He trudged across the barren wasteland, aching at every joint. The snow fell swift and true, the storm holding everything for miles in its icy grip. But it would only get worse, if Nani was to be believed.

He had to hurry.

Seeing was becoming more difficult with every step, but his step was sure, and in his mind, the path was clear. Nothing could keep him from this task.

Like a wave ...

“Goodnight, Lilly.”

“Goodnight, Mommy,” Lilly whispered up at her ceiling. The light flicked off and the door clicked shut. Above her, glowing fish swam across the darkness, chasing it off. A gift from Daddy on her fifth birthday. She watched those fish every night until she fell asleep, wanting nothing more than to be able to swim with them.

When Lilly woke up, she was quite surprised. She...

“But— but it’s not fair!” I protest. She glares at me.

“Listen, nothing’s fair. Nothing is ever fair. You can either learn that, or leave.”

“He doesn’t know that! Why does he get to stay but I don’t?”

“As I said, nothing is ever fair.” She pauses, contemplating. “And, for the record, I never said you couldn’t stay.”

“Setting me with an impossible task is basically telling me to...

“You don’t understand.”

“I think I understand perfectly clearly.”

“No, you don’t. She made me do it. All of it. None of it— not one single part— was me.”

I watched from the shadows as the two mysterious women traded harsh words with each other, wielding them like blades.

“But you were still fully conscious, were you not? Privy and active with your own thoughts, feelings, and a...

“I wonder what it is that people like me have in common. I wonder what that driving force is that allows them to come so close, and just as their fingertips brush their goal, the entire world is turned upside down in front of them. I wonder…”

“Oh quit your whining. I’m sure that all those people have something in common, but I highly doubt that they all were literally hanging upside down. At ...

Her breath comes in fast and shallow, making little clouds of mist as she exhales. Her feet pound on the asphalt beneath them. Water splashes in her wake, slow to register what had disturbed them. Her mind races, taking in and analyzing every possible weapon, hiding spot, and escape route faster than a jack rabbit ever could. Behind her, footsteps and hoof beats thud and echo through the deserted ...

I hesitate only for a moment before knocking, a swift rap of triplets.

“Enter,” a voice calls from within. I oblige. Inside, a woman sits at a low table with stacks of letters piled around her. In one hand, she holds a letter, and in the other, a sword.

I pause mid-step, and she grins up at me. “What on earth are you doing?” Impossibly, her grin widens.

“Opening letters.” She repl...

“Hunt the traitor down, and bring her back to me. Alive.” The Ice Queen’s eyes blaze with an insatiable hunger that could devour nations. I shiver internally, but my outward composition is as impenetrable as a stone. Identical to the others around me.

We turn in unison and stalk out of the throne room, ready to complete our quest and claim the reward. And lucky for me, I have a leg up on al...

Everyone crowds around the screen, trying to get a better look at what Jessiee is up against. I push to the edge of the pile but go no further. I can already tell how this is going to play out, and I have no part in it.

In front of Jessiee, a boy with chocolate brown hair and deep green eyes bends down onto one knee and extends his hands, revealing a velvet box with something shiny inside. A...

Winning a week-long sunny vacation couldn’t have come at a better time; it almost seemed too good to be true. And to your average person, that’s all it was. Too good to be true. But I’m not your average person.

I had received the phone call three days before I left, during a slow shift at the office. I’d been researching the vacation, curious as to how I’d ended up wining. Turns out, the whol...