The bouquet that you’d begged for

begins to appear the way you feel.

You’ve never asked for much,

you just want something real.

Someone you don’t have to beg for kindness,

overtly honored to be your home.

They’d never toss a gift on the counter

in exchange for leaving them alone.

‘They _are_ really pretty,’ you relent,

through eyes tingling with tears,

‘They got me my favorite flowers,

finally...

I drifted to sleep between the patter of raindrops and awoke to thunder within my home. My father’s words went unheard, but the wake of his shout still radiated outward.

“Steven!” My mother chastises in a harsh whisper.

He matches her volume with an urgent, “We have to!”

I hear her sharp inhale and aborted attempts to answer turned whimpers.

He ends her struggle with an insistent, “Now!”

T...

The sweaty mage ahead of me in line is muttering, ‘_Kinetosis_,’ under his breath repeatedly like a mantra.

He’s about two seconds from collapsing into the fetal position and rocking back and forth.

At least he’ll get use out of that spell he’s conjuring to prevent motion sickness.

A roar rises from over the hill.

The kid whimpers and collapses so rapidly that I barely have time to catch him u...

I genuinely can’t comprehend how humanity didn’t die out in the era we began. Maybe I’ve tainted my instincts by learning how much better it can be, but this cave I’ve been attempting to live in is just not doing it for me.

There’s no light, even in the day.

I mostly navigate the space using echolocation from the pained hisses I make after tripping over indecipherable debris.

Whatever it is tha...

‘This reminded me of you,’ they say.

I smile politely at an interest of theirs.

Reciprocal relationships, a human mirror,

reflecting a lie while they’re unaware.

‘Better to be shrouded by doubt,’ I decide.

It’s just safer to remain unknown.

Why act on the innate craving for connection

when it’s easier being alone?

‘Are you going out tonight?’ they ask.

I lie and reply the place that they’ll b...

There’s another whimper from the living room. I roll my eyes.

Don’t you just hate when you realize your parents were right about something?

‘You shouldn’t talk to strangers,’ they’d said.

We’d scoffed at the obvious advice.

Yet here I am in a stranger’s home, snorting at my life through a thankfully unbroken nose, and returning from his kitchen with the sharpest looking knife.

He makes a wou...

The wave sprays upon the sand with a soothing splat, failing to reach my extended feet once again. Good. I’m glad I’m not the only one who needs some space right now.

I hadn’t meant to offend the sea by cursing so much as I swam in it, but it couldn’t be helped after I escaped my plane that crashed around a mile out.

The curses were mostly meant for my pilot, to be fair.

Last I saw of him was...

I’ve barely squeezed my eyes shut when the puff of smoke bursts forcefully up into my face. My refusal to exhale isn’t out of self preservation, but mostly disappointment that I’m still breathing.

I’m unsure whether this is a personal sentiment or one inherited by my latest mentor’s consistent surprise at my survival thus far, but it’s potent all the same.

A curious chirp from my cat at my bac...

Leaves crunch noisily under my speeding steps, my heavy breaths drown out all else.

Anyone and anything could be behind me, cloaked in the shadow doused midnight woods, but I refuse to stop and find out.

I need to be in the moonlight.

Have to, really.

The uptick in paranormal media and interest lately has been a nightmare for people like me.

I snarl as my claw snags the bark of a tree that I at...

It’s our own fault. We’d gotten complacent.

The beginning of August slipped away, missing the masses who had gone lax, they barely scanned the horizon for an announcement that we all should’ve seen coming.

They all warned us about times like this.

Long story short, we’d barely survived the year it swept across the planet – an era of scream inducing influence, consuming millions in its wake.

I...