His bruised hands held mine as his thumb stroked the back of my hand, looking straight at me as if I was an open book. “To me, you are the last piece to my puzzle. Nothing could ignite the fire inside of me like you do.”...

Four years of high school had taught Jamie one thing: video games were brain numbingly popular. To the point where all he’d collected over those years were shelves of discs and posters instead of grades and awards. Aside from the disappointment from teachers, his father never really showed an interest in his life and his mother wasn’t seen since he was five; he was free to so as he pleased.

Freed...

After what felt like hours, Daisy and I finally pulled ourselves out from the lake and flopped onto the muddy banks. Dennis and Kylie were still swimming around, stopping every few seconds to embrace each other. I couldn’t tell if they were drunk from love or the empty bottles that scattered across the grass, but their laugher and words were sloppier with every second.

Daisy wrapped herself in he...

The Kingdom of Phoenix had stood strong for over a hundred years, never challenged and never mistaken as weak. It’s walls and waters surrounding looked as fresh as its first brick was laid, withering was beyond the castle’s ability and instead it always looked lively. Every person who lived on the castle grounds danced and sang with love for their life; they all believed that the kingdom had made ...

It’s just water, they all shout.

It’s going to be fun, they all laugh.

You’re being silly, they all snarl.

They’re going about their day, getting undressed into costumes and preparing to jump into the depths of the unknown. All of them were careless, running wild across the cliff tops and launch themselves into the pit of darkness that roared beneath.

As I watched the last of them stumble up t...

“Liv, you finishing up yet?” Pete shouted from the door, hovering around to lock up.

He’d owned this studio about 10 years and was still the only one with a key, despite the four other artists he allowed inside. Once, I nearly convinced him to give me the spare, but he failed to find it in his bag and he never mentioned the conversation again. So, no matter how long I needed, we had to finish whe...

He always lurked the same time every year. People would look outside the window and by the exact hour, minute, even second, he would be floating from one house to the next.

He wouldn’t do anything; he would slowly drag himself to each lifeless window, look into the black space for a couple seconds, then drift off to the next. He never seemed pleased or upset, he was just there. My mother said tha...