My doorbell rang just as I was about to place the plate in the oven. I set it down on the kitchen counter and hurried to open the front door.

"Good morning, Liz," came my neighbor’s sweet voice, accompanied by his usual warm smile.

"Hey, how are you?" I returned the smile, immediately noticing the box in his hands.

"I'm great, thank you. I was making pizza and thought of you, knowing how much you ...

I blink my eyes open, staring into the dimly lit room around me. It takes me several minutes to figure out how I ended up here. The last thing I remember was walking home from school after missing the last bus in the area.

That’s when I heard footsteps behind me—getting closer, matching my pace every time I tried to speed up.

Before I could turn around to check, a piece of cloth came from behind a...

In this world, everyone is obsessed with anti-aging that the government ordered labs to create repairing facial treatment along with a once-a day pill called "youthful"

It was a successful product, spread all over the world, yet the obsession and fear of people had made them take the treatment more times than it's prescribed.

One day when a woman was sleeping with a small mirror clenched to her fi...

"All this money and you still have the fashion sense of a 1970's grandma."

I round the table and take a seat across from him.

He just scowls at me, sighing deeply and finishing his glass.

I chew on my gum with a grin, raising my hand to the waitress to order something to drink.

"Let’s skip the pleasantries, shall we? You and I both know we’re not here for small talk.” he says coldly, taking a dr...

I take the first sip of my vodka, letting the liquid burns before swallowing it. I'm still not used to the taste of it. But then again, I only drink when I feel my throat has been dry from all the words I spit out. Words always spoken, but never heard.

Seconds later, I hear a female, familiar, voice coming near me and calling out my name.

"Georgina!"

I turn around, finding my old neighboor's lumi...

I enter the house and head directly to the kitchen when I hear my grandmother's humming. Once I get inside the kitchen, the sweet smell of baking wraps around me. I close my eyes and take a sniff before I smile and tiptoe to my grandmother.

Booh!

My grandmother gasps sharply, almost knocking me with the stray she's holding.

"Oh my god, Jessy! I told you to stop this," she smacks my chest and aims...

I eat up the stairs two at a time, checking the time on my phone at the same time. I was supposed to be here five minutes ago. Hope this tardiness won't cost me an exclusion from this competition or I might burn the bus I took to come here. It's the driver's fault if I'm late.

I arrive at classroom number 15 and push the door open without even knocking. Too stressed to even think straightly. I won...

"Only a call away!"

I stare at the words written under the number of the suicide prevention hotline. I fix the screen until my eyes hurt. But the burning in my eyes is not only from the laptop flashlight. This is my sixth bottle of wine today.

I take one last sip and throw the bottle across the room, sending it crashing against the wall.I check the number again and chuckle to myself.

A call. As ...

Maybe I just needed a lie to keep telling myself. Maybe I just needed an excuse to keep doing what I do.

Because I liked it.

I liked serving justice by my own hands. But is it justice when I direct my wrath to people who don't deserve the same end as him?

The blood dripping from my fingertips and forming a dark pool of blood on the gravel is innocent. But they can't know that. They will never kn...

There is a muffled voice coming from downstairs calling out my name. I was wondering why there was raising voices when I was supossed to be in the middle of a forest---alone. Minutes later, my door is swung open, snapping me back from the beautiful place I was wandering in. Instantly, the soothing birdcalls are replaced by a snarled, deep tone.

"You're still asleep!?" my father's angry voice is fo...