I ran down the alleyway, ducking between piles of debris to try and evade my pursuers. This assignment was one of importance, I knew, but there was no reason to send a duke to do the job of a captain. As unequipped as I was, I could not help but think that a captain would perform better than I anyway, which led me to question why, exactly, I was here. The information I was sent to obtain was ne...

'...and that was the moment that I realized it wasn’t ever the plan for me to make it out alive.'

The door closed behind me with an insidious click. I felt my breath catch, a small sound escaping as I realized there was no going back. The memories rushed back like a great dam suddenly and horrifyingly opened, and I knew.

Too late I struggled, searching for a way out. A desperation rose within me l...

(satirical piece)

I sat down next to this girl

She was quite a pretty lass

But when I gave her a little twirl

I almost made her fall, so I had to grab her ass

So she wouldn’t fall on her face

She got back up and angrily looked at me

Saying I should be sprayed and hit with a mace

She continued shouting, then kicked my knee

I remembered her leaving

Walking away

But before she left, still raging

S...

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...

I’d gotten used to the clink of glasses bouncing off the crystalline windows of Rag ’n’ Joley’s, as well as the troubled chatter of bitter pharmaceutical reps hunched in the corner booths. Sometimes pieces of their conversations drifted in my direction. I knew if I so much as tried to pick up on the words, my sanity would roll out the back door—which needed to be fixed; it was letting the cold win...

Making friends is easy. I don’t know why I was so nervous. I mean I’m used to hunting people, other serial killers. I’m good at it but it doesn’t really hone one’s people skills. Dr. Peters recommended I get out and mingle. Oh we hit a speed bump I think.

I wish this trunk had an emergency light. No worries, just gotta get my phone. Mingling was harder than I thought. I guess most people make fr...

My father used to laugh, telling everyone that me, his crazy son, loved haunted houses. “Can’t get enough of ‘em!” He’d say, shaking his head. “Not me. I don’t trust those people!”

It was true. I had the goal of going to every haunted house in every state. Some only opened in October, so that was the busiest month of the year for me. My friends knew not to expect me to be around in those fall mo...

Nora try’s to get out of her constraints without any success. Nora sees one of the masked men rap a hand around Kylie’s throat and feels a surge of anger course through her. Nora feels around her hand to see if her ring is still. After feeling that her ring is still on she taps on the secret compartment and uses the knife in it to cut open the rope around her hands and legs. A sudden power outage ...

I looked at Ella, and she looked at me, and that was the moment I realized it wasn’t ever the plan for me to make it out alive.

I reached out and touched her cheek. “I know. I understand.” Around us, the room we were trapped in began to dissolve. Chunks of rock fell from the shaking ceiling. Floorboards came apart underneath us.

I stared into Ella’s eyes for one agonizing second. I prayed to wh...

Running through the thick brush, Asther pants as the wind whips his hair into his face. The loud stomps of horses behind him and the angry shouts of the knights follow him.

Looking behind himself, Asther sees a man who is loading his bow. He quickly turns back around but only a moment too late, he trips over the root of a tree. “Hurry and shoot that d***ed bow!” A voice shouts, Asther quickly pu...