“Welcome, you can set your things on the table over there and then take a seat on the stage when you’re ready.” The male model gave me a nod, and proceeded to do so as directed. I prepped my easel and sketching tools.

This was the end of the year project and we were instructed to capture an emotion in its purest form. But to make a model sit there for hours with the same expression can make a pe...

“Got any last words?” The barrel of a .45 desert eagle pointed at the center of my eyebrows. The sweat that ran down my forehead could touch it. The words were a mere echo mixed in the jumble of thoughts that ran rampant in my head. Visions of my life were that of a blink, only stopping at certain ones for a few short seconds before moving onto the next one.

I saw my mom, my dad, and all my brot...

TW: Mentions of domestic abuse, physical(markings on body) and verbal abuse

I woke before the sun had a chance to peak over the horizon. Aches and pains seered through my arms, legs and back. I swear i could feel my faces still swollen from the night before, but as I looked in the mirror, there was no swelling but a large bruise forming on the left side of my face. Bracing myself for the next few...

As the youngest of six Half-Blood kids, I was always given the hand-me-downs, clothes, toys, shoes, electronics…damn even the dishware we ate off. My mother didn’t have a lot of money, and all my older siblings were in need of something. One of my sisters refused to wear jeans with rips in them, had to have the nicest makeup, and the newest phone just to think that she could fit in with the group ...

Remember the Brother’s Grimm story about sleeping beauty? How she was cursed at birth to fall asleep on her 16th birthday along with the rest of the kingdom she was born into? And how true love’s kiss was to break the curse? Well if only it were true love’s kiss that woke me on my 4,000th birthday.

Back before i was put to sleep, the earth was on track to implode and we has humans needed a way ...

Her insessant screaming drove deep within the of my dry skin. Hitting every nerve, every tender muscle, all travling throughout my body. My veins absorbed the vibrations transforming them into aggrevated hate, boiling over to the point that I couldn’t take it anymore. It’s already bad enough that the detective has shown up far earlier than expected. This said detective is in search of the sorry sa...

“What is your problem?!” Noshua shouts, the rain beats the windshield brutually as he weaved in and out of, thankfully light, traffic.

“My problem!?” My words just as infuriated, “You’re the one that’s making a big deal out of nothing!” Noshua takes a corner a little too sharp making the tires lose traction for a second. My hand reaches for the ‘Oh shit’ handle instincutally as he regained contro...

The man that looked back at me in the mirror is a shell. A husk of what I use to be. Nothing mattered anymore, not after she left.

She was always right there, right across the hall from me. Her golden hair that smells of sunflowers and vanilla, her honey brown eyes that warm me from a far, and her olive skin that’s heavily speckled to appear as marble.

She has the kindest heart, and always put...

PRESENT

The bar was quiet, dimly lit, and smelled of rich leather and cigarette smoke. The smoker’s section was on the ground floor, but the smoke always wafted back into the upper part. I sat in a leather cushioned seat, a short round table that held a glass of red wine. I was a few seats back from the stage as soft jazz played from a very talented young lady. Saxophone, piano, bass and drum...

They were my saviors, and they promised to keep me safe.

Forever.

If only that were true. It was months later, everything appeared to be peaceful around the house, in our little world. Until the day I got a unknown number calling. I made a vow to never answer any unknown calls ever again, so I ignored it and got back to work. It was that evening, right before the guys returned home, there was a ...