What if I ran away?

. . .

What if

I ran away?

Nathan has money stashed downstairs. The house is dark as I creep down the stairs—I can hear my brothers in the room over, disrupting the stillness of the atmosphere. The darkness looms as I’m in the kitchen, rummaging through. My heart thumps. I feel so close but so far. The bills slip out easily, and they feel smooth in my hands. Oh, the power of ...

In the whispering woods where secrets keep,

Ale-ooops stirs the dreams that sleep.

- A: Adventurous: A willingness to explore, take risks, and seek new experiences.

- L: Loyal: Devotion to relationships, commitments, and principles.

- E: Empathetic: Sensitivity to others' emotions and a desire to connect.

- X: Xylophile: An affinity for forests, trees, and natural environments....

“I don’t know what to do,” Micheal said to himself in a very soft voice and disheartened tone.

“Being rejected so many times. Being thrown around as some worthless toy. Micheal Anderson: Brooklyn’s Forgettable Average Joe would be the title of my life if it were a book,” Micheal angrily shouts. “I know I have power, but I feel like I am powerless. Useless. Worthless. Just nothing,” Micheal contin...

Nova really needed to find Haze. But somehow, her sister is nowhere to be found.

Like she gets that this castle is huge but she could find her in the Wild Thicket. How can she not locate Haze in an organized building?

After many winding hallways with no clear direction in mind, she hears a familiar voice.

“Nova!” Haze exclaims, which certainly helps Nova’s search. She turns and readies herself...

Jarvis was puzzled. He had done this exact type of decision-making calculation before in the moment between breaths. Why was now different?

An answer wanted to take form but the competing priorities muffled it in their clutter. Now he's off-topic and briefly couldn't care about anything more than the thought that plagued his last year:

"Is this my new normal?" The words slipped out under his br...

The warmth of the water races down my body, filling flesh and air alike with fire. Small incremental turns to the left beg for relief until at last I can setttle my body fully in the water without the scalding urge to withdraw.

Most people would think thst skin is all the same. At least I do. And yet the thought of my ex lingering in the blistering waters unphased grows in my head, the abrup...

Hmmmm I’m a little hungry.

I could eat a snack.

Maybe lunch would be better

Actually, I’m so hungry I need a 10 course dinner!...

I spent the whole day thinking of what I’d write.

What words would I say to you?

What would I focus on?

What would I say first?

Would I start with the fact that you lied,

You lied to my face?

How you said “I love you,”

How you made that promise,

And now are so clearly breaking it?

How everything I believed in was obviously an illusion?

How disoriented I am?

How I feel so unsure, so alone?

How terr...

I looked at her from across the coffee table. She had always been there for me, but this was hard for me to say.

“Brian hit me last night,” I finally said, then closed my eyes.

Her reaction was what I expected. She shouted and stood. “What do you mean he hit you?”

I explained to her how we had been fighting, and he reached across the dinner table and slapped me.

“Madeline, that’s not norma...

There was a tickle in Sam’s mind that she couldn’t ignore. A buzzing that wouldn’t go away, whose source she couldn’t find. There was an itch she was desperate to scratch, if only she could find it.

All she could say for certain was that she was out of sorts. A life she’d always found accceptable if not thrilling suddenly felt unbearable. Work she’d previously enjoyed, she now resented. Things th...