom.

I closed my eyes and concentrated hard to try and visualize the vines letting my mom go and sliding back into my room.

My eyes shot open and glowed green, and the vines were doing what I visualized.

My eyes then stopped glowing and the vines were safely in my room with my mom on the round. The vines had given her tiny cutes from their thorns.

I promised to do my magic outside next time.

I passed by my fireplace. Oranges, yellows, and reds, dancing on thick logs behind silver bars.

I headed towards the bookshelf on the wall, and picked up my favorite book. I’ve read it a million times, but it still excites me.

I sat down on the couch, in front of the fireplace, and started to read.

My mother called me from outside, “SWEETY! Uhh, get outside, NOW!”

“Coming!” I rolled my eyes, thinking it was something minimal, like dad mowed the lawn wrong again.

I stood up and placed the book back on the bookshelf in its special place slowly.

My mom called me again, more urgent this time.

I rushed outside, not wanting to be yelled at.

I opened the door and stepped outside, right as my mom grabbed me by the arm.

“Look… it’s fire,” my mom spoke softly as she point towards the town.

All the houses were engulfed in orange, yellow, and red flames.

It was only a matter of time before it got to us.

I fell into your trap

 How gullible of me

You put me in a trance with your forest green eyes

 I’ll never get lost in your forest again

You told me you loved me

 And I said the same

Your blood red lips touched mine over and over

 I let you willingly

You were my lover;

 Never Again

She was the sun, burning with love, compassion, and energy.

I was the moon, cold, sorrow, and lazy.

The people of Earth adored her dearly; she made their plants grow and their happiness stronger. The people drew her in a heavenly way. She was their queen.

The people didn’t appreciate me as much; I was only lighting up the night sky a little bit after all.

The sun was so regal and beloved, that even when she became so hot, the people of Earth still worshiped her.

I love her dearly, and she loves me.

When she gets tired I take her place and watch over her people.

She shines on me then to provide her people with light and happiness.

The people have come up with many different reasons on why we switch places.

If only they knew that the sun just got tired, and let her moon watch over.