**_Oswald (Age 6)

_**

“OSWALD ALEXANDER BURTROM! If you don’t get your behind in here you won’t be getting any apple pie!”

Mum is angry at the moment, not that I did anything wrong, OKAY! I just didn’t clean up my best.

“Muuuuumm,” I moan, walking back to the kitchen glumly, “I’m tired, though!”

My mum is there, standing above my discarded and forgotten pile of wood shavings. Her dark brown fac...

“Mom, I told you I really did not want to do this.” Liz stood in the kitchen doorway, her arms folded across her chest and a 16-year-old pout on her face.

“Well, sorry, but I signed us up and it’s only for one afternoon. It won’t kill you to do something nice for this group of elderly and forego yet another Saturday afternoon at the mall. Get your coat and help me with the food.”

Annie’s wo...

I took off my goggles as the coil began to glow. Rubbing my nose bridge I looked up at the ceiling. A mass of wires haphazardly attached greeted me. Once again I wondered how Igor had survived in a ship like this.

“You did it, Zee.” Igor said rushing in.

I glanced at my would be abductor. He was a big mass of muscle with an uncontrollable man of brown hair. A self proclaimed Viking that carr...

It started as these things normally do, with a conversation about the weather.

“Dang, this summer is hot.” Aiden flapped his arms up and down to make his point, nearly knocking over the dwindling pile of picnic food that was balanced somewhat hopefully on the table next to him.

“Climate change, man,” Jade replied drily, delicately twisting a lethal pair of scissors around her fingers, “when t...

“I’m not sure that’s going to work,” he said, scrupulously looking her over.

“What?” She asked the male stranger sitting in one of the white chairs next to her.

“Sitting in a meditative pose like that, with your legs crossed and your palm up.” He stated, in a very matter of fact tone, still assessing every last detail about her.

“Why not?” She asked, now shifting her gaze from the whit...

[S.C, Bloodlines. CH 9]

Everything in the room spun for a second, Cleo was right at her side. Amelya could feel a shift as Jayden looked over toward them.

“I’m gonna excuse myself. Y’all have fun” He spoke up before shooting out the door.

Pain, unrest in his thoughts. Cleo was the opposite, passion and desire filled hers.

“Can I tell you something…” Amelya started as Cleo closed the g...

The tire didn’t hiss, slowly deflate, then comedically flap-smack the ground with each rotation, like in the cartoons—which Zach realized at that moment was his only point of reference regarding flat tires. Instead, there was simply a loud pop before a grindy hum until he pulled over.

“Shit.”

A flat tire when it’s dark sucks. A flat tire when it’s dark and raining really sucks. Based on how lon...

Louann Joyner walked through the streets of San Francisco, heading towards her job. She didn’t enjoy being an Advertising Sales Agent for Carrols Restaurant Group, but it got the bills paid for the most part. The bills were starting to add up, some going unpaid, part of the reason she was walking to work instead of driving. She couldn’t afford to get gas for her car every few days if she wanted t...

Johnny Mathews surely new it couldn’t be that hard to steal the old hag’s purse. She limped slowly along the street, holding groceries in both hands.

The boy ran to the woman and snatched her purse. She dropped her groceries in surprise, and grabbed Johnny by the arm.

“Boy, what do you think you’re doing?” Johnny stared at the woman in shock. “You ain’t gonna answer me?” ...

Pressing down on the breaks, the truck slowed, the roaring of the wind dying as the heat pressed in past it through the open windows. The asphalt burned and heat rose in waves. The air was dead still, not so much as breath of wind. Forty yards ahead, the Mercedes red hide gleamed in the sun, and Houlihan eyed it with equal parts curiosity and suspicion.

No cars in her mirrors, she sidled up...