Ammer's heart aches deep within him, as if a damn has broken releasing an ocean of grief.

He collapses to the earth beneath him.

Cree's lifeless body lays untouched before him. Ammer watches for a breath, a stir, a single muscle movement - but there's nothing. Cree has never been so still, not even in his sleep.

All at once, the sobs come. The wailing. A sound Ammer never knew h...

Kyah sits idly on the small chair held together by string and tree sap. Her eyes locked on the portly dwarf now pacing the short line of orphans, barely examining each child as he passes. Kyah knows he’ll chose one of the littlest. They always do.

The dwarf pauses as the far end of the line and twirls on a single to reverse course. Keep eyes denote the silken shoes with guarded toe which allow...

Justin paced the kitchen. His father should be home by now. It was getting dark.

"Hey, Justin, buddy!"

Justin perked up at the familiar voice. Finally!

"Hi dad! You're finally home!" Justin squeaked.

"Yes, buddy, I am. But only for an hour or two, alright? I assume you've already made yourself dinner? What do ya want to do tonight?" He ruffles Justin's hair playfully.

"I have made dinner! Bro...

The first time he saw her she was trying to push into buy a ticket for the state film on opening night. He had taken the day off work and had his tickets early. Now he was sitting along the low wall across the street, watching the throng. She had ridden up in a rush, stopping short of the line. Everything about her was short: her hair tucked behind her ears. You could see her neck where a mole was...

As the story of Aurora in "The Mirror Maiden" unfolds, there is a key scene that shapes the protagonist into the powerful figure she becomes. It is a moment of transformation, one that challenges her in ways she never thought possible.

The scene begins with Aurora encountering a stranger, a woman unlike any she has ever met before. The woman is shrouded, her face obscured by a veil that seems to ...

Brady remembered the moment as if it were yesterday. He was only three years old, but his prodigious mind and amazing memory had etched that conversation into his brain; even now, years later, it hurt.

“Look, Nan, I get it but we’re stuck with him. I tried to tell you deciding to keep him was a bad idea.” Bradford Junior, father of the small boy called Brady, was knocking back his sixth, maybe s...

My Dearest,

NewEarth is the color of despair. I remember your dad’s postcards of the space station resorts and I thought everything would be bright cartoon. The walls are dingy, the floors dark with grease and neglect. I’m surrounded by other soldiers and I’m completely alone. I’m light years from Mars. But your arms are my home. I guess I don’t know what to write. I’ve never written a letter be...