“God,” she mumbles, flinging herself down into the plastic break room chair. It’s gray like concrete and just about as hard, but it may as well be a throne made of clouds for how great it feels after ten hours on her feet.

“He can’t help you here,” says a voice from behind her. She swivels and makes eye contact with a paunchy older man, his stubby fingers wrapped around a styrofoam cup of coffe...

“If you are reading this, then I am in mortal danger. Unfortunately, if you are reading this, you are also in mortal danger. I have left this note specifically where only I could find it. Yes, me. You. Us. We are one and the same.

I’m sure you have many questions, and I likely have just as many answers. However, you won’t be able to hear any of them if you don’t first get me out of this al...

Outside,

two people hold hands,

and then they don’t.

Outside,

I ask for a table for one.

Outside,

the world continues on

(and on and on and on).

New breaths balance breaths lost.

A crow calls out

and doesn’t know we’re mourning.

Two children play on the front lawn,

and they don’t yet know that

someone

has to lose.

Inside,

oblivion.

Inside,

this house is too big

for a person alone.

Inside,

ti...

From conflict I too often want to hide,

and when I close my eyes I can still see

the traits of better people I could be.

I’d like to speak up but my tongue is tied.

I shrink away to shield my wounded pride.

While others fight until they both agree,

I’d rather freeze or faint or fawn or flee.

I wish I had more bravery inside.

And yet I know that beauty lies in peace.

The wars of men may ...

The key to magic is misdirection.

When the cops come knocking on your door, you send them to someone else.

I’ve set out a scavenger hunt for them to find. My ex boyfriend’s old toothbrush is clogging the pipes in the victim’s bathroom sink. A water bottle with his DNA is in her trash can. Exactly five pieces of his hair, scattered around her apartment. One of his socks half buried in the gr...

Starla had not seen daylight for decades.

She couldn’t be certain how many decades. There was no time underground. She slept and ate and attending to her business when she felt like it. There was no sun to tell her to sleep. But there was also no sun to tell her how many days had gone by.

Decades, though, certainly. She was small when she came down here. Her hands were little and chubby an...

The couple in the master bedroom is trying to be quiet. You can tell, you think, because every apparently accidental vocalization is followed by a hasty “shhhh.” Unfortunately for them, all the shushing is much more conspicuous than their actual voices. It’s what compelled your ear up against the closed door in the first place.

“Margaret,” you hear him moan, and yes, that is the king’s voice.

...

“If you plead guilty, they’ll automatically seek the death penalty,” Rose snaps, long manicures fingernails tapping on the top of her briefcase. “It’s your legal right, but as your attorney, I have to advise you against it. I’m in the business of winning cases, not handing capital punishment verdicts directly to the prosecution.”

Gregory leans back in the plastic prison chair. He hooks his han...

She’s screaming and she doesn’t know why; he can’t hear her. She’s screaming and she’s dimly aware that she has fallen to her knees, she’s screaming and her throat is burning, she’s screaming and she’s watching a little red ant carry a crumb across the pavement, and then she’s screaming with the futility of it all.

When her lungs are too tired to expel any more of the acid in her chest, she reso...

When they bombed the childcare center, the war should have been over. No sane person sits comfortably by and watches the young be slaughtered. Other countries should have swooped in, pushed the invaders back as a united force against tyranny.

They didn’t.

Instead the gunfire is popping in the distance as we run directly into the rubble, no time to spare thoughts of fire or collapsing cement. ...