The lights were brighter than an entire street lined with Christmas trees. Reds and blues encompassed her as if in a club.

It wasn’t a club, though.

The first thing she was faintly aware of was the cold. Goosebumps covered her bare arms, and through a hazy ringing she could hear the chattering of her teeth.

What was going on?

“On the ground!” A man screamed. Where had it come from, though?...

Life sucks, doesn’t it?

Life sucks and then you die. Everybody had been saying that since middle school, and it took him until the age of 25 to realize the reality of it.

Life sucks and then you die.

The rain had gotten heavier since he had begun walking home. Fitting, he supposed, given the circumstances. If it had been sunny it might have actually hurt more.

He set a goal for himself tha...

“I…” Emma squirmed in her seat, looking at the floor. “I don’t want to talk about this, mom.”

“Well, it’s important that we do,” Shirley said firmly. She didn’t like seeing her daughter uncomfortable, but she wanted to do what her own mother never had. If her mother had had this talk with her… well, things would have gone very differently for her.

Emma absently rubbed her eyes, still avoiding ...

All that stood between them was her desk, but it felt as if they were miles apart. She sat with her face resting on her hands, staring at him with dim, weary eyes. How long would they have to sit like this before he would finally return her gaze?

Susan wasn’t sure when it had started. One day Gavin was her favorite student, greeting her every day with a cheery grin and a perky charm. The boy sit...

The soft breeze coming from the sea usually brought him comfort. The smell of the salt, the cool air against his warm skin, and the gentle sound of waves generally set him at ease.

As he stood in his usual spot before the mighty body of water, though, he was filled with nothing but terror.

The cold air now chilled him to the bone, the waves sounded like cities collapsing to the earth, and the ...

“I don’t know, man,” Matt murmured, anxiously rubbing his arms as he looked down at the array of arsenal sitting out in front of him. “I’m not sure I’m into this anymore.”

“Well, that’s too damn bad,” Charlie growled. He was too preoccupied with stuffing a duffel bag with guns to look up at his friend.

Were they friends?

“Can you really live with this?” Matt was getting desperate. He saw bar...

“I can’t see anything!” She shrieked for the fourth time in a row. In vain, she held her arms out in front of her, flapping them vehemently back and forth as if she could fly out of the hell-hole they were trapped in.

“I know you can’t fucking see anything,” Abe growled, slowly dragging one hand down his sweat covered face.

He was lost in a dark, musty cave with his friend’s girlfriend. How co...