He slowed to a halt and peered out the window as he asked the fateful question: “Need a ride?” His words came out in a puff of steam that hung in the cold, morning air.

I shivered in the 5am chill and pulled my purple wool coat closer around me. It was February and I had just moved out of the city into the suburbs with my friends. I liked taking this particular bus - it got me closer to the off...

It was inevitable, I suppose. Silly to think my new friends would never find out. All the girls at school are crazy about bowling. There isn’t much else to do in this small town we’d moved to after Dad died. They kept inviting me, even after I’d turned them down countless times. I always had a good excuse - at first, I had to “fix up” my room on weekends, or had extra homework to catch up on afte...

Ah, good. The Young Master has returned. It has been a burden not knowing if he would survive his Masters’ Quest. See how happy the Old Master is. There is much to do in this, his last winter of rule, and much for the Young Master to learn, even if he thinks he already knows it all, as young Toms tend to do.

The leaves have begun to turn, soon it will snow. Old Master says the harvest was good t...

At first light

She yawns and stretches,

shakes off the fog

From the night before.

Beneath her bridges

Dark seas tumble,

The traffic rivers

Begin to flow.

On her blocks

Bakers brew their coffee

Sweet smells wafting

Through the chilly air.

Front doors thrown open,

Stoops swept clean

Her sleepy children

Stroll off to school.

Tinny songs

As electric buses

Strain to climb mountains

Hoisting heavy l...

I had a vision

You were in it

You wanted starlight

So you made it

In your image.

Tiny pricks,

Just like you.

I had a nightmare

With you the star

Your fangs were red,

Blood from a jar,

Scaring no one.

Real fakes,

Just like you.

I want a lover

Not Narcissus

I’m not your mirror

Not your mythos

Don’t you get it?

I’m not

Just like you.

I tell you no

You think I’m kidding

I don’t want you

You keep...

Billy’s up highest, kinda snugged up in a crevice overlooking the road from Desolation. He found these binoculars, well, ‘ceptin ’ one lens was smashed so I reckon they were monoculars, musta been tossed by the army when they evacuated everyone outta town. We hid but they didn’t look for us very hard like they did for the special ones, the ones with money, the ones who could pay the bastards not t...

After the Family council had discussed the matter every which way (a slow process, indeed, now that there were 215 of them) ; after The Order had weighed in with a judgement Kate found sorely lacking; after her Father and Grandmother had advocated for her to stay in a power sharing arrangement with her mother, Caffee, the decision had come down to this: The Seven Sisters.

The rules of 7ths app...

I was late, as usual. “Jeez, Connie,” I wheezed to myself at step 35 of the interminable stairs to her door. “At least put a bench halfway so a girl can rest.”

My sister’s house sat far above the street, steep banks on 3 sides, lightly manicured back yard giving way at the fence line to the tangled chaparral of the national park . No sign of Choco, their bouncy golden doodle.

I trudged to the...