The ones who smile the brightest are always the ones who hide the most pain.

In a way, she makes it her mission to bring light to those around her, even though in her own little world it’s just continuing to get darker and darker. It seems the only thing she can do is put up a wall of laughter and joy; because underneath the surface, her joy is fading away.

She sneaks tears in the dead of nigh...

“I—I don’t understand it. I just.. I don’t understand,” she pressed the back of her hand to her mouth, holding back a sob. ”How could you—how could you live after doing that? How could you spend hours planning every intricate detail of a man’s death?”

Jackson watched as she struggled. Her watery eyes flicked from one side of the room to the other, but never looking directly at him. Her cheeks a...

Warren’s eyes drooped as he rested his head back against the headrest, the car now successfully pulled off the highway and the stick shift pulled back to park.

A tow trucker had been called; now all Warren had to do was wait for the man to arrive, tow his car, bring it to the dealership, and be his saving grace for the week.

It’s funny how much a dead battery can impact someone’s life. Even if...

Y’kara stared down at the small blue, thick, rose emblem held between her fingers. A small frown adorning her puzzled face as she fumbled with the emblem. Her finger drug over a split in the metal, an old wound which was inflicted long before the emblem had come to her possession.

Her mind shifted back to earlier that morning. A sentence which seemed to have flipped her world upside down.

“Gua...

Dorothy Jean stood in front of her overly ecstatic brother. Her heals smacked against the marble tile as she impatiently tapped her left foot, her eyes dancing from side to side as her eldest brother bounced from one side of his work bench to the other. He seemed to gleam with excitement. He practically shook.

“Ray, I have a lot of work I have to get done. So could we please hurry?”

Raymond qu...

It all started with the letters. Those small, threatening messages printed on antique paper with chard edges. “Watch your back, you never know what could be lurking behind you,” or “You’ll regret ever meeting me.”

At first I thought they were a joke, a little prank from one of the boys. After I’d find them they’d disappear, and a portion of my sealing wax would disappear also. My desk would be i...

Down here in the Slums nothing is bright. Everything’s dark, depressed, cast in a permanent state of grey and no one to come and pull us out.

Here anything that could possibly bring happiness and joy was forbidden and taken away to be brought to the Highlands, for the rich and pompous to enjoy. Those up there’s get all our possessions, all we get is a holding place and ratty clothes. The only th...

They had arrived here three weeks ago. Everyone thought it’d be temporary. That they’d be in and out in about a week, and they’d take the ship with them.

It had been too cold for anyone to leave the comfort of their homes for that first week. Those that did were able to catch a glimpse of the workers in red, and those odd machine’s they used to deconstruct this foreign vehicle.

They almost look...

“How can you say that?!”

Mara Louis huffed, and thrust her hands in the air, “Because it’s a rational statement, Jackson! Who likes pineapple on pizza?!”

“I do! And clearly millions of other humans, unlike yourself, who clearly is not even nearly sane enough to be called one.” Jackson Davis’ cheeks turned red as he glared in utter fury.

Mara pressed a hand against her chest, feigning an apolo...

Dear Diary, 2/15/95

It snowed earlier this afternoon, long after I had left the house for school. Mother bundled me up in layers, which fought off the bitter cold as I went as quickly as I could without slipping on the ice.

At first I thought it was silly, but after hours of schoolwork and we’d had finally got let out, I realized I was the foolish on...