After sixteen years, it should have been easy. Coco nudges her hand alerting her to the change in her heartbeat. It should be easy, so Cleo acts as if it is. She calls to her mom in the other aisle, who comes running. Her mom has never been good at acting, her fear was as clear as the sky outside. Cleo sits on the ground as her mother dials 911.

Cleo never knows exactly when it happens but she d...

After a while it becomes easy. Step forward before the guard can knock into the dirt. Hold your head high, and for the love of whatever flavor of being you believe in do not be afraid. To feel fear meant you let mortality seep into your bones, and you could not enjoy the complexity of that crisis now. Sultan was lucky really. He might be smaller than the creatures he is thrown at, but he has a ba...

I will be your fall you know?

You and I are enemies by blood.

It will be my sword to cut your silver tongue.

My sword that will leave a trail of red snow.

You aren’t as naive as you let on bud.

Behind your kindness you play jury and judge.

All I asked was to be left alone.

All you asked was to be my friend.

But I saw the pawns you own.

And what your masked words intend.

Silence was a priceless g...

The knock sounded muffled. Avery wasn’t confident if it was because of the hood of her jacket or the snow that caused it. Her face burned from the piercing wind that blew past. The door swings open, and she has to crane her head up to look at the man behind it. He looked young, but his eyes, as blue as silver, told a different story. His hair was ginger and almost as long as hers; he had it pulled...

There might be memories fondly seen,

though time fades the smiles.

Memory does wonders to nightmares,

they grow to be worst than caffeine.

There will be memories farther than miles,

that never fade, that we beg to forget in prayers...

There is a path through the woods that few travel. It is hidden by the leaves of autumns pass. Orange, reds, and browns crunch under your feet as you walk. The trees that overhang the path are great old oaks and young birch trees. They cast just enough shade so that during the day, you stay cool. They also allow just enough moonlight to make the path simple to transverse during the latest hours of...

If only I could hold on a little longer.

Yet blood loss blurs the world.

Oh my dear, I have never been a hugger.

Maybe it was because kindness I was free of

If only I hadn’t waited till my world swirled,

To tell you I love You...

My teacher used to say that if you always worry about the worst-case scenario, it will come to pass. I feared becoming like my father, a soldier fighting a war meant for the dead. I was obsessed with avoiding that ledge, but it was no Use. The ground opened up beneath my feet and swallowed me whole.

People celebrate the only soldier to come home from war. They don’t mourn for those killed becaus...

In theory, Jayson Eliott, a resident of the small city of Westwood, should not exist. He should be neither alive nor dead because his father slipped between reality and never lived. Jay can only guess what happened to his dad; maybe someone tried time travel on for size and messed with the wrong thing in the future. Or maybe, much like him, his dad was an anomaly, a glitch in the grand scheme of t...

It didn’t take long for her to realize sometimes, the only way to forget everything was to go to sleep. When she was still in elementary Alicia learned that people were cruel. They stole and cheated. By middle school, she realized that her only job was to protect her sister. At the start of high school, Alicia knew she had to keep going forward. One foot in front of the other. Nothing else mattere...