There are always signs of a hunter left at a scene. It’s out of their control. Something is always lingering after the dead are gone. Bread crumbs I can follow back the void and find them.

We don’t know why they do it—whether out of vengeance, pleasure, or some other unsatisfied feeling from their first life. All I know is there’s one more dead body in my city, and no one alive knows what happene...

A peculiar graveyard lives on the misty hill behind my house. It’s not a family graveyard, if that’s what you’re wondering. We moved here when I was little, and the house had been empty for years before that. The names are all different too, so I don’t know what to make of it. It’s a small piece of history that doesn’t make much sense.

What makes it peculiar is the epitaphs—they’re supposedly the...

I came down for coffee this morning and realized the pot was empty. Rats, I thought. I was sure I had filled it the night before. It was no use brewing it again, I didn’t have much time to get ready. I went back to my bedroom, a little less awake than before, to find my laundry still wet in the dryer. Rats again, I thought. Well, if my clothes are going to smell anyway, there’s no point in showeri...

I never was an early riser.

Of the night, I am no miser.

Sometimes I philosophize, or

Play my part as criticiser.

Sleepers and their tranquilizers—

Truly life’s great compromisers,

Every day they idolize their

Sunless morning energizer.

Me, I work until my eyes hurt

Spend my time like ancient Kaiser

Hungry, wishing to be wiser.

I will be an aggrandizer.

You will see with open eyes

When evening ...

I lay face down at the edge of the water, hands outstretched in a desperate plea to remain on solid ground. My labored breaths are drowned out by the river behind me. Moonlight fills this space, the only other light a single golden ray—some settlement on the forest edge, bound to have a warm hearth. With my luck, the owner will turn me in quicker than my boots can dry.

For now, I will rest here o...

I’m afraid you won’t like what I have to say.

You are very generous for hosting this party in my honor and assisting myself and my family as we reacclimate to normal life. We are truly grateful for your kind words and gestures, and I wish to repay you with my speech. For months now, you have waited patiently for this moment. You have many questions about my disappearance and you deserve some ans...

Those humans. Always thinking they’re better than us, living in their giant boxes and walking around on their hind legs. Now look at them. Hovering by my dinner and making loud noises at each other.

The girl looks angry. Good! I’m angry with him too. He’s always shooing me away from the metal can where he stores the best food. Yesterday, he threw a rock at me. My shoulder still hurts from that.

...

You’re a butcher,

Cutting here, slicing there,

Removing pieces that

Don’t require

Your touch.

Let’s be honest

You’re good at it,

Intangible wounds

You’ve inflicted by

Your words.

But I think

It’s your absence

That hurts most.

A painful silence.

You’re gone....

I settle on the wooden bench along the wall. The sun spills through the bay window on my right, interrupted by passersby heading to work. Droplets race down the glass, flickers of light captured within them. How rain falls while the sun still shines I’ll never know.

It’s quiet here. In the other room, muffled sounds of creation mix with vague voices and laughter. I place my notebook on the tabl...

Think, brain, think. What should I write? There’s a word I learned today, something that rhymed with earth. Birth, surf, serve, hors d’oeuvre. Oh, that’s not even English. And you call that a rhyme?

Try again, brain.

Dearth! Ah yes, there it is. The word of the hour - but what does it mean? Come on, now. You can’t remind me of a stupid word without coming up with the meaning too. Honestly, brain...