As we came to the bank of the river, my brother yelled, “There she is! There she is!”

Quickly I looked where Jack was pointing. Up ahead, in the river, stood a shape of a person. The early morning fog was thick. The river was loud the crisp wind was blowing the trees in a chorus of wispers. We were running on two days of no sleep, so I doubted Jack’s clarity.

I saw the figure too. Was it our mot...

Every step the pop of my joints echoed throughout the valley. The water was silent, so were the trees. Not even the wind could be heard here. The only sounds were my breathing and his horse’s feet sloshing in the wet. I had yet to get a good look at my companion; his face was tense and cold, the same as his hand which was only extended to me once. Even upon our departure he stayed numb and quite, ...

Paula and her brother Jeff spent all day crossing rivers and hills, just to reach their long lost father that left them when they were young.

All day they talked about how much this will change their lives, how they’ll finally be whole.

“Are you ready?” Paula said grabbing Jeff’s hand as they crossed the final river, leading up to the old crickety cabin.

Jeff nodded and they were off.

This river ...

Jake and Zander stood in the middle of a roaring river racing against them at any moment they could be swept away. Their feet were frozen to the bone as this was in the middle of winter. Jake and Zander were both thirteen years old Jake had a strong build

He was tan he had shaggy black hair he had long curled eyelashes. Zander was skinny he had blue eyes and blonde hair although he was normally...

Then the dream shifted again, the tide came rolling in slow and steady at first, then the wind picked up stars and threw them with water into the void. Once the fabric settled, and the two recovered from their travel through realities, Adre and Selia shot a glance toward one another —— not an _‘are you alright?’ _sort_ _of glance, but an ‘_are you ready?_’ sort.

The two nodded, pushed down the r...

The clouds rolled in as the pair crossed the river.

The sky was blanketed with dense grey clouds. A roar of thunder sent the pair crashing through the thickening stream, splashing water up and soaking through to their pants.

They were an unlikely pair.

A woman who seemed like she belonged more in a cafe or somewhere with a cosy chair and a fireplace to curl up by, and a man who knew the wilde...

Roaring river

I fell inside

Glory erasure

Of my mind forever

And he fell with me

It wasn’t clever

He wanted me

He hated failure

Touching my back

skeleton carrying my

body retrieving

What was his in the end

The man sank deep

The pebbles sewn in his stomach

Weighed him

His death isn’t hell

His life held weapons

And his punishment is help

He helps me hate him

...

“ What is that ? “ Asked her with an exhausted voice ; looking everywhere.

" I Don’t know !!” he said, his heart was exploding.

" You told me that we would escape after crossing this river, i told you we had to go for the other one, you never listen to me ….”

As the figure was approching them, he said with a happy voice “ i would have found you anyway “

" it woudn’t matter if you had crossed the...

I’ve been running for so long. Longer than I planned to be. I thought it would be a couple of days, a week at most, but now the weeks have blended together and the leaves have started to wilt. My clothes have holes, and my once white shoes are brown from dirt. God knows the last time I’ve had a proper shower, but now it’s all murky water in the middle of the creek, hoping that the bears and ...

“Do you still have them?” David asked, taking a careful step onto the next exposed rock. The further they advanced across the river, the more violent the water became.

“Yeah, they’re in my jacket.” Sam answered, moving up behind him. David almost couldn’t make out his friends words, as the deafening sound of water rose around them. They carefully stepped forward. One wrong move, and they’d be swe...

They had only been out of the lab for three days. Three days of raw skin, broken lips, and oxygen leeched from the Bayham Expanse’s oven-like heat, on a world flayed by an unsetting sun.

The sisters moved across the gleaming landscape like ghosts, their shadows lost in the scarlet-tinged light. Every step forward was a rebellion. Each breath, evidence of life.

The world outside the lab was suppo...

We stop, or more accurately, John stops and I stop and watch him. He looks across the river bank, his eyebrows lowering. I don’t like the look on his face, but I can’t bring myself to look over to where he was looking. What if it was true? What if it was him?

“We should keep moving,” he says sparsely.

“What is it?” I croak.

“There’s someone on the other side, Leo.” I suck in a breath in what ...

The two of us step in unison toward the edge of the roaring river rumored to show wicked visions to any who step into it.

Its midnight blue waves are streaked with currents like white lightning under the height of the sun. The reflecting light glares at us. We are blind from fully seeing what’s on the other side beyond shadowy smudges of shapes we can guess at.

With a fleeting glance at me, Luke...

       “So, what are we calling this?” Aemus said with a muttered tone. We had just gotten over a small disagreement, but you could tell he wasn’t over it. 

We were walking in the forest. The trees so tall and wide that I felt so small, smaller than I usually do standing next to him. The ground was patchy with dirt and some grass. There was a bridge just above the roaring river. We planned to cro...

Tom and Alice conveyed a feeling of happiness in the company of each other. Maybe, it was they way they would just gaze at each other, and smile without a need to speak. Or maybe, it was the way they always spoke so highly of each other. I cannot pinpoint it. The connection was special.

Tom was a ruggedly handsome man. His lanky frame made it difficult for him to navigate around women,...

“I shouldn’t have come” A 6 year olds voice, cold and shivering drifts off behind me. “I shouldn’t have come” I think I hear him again, but can hardly make out the words as I pull myself out of the river and reach for the hand.

Not 10 mins earlier I was headed out to my tiny apartment, my little home away from home on the island. I’d left my cousins, walked through the garden and had just hoped ...

The river roared so loudly it drowned out every other sound. Water thrashed at our knees, little drops stinging my face. Above, the clouds foamed white and angry. That’s when I looked up, and saw my brother on the far shore.

For a moment, I thought my mind was playing tricks. I blinked, rubbed my eyes, but his face only sharpened into focus—golden-brown eyes, sandy-blonde hair. I turned to my lef...

The rope bridge swayed wildly, each plank creaking as the pair inched across. Mist from the roaring river below clung to their skin, icy against their flushed cheeks. Halfway over, Elara gripped the guide rope tighter.

“Do you see that?” she whispered.

On the far bank, through the shifting veil of spray, a figure stood perfectly still. Cloaked in shadow despite the fading daylight, it seemed nei...

His deep brown eyes stared at Badonesia when she looked over her shoulder.

He was a few seats down from her, grinning as he gave a small wave.

Badonesia looked away. She was told since a child to never look at a man for no longer than three seconds or else they’ll think you like them.

She attempted to take a sip of her drink only to realize she already drunk it all. She tapped on the counte...

He had the sweetest way with words. I fell for every…single…one. His face is a vivid memory and his smile is as fresh as the sound of his voice in my ear.

Je t’aime…mon petit chou d’amour (my little darling of love).

I can almost feel my kindled heart flutter at his sweet words. Words that once meant so much to me now fill my heart with what should be rage and somber.

Mon amour transitioned into m...

It was snowing in the rolling hills of Laencastor. Heavy flakes dropped from the sky and disappeared along the ice-touched white caps of the rough Valan river. Despite the ice crowding the pearly rocks across its width, Rex and Vanora warily attempted the crossing.

They were old enough to know the risks of entering the oak wood on the other side, but then they were too young to care. It was no m...

She didn’t wanna die. She didn’t really wanna do anything but stare at the figure across the way. As the storm touched down, she would ask the universe why everything was happening. It was obviously for a reason but what in the world was it? From the beginning of time, people stumble and fall across creatures they don’t recognize. This is on earth and in the soul. We all dream big and we can’t rea...

I hesitantly take another step onto the algae riddled stones that line the riverbed. Anticipating every obstacle under the water was a task that had grown easy throughout my many years as a hunting guide. From the banks of the Salmon River to the peak of Mount McGuire, I had hunted, scouted, and trekked all through the back country of northern Idaho.

This trip had been especially challenging for...

The figure's frame was both painful and consoling. The shore represented a triumphant end to a day-long journey down the Atzala rivers edge for the Lopez twins, but was also an end to the family that Mayra had always known. Mayra had spent a year envisioning how this journey would go – in part because she had always been the planner of the siblings, but also because it was important to honor her m...

As the pair stepping carefully on stones across the roaring river, a figure in a oversized hoodie caught their attention in the distance . Miriam and Lina shouted down the river, but their voices were muffled by the roaring waters. Then, they looked, and the figure was gone from it’s original spot. They looked all around them, and saw the same figure, deep in the forest in front of them. They ste...

“Come on, just a little further.” Called Jack.

“I can’t, and you know that.” I replied.

We had forged through the amazon to find a cure for my cancer. There were legends of a holy temple with sacred healing water located in the amazon. There hasn’t been any luck and I feel as if i’m growing weaker.

“Let’s camp here for the night, and in the morning we can cross the river, my love.” Said Jack ...

After five years of forgetting her touch I can finally feel her soft hands in mine again. She’s as beautiful as I remembered her being. Her light brown skin, raven black hair, and light brown eyes that were bright enough it could be counted as honey yellow. Her petite frame was even slimmer then before. Death has a strange effect upon these so called ghosts. They do change from how they used to be...

“I can’t believe you dragged me into this Anthony!” Clara says with a yelp as her foot nearly slips on a mossy rock, her hand instinctively clasping over her necklace. The stupid hike had been his idea, after an hour of his endless pleading that we leave the resort and explore the surrounding jungle—yes jungle— Clara had finally caved.

“Live a little Clar! Can you believe I could be the fir...

I ran. The tall white fire seared behind me sister and I, my calves burned hotter, I have never pushed my body to the limits I’ve had to that day to simply survive from the sudden roaring hot fire that overcame the woods my family had been camping in. I don’t know where my mom is, or my dad, my sister is in front of me, she’s all I see. The grass was dry, and the air was blowing in my ears, my fac...

It’s on the tip of my tongue to say, ‘I told you so.’ Those four little words dangle in the air between us, producing tension thicker than the fog we wade through.

Ben huffs as he halts. His hiking boots stomping a bit petulantly on a large flat rock that the shallow stream caresses.

“Alright,” he relents, hands on hips, “we’re lost.”

I match his stature but decide to add a smile.

“Was that s...

Jase breathed heavily beside me. His face shown a burning red and his eyes, deeply exhausted. The water was up to our ankles and its merky depths, frozen cold. The rocks on the base of the river pushed the water up, resulting in the waters singing.

Beside us, dense trees covered all view of the grass and the branches stretched over us, blocking the suns light and warmth. Our body’s where ice col...

The river stared back, angry and wild and roaring, just ten feet below. 

Black and grey, the bottom was endless––something Isolde and Warren had no interest in touching if they could help it. If they could manage to cross without falling. 

Yet their lives dangled in the misted air, the forested expanse stretching for miles as they inched closer to the fallen tree, its trunk wide and slick with dew...

Neither I nor a painter could ever depict the cold and darkness of a morning. A painter could only color, and I could only tell. But God was not like that; He could draw, paint, and express Himself through holy texts. The truth is, a human is weak; yet, they could easily erase themselves from God's painting.

***

The young woman left her house in the early hours of the morning. She walked silently...

Two men meet at a cafe.

One is covert agent using a fake identity to gain leverage on the man he is meeting.

The other man is also using a fake identity - and is tied to the other gentleman’s past.

Except he’s here to settle a score....

“We should turn back, Kat,” Andy hissed. “This doesn’t look good…”

“What would we go back to?” Kat questioned. “Going forward is our only chance.”

Shifting his weight and adjusting his feet in the cool water, Andy peered at the shadow waiting on the other side of the river. “How do we know that isn’t one of them?”

Taking two steps forward, Kat turned and locked eyes with Andy. “We don’t,” was a...

**_Adele_**

Blood.

That was the last thing that Adele remembered—

before she passed out.

It all began at Heartwood High- with her ex-best friend, Lily Taylor. They had a huge fight. Lily had wanted to do something that rewarded a lot of money- but was illegal and dangerous. She had asked Adele to help her. Adele refused. And then, being a greedy idiot, Lily had refused to speak with her ever s...

Idk I just need money nit that good of a writer ...

Their bodies were graceful as dancers, slipping through the sparking current, surging against the stream. In and out, they waltzed, moving towards home, towards paradise. They were so close they could taste it. The familiar earthy scent of their birthplace was already tickling their turned up nostrils; the patterns in the gravel, like fresh marigolds, were leading the way, welcoming them back. ...

“Who is that?” Jenny shouted above the roaring river.

Her husband, Jesse, paused to look at the silhouette of the man. He just shrugged, never letting go of Jenny’s hand. Then, he looked down in front of his feet and they continued their methodical plodding across the shallow, but treacherous river.

That was the thing Jenny thought. Concentrate on each step, and they just might make it across...

Isabella and Drew were best friends, they were the kind of friends that are hard to come by, almost too rare to be explained. They wanted to spend their last summer together doing something adventurous. They would be leaving for college soon, two separate sides of the country. They desperately needed today to be memorable, a moment in their friendship that would never be forgotten.

“I want this ...

The boys were meant to die. They were Nameless—two of the innumerable souls that roamed the back alleys of Acacia, the great city renowned for its beauty. Though they both knew the pain of living in the cruel shadow of prosperity, their stories could not have been more different.

The older one, 15 years of age, once had a name. Born into nobility, his family boasted a modest estate. The death of...

I open my eyes, blinking several times to try and clear the soft haze from my sight as I sit up. It doesn't help. Everything appears soft, like the edges aren't quite set as I look around the rocky crags of the cave I find myself in.

"Where am I?" I groan softly, putting a hand to my throbbing brow.

I grimace as my fingers touch something wet and tacky, holding them out. Something dark and slick...

“Please, will you climb up a tree this time?” My best friend asks, looking at me with those eager, trusting eyes of hers.

Not a best friend — I correct myself — not anymore. They're all equal to me.

I protect, I lead, and I provide for every single one of those previously stranger people.

Where I go, they follow.

“You have to give it up. We are here to stay,” I say, as the camp members revere...

Loud tapping on Georgia’s window startles her awake. With bleary vision, she taps the screen of her phone. It reads the time “4:25am”. She slowly makes her way across her bedroom to open her curtains. As she peers down from her third story building, her friend Holly is waiting there holding something in her hands. She had previously told Georgia, she wanted to buy a waterproof camera to capture th...

Carefully leaping from stone to stone keeping balance as the water rushed at our sides, our map lost, no food or water thanks to Nathan and his stupidity. Leave it to him thinking he could try and tame a grizzly bear by waving a stick in its face, the bear chased us far from our campsite leaving us to walk back out of the forest. “Come on don’t give me that Vic! I told you I’m working on becoming...