Spinning around so fast everything is a blur, face against the glass of the phone booth that was plucked off the ground like a bit on a drill. The sensation of gravity pulling on her stomach combines with the spinning was nauseating and disorienting. As the spinning started to slow, her mind was still spinning at full speed. Perhaps she was rapidly shaking her face side to side, but the clouds in ...

Those bastards. They thought I would die after they left me on this icy beach. But I’m a survivor. I made this shelter out of animal hides and sticks. I made this axe out of rocks and animal bones. I will escape. - Germany 1942, the last page of a Jewish captives journal, as he was put in a experimental frozen dome....

Floyd grasped Rylee’s glove tightly and tears slowly flowed down his cheek. She was his beauty, his

life, his love. He didn’t think their love was so fragile, he didn’t think one wrong word could end it all.

But here he is, curled up on his bed, his bright, long, vibrant red hair strung out everywhere. “Mr. Floyd,

the hot tub has been prepared.” Called a voice from outside Floyd’s large hotel r...

A moment of peace, alone in my hotel. I take in the view of the Everlilac trees and purple sands that surround me. I rest on an inflatable chair as I look out and question whether or not to go out on the water later. But before I can come to a decision I fall asleep. This is the most relaxed I’ve been in months.

A loud whirring sound wakes me up and I look ahead. The screen is black and reads ‘t...

When the man with the briefcase approached me and asked me if I would like to be swept away to a paradise of wonders, I of course thought he was absolutely nuts. Something in me was screaming for a change that day, some vastly different from my everyday mundane routine, so I said yes. Flash forward a week later and I can’t manage to leave.

There’s something special about this place. I’m sur...

I look around, and all I can see is paradise in front of me

Is it real what beauty I see

how I just want to run and play under the sun rises,

feeling the cold sand under my feet,

hearing the birds, whistle and tweet 

Isn’t it quiet just like peace

Mountains around, but no one to be seen,

just the way I like it

it’s just paradise for me!...

Finally after two moons I saved enough money to go to lavender springs. You might think, ‘goodness you worked for two moons straight’ and I would say ‘yes, but I wanted to’ and it definitely paid off.

I stepped onto the platform of the space port and caught the ship to Astarera. I had been on over planet flights but never off world before and the thought was very exciting. I couldn’t believe my d...

Postcard blue skies, lavender mountains embracing a mirror glass lake, the shore curved languid, lazy, and inviting. Rosie looked from the brochure in her hand then back at the view before her.

Sparse hard tack clay punctuated by spiky scrub pine stretched before her. To call the water a lake was a gift. The baby shit body of water was clearly an industrial runoff pool. The carcass of an abando...

My eyes close.

When they open I’m back there. My book is on the table where I left it the night before, my fluffy violet blanket neatly covering the lounge chair on the deck, the crystal lake water lapping at the lilac sand on the beach.

My legs are tucked comfortably close to my body, hidden under the warm quilt. It’s not hot but it isn’t cold.

Under the blanket, the crisp breeze doesn’t touch...

I should be happy. I should. I don’t understand why but I can’t. Truly.

Vacation has always been hard on me.

Resting.

Doing nothing.

Thinking.

Yes, that might be it. I don’t like to think. Because thinking links to remembering. And memories are painful.

So, no. I won’t enjoy my holidays. I won’t. I can’t. I’ll try to work, or do anything else. I’ll bust myself the best I can. Because this i...