Arc 9: Fall Apart

I awoke to the smiling face of my father. “Wake up, sunflower. Come see the dye I made.” His face swam out of sight and the bedding slipped away from me. The scents of home brought warm feelings with them: baking bread, the hot metal of the blacksmith, the smell of goats and sheep.  My […]

A gust of wind whipped across the field, making the wheat ripple in golden waves. I pulled my sweater over my exposed shoulders. Kellen’s long hair dipped down as they looked at me. Their face was angelic, framed by the blue sky above, their long lashes drooped over their blue eyes like they were half-asleep.

I felt light. Lighter than I’d ever felt before.  Up up up you go! Swing as high as you want. But don’t blame me if you start to fly. As if a huge burden had been lifted off my shoulders. My feet still touched the ground, but if I wanted to, I’d simply let go

I had to do this right. I would only get one chance. The gunmen had their weapons at the ready. Their masks modeled after roadkill stared back at me with glassy eyes. I needed Chase to be confident. That way he wouldn’t think he needed the guns. I knew him. Wherever possible, if he could,

A lounge chair stirred. An arm pulled free at its base and pushed, tipping the chair over onto its backrest. A single bloodshot eye stared out from between the cushions. From there, the chair split apart, more limbs unravelling from where they had been stuffed into concealed compartments, all in the name of presenting as

I understood why deers freeze on dark highways. The Aberrant’s hands grew like headlights and the scream was like metal grinding over metal, a clear portent of death and yet I couldn’t move. Ripped from the forest, senses overloaded with something that my instincts were telling me shouldn’t exist. By the time it was upon

Maria spoke from atop the Collector’s head, a mouthpiece for her silent slave, “You have a knack for putting yourself in dangerous situations, Nick. You’re lucky I regained control of this guy, otherwise he’d be lunging for you right now.” I slowly inched towards the car. “How do you keep finding us?” “That’s a secret,”

My heart pounded as I looked at the pieces of the Wolf scattered across the floor. Their expression of shock was permanently etched on their face. The Aberrant moved and I didn’t want to look. But even out of focus, it dominated the space, its presence feeling like a pressure on my eyes and lungs. 

Fleeing the Aberrant, we had ended up in a ballroom. Besides the stage with the instruments sitting in glass boxes, the rest of the room was sparsely furnished, just a few chairs along the walls. The other Wolves were checking the doors to see if any of them were unlocked. One Wolf wearing a mask

It was like a gun went off in a room full of cats. Everyone sprung away with superhuman reflexes and instincts honed from being in proximity to danger, jumping onto the table or rolling out of their chairs, immediately looking for avenues of escape. I was torn out of my seat and dragged to the