My eyes follow her as she walks away and I can hear my heart shatter inside my chest.

Her steps aren’t faltering. She isn’t hesitating. I should be doing the same. My brothers flight should be landing any minute now.

But I can’t look away, can’t move, can barely breathe.

Eventually I find the will to move my muscles, the announcement over the loudspeaker that my brother’s plane had landed spu...

“Finally,” Moira sighs. “They’re all gone.”

The five of them are scattered around the giant sitting room, all of them slouching as much as possible now that all of the nobility had left.

“I thought they would never leave,” Willow muttered.

Everyone hummed in agreement.

Ian for one, had imagined the aftermath of them saving the world would be a lot more fun.

The previous day had been mostly ...

I had lived in my small town since the day I was born and I didn’t leave until the age of 18.

The cabin had been there since even before then.

Some of the older people in town say that it used to be beautiful. A well crafted wooden cabin with a gorgeous garden in its front lawn. In my earliest memories, the once beautiful garden is overgrown to the point that some of the grass is several feet ta...

I wake up slowly, my eyelids lightly fluttering open as I process the near darkness around me.

“John?”

I stir a little at the sound of my name. I move to sit up, thinking it might be my mom waking me up for school but I realize I’m already sitting.

“John!”

The more insistent shout is what snaps me back to reality. I gasp as my head shoots up. My eyes bounce around the room, taking in my surrou...

The spell broke, and just like that, she could see everything with fresh eyes.

The first thing she felt was utter and complete exhaustion. She imitated a ragdoll as she very nearly collapsed onto the floor, only being held upwards by some force gripping her wrists.

Everything in her told her to close her eyes, but she fought to keep them open and lift her head.

She looked around the now famili...

I’m running so fast, I’m worried my legs might fall off.

Not that I care.

My legs could fall off, my lungs could collapse, it doesn’t matter. I would do whatever it takes to make it to the end of the path that is now finally within reach.

The end of the rainbow is obscured from my sight by a line of trees but I do not care. I barrel right through them, not caring as I feel parts of my skin get ...

I take a deep breath in as I hear the door to my workplace click shut behind me. The air is cold and the sun has nearly finished setting in the sky, but it’s not dark nor quiet.

The streets are alive with joy and festivities. People are hand in hand with loved ones, some are dancing with friends, some are doing what I’m doing now and simply watching everything around them with a content smile.

...

I open my eyes, wholly unsurprised at the tree in front of me. I’d been preparing for this for the past couple of days.

I crane my neck up, trying to see where Daniel is. I can just barely see his feet dangling off a thick branch about three quarters of the way up. I set my jaw, roll up my sleeves, and begin my ascent.

It takes about a minute, maybe two, and then I’m settling beside Daniel, star...

Allen was glad to finally be home. He had been on the verge of going home for the night when he finally figured out what was wrong with the initial sketch for the house he had been instructed to design. Now it was nearing 8:30 at night and he told his boyfriend and their roommates that he would be home by 7. As he was driving home he felt guilty for being out so late, but now, standing on their fr...

I sit up and look around, a groggy feeling engulfing my consciousness. I have no idea where I am or how I got here. My memory is fuzzy but I certainly wasn’t in the middle of no where when I fell asleep.

I have a vague memory of laying down in a stack of hay, Ev by my side.

Now, I’m alone, no stack of hay (or Ev) in sight.

I take a look around at my surroundings. The trees are tall, but the b...