Every piece of hope is diminished as I’m pulled away from the casket, ugly tears racking my body with shakes. I watched my mother’s pale face blend in with the white bedding on the bottom. She was so beautiful—even now. But, the life that made her her was drained away from her eyes, leaking out like rotten honey.

“No!” I shout as I try to claw my way from my father who was dragging me back. She w...

His blood ushes out into the young woman’s hands. She has tears running down her youthful cheekbones, smearing the mask of paint on her face. Blackness smears on her under eyes.

She shouts and screams for help, trying to hold the blood in from what she was taught. “Adelio, stay with me.” She says between gasping cries. His pale, deathly skin, his brown eyes slowly losing his spark, his pursed li...

Her.

With her brown flowing hair and green eyes to match—of course, never forgetting the little brown specks in them—she was truly an angel from heaven.

I watched carefully from the bushes. Watching. Observing. Lingering. Loitering. She goes to a small nearby diner where she eats alone, getting her usual tea and croissant. She typically comes around here every morning at exactly 8AM—she arrives...

“Darcella!” I hear my name being yelled from across the field. The long wheat and grass strands tickling my bare legs, my not-so-white gown sticking to my skin.

I stare down at my body, my trembling hands in front of me. I think he did this to me. The man running up to me.

“Stay back! I mean it, you lunatic!” I exclaim as I try to retreat back into the forest. The strong, heady metallic scent of...

Tears stream down my full cheeks. My eyes are red in the reflection of the clear ocean, the sun setting just below the horizon. It tinted the skies in hues of oranges and yellows and pinks.

But I couldn’t focus on the extravagant sight when the person I loved most was leaving me, for college.

Her feet dig into the wet sand, the waves crashing against her calves as I stand ten feet away. She’s st...

I have not gotten a wink of sleep since the day I brought home this… _child_.

He is not a child. He is a menace. He cries but never utters a word. He whines but never laughs. On some nights, I’ll step out of the shower to find him staring at me at the end of the hallway. Just… staring. He does not move, does not speak, I’m not even quite sure he moves at all.

I always look past it for I remembe...

I can freeze time. Sounds fake, I know.

But truly, I can. I just have not figured what has triggered it yet. Time stops at random time, random places. It seems I can never grasp the control of it nor the works of. I cannot stop time with my hands or my thoughts or through will. Nothing works. I even tried counting the days and hours until the next time-stop period and still, no pattern.

At leas...

The grass tickles my bare feet. I’m hesitant at first, apprehensive to this foreign object that I am feeling. It’s green—so, so green. The lush, verdant nature makes my eyes grow wide as I try to take in everything. Birds of all kinds talking and chattering to one another, their songs of voice blessing my ears like a sweet poetry in a dream.

Colorful, vibrant butterflies fly across my face in the...

Honesty is valued. Honesty is the truth. Honesty is everything. It is not good to lie, it only brings the worst in people and it certainly does not build relationships as much as it destroys them. Lies are the only sole cause for destruction.

Three lies; use them wisely.

I am reminded of the societal motto every waking day, by friends, family, neighbors. It is not a curse like my foes say, it’s ...

I pull the blankets to her chin, watching as she settles in. The old book found in my grandma’s attic creaks with dust. “In a land far, far away was a village. Small thing it was. In this village, there was a girl… a quite _aloof_ girl. She absolutely adored reading—she did it whenever she could. Her name, was Belle.”

“Girls in the village were jealous of Belle’s beauty, for she was considered on...