She looked at me, her fierce green eyes matched the green Earth. Her dark hair bounced around her shoulders as she marched through the grass towards me.

"Let’s go. The quest is done. We can live now. Let’s go!" She grabbed my hand and tried to pill me with her but I stood rooted in the grass.

"I know. But I still have more to do," I said uncertainly. I suddenly felt every ray of sun on my face...

The park was filled with tiny children and parents. I fixed my overalls, and began walking towards the swings. I began swinging, but I noticed a man who was very close and suspicious to the little children, and it was very unappealing. He had another man with him, his face very dark as if he had been punched. I gasped, but I didn’t realize I had done it out loud. A little girl on the other swing l...

At the bus stop, anxiety and anticipation mix in equal measure. It’s Tuesday—a day notoriously unlucky for missed buses—and yet, as I watch, the bus lingers as if it too were pondering the mysteries of destiny. I board with a silent nod of thanks, clutching my lucky coin, a cherished relic from a soothsayer ancestor. Every clink of that coin reassures me that the universe, in its infinite wisdom, ...

“Lilly?” Micheal asked through the dark as they swung on the little swing set in the park.

“Yes?”

“Do you remember the first time we met?”

Lily slowed down her swinging to answer. “I was 8, you were 10. Boys in your class were messing with me because of my Dad being in prision. You told them to leave me alone and then offered my a dandelion.”

“Do you remember what you said afterwards.”

Lily blu...

I watched him for a while. He sat, legs outstretched and swinging beneath him, on a lone swing set in the corner of the park. His hulking frame seemed out of place amongst the neon rainbow of colours painting the playground.

I scraped my fingers through the loose curls in my hair. Now I knew what he’d done, my father seemed to haunt my every move. And there he was. As a little girl, I looked up ...

“What do you mean you both lost the package?” I almost yell, having to check my temper. This isn’t the time to lose it.

“Well Boss, he was there one minute then gone the next, we scourged the whole area for two hours but he was nowhere to be seen,” Randell slowly responds, his lips pressed together. I know he was worried about me shooting him but this wasn’t the time or place for that either.

...

“Run little rabbit!” She laughed as she ran after me. “Run! Run! Run!” She giggled. I jumped over the end of the slide i once played on for hours. “Stop!” I screamed kowing it was futile. She only lauged more as she effortlessly skirted around the slide. I sped up and jumped onto the wooden play house. I hoped with every broken bone I had that it who’d slow her down. And it did. But only barely. ...

It should’ve been a perfect day, it wasn’t. the sun wasn’t out, it was quite cloudy , the ground was still a little damp from last nights rain and though the kids absolutely did not mind or even notice , the adults definitely did. She was still drained from last night having barely put her self together- not even showering, before being dragged to the park by her little brother. He was frustrated,...

It’s been so hard since I lost my little girl. When people would say things like “there’s not a day that goes by without me thinking of X person I lost”, I’d imagine how that could be possible, before. When life is filled with so many noises: the washing, stocking the house with food, keeping everything clean, going to work, excelling at work, getting your child to school on time. And everything i...

A young Caelum followed after his father into the enclosed area of their outdoor park, two of his little siblings, the youngest the age of six (which is, apparently, the age which you begin participating in this hellish competition) followed in his his tail.

They stopped in the usual area — the characteristic oxogen stone pattern beneath his feet, the smooth blue and red swings behind them and th...