Laura

Music plays without warning. After a long spell in a dark, frozen tableau, the light streams in. I take my position on a mirrored platform and twirl in well-rehearsed circles. As I turn, I see her rummage through strings of beads and plastic rings. She pauses to watch me and fluff my tutu with a chubby finger. She hums my tune and closes the lid. I return to my statuesque hibernation until she bids me to dance again.

Troy

Mt. Baker, WA Scare: Beware. High-tea at The Empress on Victoria I. ferried across straits into US and drive up Baker’s narrow 1-way single lane slippery when wet…sinking feeling. The view: (Unanswerable), deep, dark, wooded chasm. Unsafe. Something strange. Haunting. Sixth sense. Turned around. Trust No One. PS: Drive carefully or harrowing DEAD END AHEAD.—Troy

Christopher

Eli's mind was spinning like the storm he was watching turning in the Gulf. His brain was ringing like a bell. The information projected before him seemed to clang off of his understanding of the world so violently he could almost hear the metallic reverberations. He was shaking. He was concerned about the fact that he was shaking. He shut his eyes for a moment and held a deep breath, his own little storm held in.

Jenn

She asked Adam about the Future of Love. After all, he couldn’t promise her Eden anymore. And he couldn’t get her another apple. Yet, they both needed an answer.
His Image longingly rippled in a reflecting pool. It gave no directions.
His heart tapped a code. His mind could not decipher the sound.
Her rib poked inside him. Then, he knew how to make Love work.
He hissed at her with his forked tongue.

Michael

Her eyes drew me in. She was brilliant and trouble. I held her hand. So delicate…her warmth, her energy. Magic. The ceiling disappeared to reveal a swirling star filled night sky. She was by far the brightest. At that moment, that instant, I knew that if we never saw each other again, I would still do all I could do to be a better man. Perhaps, if the stars aligned, she would choose to spend her life with me.

norman

I. to become badly spoke is no ordinary truth to have one's secrets spoke by one animal to another out of species comes vulgar evolution i know because i have seen my pets become human in their passing as i must have become one with all these robots laughing you are so stiff these days saying nothing

norman

H. so tell me parrot what should I do with these rusty piranha feed them to the robotic garbage cat sell them on the open ebay market you don't answer to anyone do you do you live so long by that rule it is interesting how you listen to repeat past lives of imperfect strangers

norman

G. after all these many years the pool has been cemented in as a dance floor still not used for the ballet once written was never produced the glass wall was gone replaced by revolving secret panels the doberman is an oil painting displaying in a video on her bedroom's ceiling the leopards were replaced by dioramas of goldfish and golf she didn't whistle much these days addressing the parrot as she picked tarot cards

norman

F. a parrot a knocking parrot a beautiful though mocking angel this visitor what had it heard what had it learned to say for food for affection for an attitude would it claw the admiring face bite the adorning hand ask the same questions as a man again were its wings left never clipped so it might leave on its own or was it always at home with whomever supplied the fruit despite the wrongs who gives a mocking gift

norman

E. her dog licked her hand as she answered the door with a thought she was going to have her party with whomever answered her call in madagascar she didn't get pregnant though she wanted a lion for a cub she would never lay so quite in galopogos never wanted reptitles in her species though she wouldn't mind rare birds she answered to no one

norman

D. another week expired now the woman tips were shaped as she had instructed danger to have a point directed at above she was happy with her sunburst dagger diamond ceiling the pool house walls jade emerald mountains lush green ferns and palms potted plants surrounding peeking marble men vein maps throughout their bodies casting shadow committed to flora and the ground

norman

C. completion satisfies mostly the moment its conceived and the moment it gratifies is subsumed by another ambition the absconder of the next obtainment as allusive as what's behind a door without a fitting key to catch the outside air has come through the cracks vacating with the heat why hadn't she thought of it before a fireplace in the pool room no a pit surrounded by spears each a woman smooth

norman

B. her fingers articulated over the doberman’s skull while ears stood attention pointed she whistled as a flute from lima the sound in circles bounced from the reflective glass wall just as she had thought she always wanted to return to half seeing water leopards herself and the dog sculpted men around her pouring life's offerings into the pool as the piranhas bubbled and now this was the day she would have

norman

A. snow leopard posters side by side wall to wall her bedroom except for the glass wall she would look through seeing herself and half her view the empty pool still under construction by cyber she hired for concrete pourings brains for aqua vita bubbles robotic piranha just enough to tease her partners diving one by one if they were lucky past her doberman she would pinch men dare the pit she kept xmas eyes alive

norman

C. completion satisfies mostly the moment its conceived and the moment it gratifies is subsumed by another ambition the absconder of the next obtainment as allusive as what's behind a door without a fitting key to catch the outside air has come through the cracks vacating with the heat why hadn't she thought of it before a fireplace in the pool room no a pit surrounded by spears each a woman smooth

Samantha

It was dog number four that put the nail in the coffin, so to speak. It was about a month after the café went out of business, less, maybe. He comes home with it in his arms. Big thing, but still in his arms, carrying it across the threshold. I think he was trying to be funny. But it wasn’t funny. He was never funny.

Jillian

On the second stab the knife slid through as if piercing raw meat. By the third thrust she became numb; feeling nothing until the baby moved. Moving away and up as if she or he wanted out. She had not thought of this before. She had not considered the babies life. She had only thought of ending hers. So it was not the blood or the sharp jolting pain but the baby moving that stopped her and made her consider living.

Susan

She was scary looking to me. A severe looking face, framed by a hair cut that needed to grow, and glasses which emphasized her beak-like nose. Since I was scared to begin with, the sight of the lavender pants, and the feather earrings caused the sweat to appear. A Doctor? A Surgeon? No way is she going to touch me!

Ashok

"That couldn’t be my life flashing by", I recall thinking. I was watching the car's neatly engineered gleaming underside gently float over me. The wheels yearning for traction in vain.
"Wonder how he keeps it so clean?"
The sound of the car returning to the asphalt, crashing into oncoming traffic burst through the wall of silence. Don't think the cleanliness of the underside matters any more.
Why did it ever?

Drew

His machete gleamed in the moonlight and went thwack thwack thwack against the bamboo. It had a hard shell but nothing inside but he didn't lie to thin that was him. It wasn't many who dared to raid at night anymore, but he was one who never feared the guards, the dogs, or the razor wire because to him a man who was afraid was dead inside. That was the old way of the men in the forest. When his notched ladder was cut he hefted it on his shoulder and struck the perfect point of balance as he carried it toward the wall.