I’ve always been curious about the histories connected to belongings. I buy many of my things second hand from charity shops, retro speciality stores – those sorts of places. You can call me cheap all you want, but for me things have feelings. The vinyl record you listened to the night you were dumped, scratches…
I knew it, my friends all knew it, and everyone at school knew it. But, no one would believe us. School was quiet with the truth hanging everywhere. The other students silently drifted from class to class, no one really spoke all that much anymore. Between each period, there was a brief and hushed march…
Ever since I can remember I have had a strange fascination with mirrors. The idea that there is a piece of glass which reflects everything you see. I still wonder what the first man thought when he was saw his reflection in still water. Did he instinctively know it was him? Or did he spend…
A few months ago I was busy preparing to move to a new house when I came across something from my past. I was going through my belongings, trying to figure out what to keep and what to discard, when I found an old shoebox stuffed down the back of my closet. Curious, I opened…
Death. For many, it is a concept to be feared, to be respected. It is the ender of relationships, of knowledge, of everything that you were and will have ever been. They see it as nothing but a monster, the blades ready at a moment’s notice to cut clean through the fragile string you call…
Dear Survivor- If you’re reading this, I’m probably dead. It’s for the best. You see, about four or five days ago, a storm rolled in. Now, this in and of itself isn’t anything strange. The clouds and the rain though, they had a yellow tint to them. It smelled weird and tasted funny too, none…
My first love was a pretty girl with golden hair and skin of pearl. We thought our meeting one of chance, our senses caught in that first glance, and watched our love unfurl. Our lives entwined at dizzying rate, as if our love was set by fate, and none were taken by surprise when talk…
“Mother?” In the dim light of my bedroom, cast by a single candlestick that made shadows dance on the ceiling, I sought her smiling face. It anchored my life and my world. “Yes, dear?” “May I ask three questions before I go to sleep?” “Of course.” Rustle went her nightdress; whoosh went the wind outside….
Waves washed in fury upon the shore with black-stained waters bloodied by the night. The sea spat salt and roared in protest of all things happy and holy. Its rage was without thought or reason, merely a cruel instinct bound to its ever-writhing form. And the people of Mortar’s Isle had named it Evil; for…
One month ago, on a rain-slicked street My mother and I got a bite to eat But on the way back, I slipped and fell And I suppose the car coming didn’t see me well Because the next thing I knew, as I lifted my head I was staring at the sheets of a hospital…
“JESUS!!” I cried. Being jolted from a half dose at a quarter to midnight by my new ‘Halloween theme’ ringtone didn’t do wonders for my heart-rate, especially since I’d momentarily forgot I’d changed the tone at all that day. Took me a while to find my phone stuck down the side of the armchair I…
I was told I shouldn’t write this. My friends, those few that I have left, tell me it will be embarrassing, a public declaration of my mental illness. My father, dry as ever, reminded me that it would contradict my sworn testimony in court. And for my part, I know deep down that no one…
My training in Comparative Literature — my miserable graduate school experience in particular — taught me that there is much productive work to be done outside of one’s own academic department. You learn new things by diving into other disciplines. In turn, you come away with fresh ideas; and in turn, those can be synthesized…
As noted in the title, this is a sequel to The Fort and Survival. “Baby, come on! We need to go!” Ryan yelled as he slammed the trunk of their Hyundai sedan. “I’m coming!” Carla called from inside the house, appearing seconds later carrying a gym bag. “I just got some clothes for Kyle.” She…
Back in February of 2008, I decided that I needed a change in my monotonous life. Whether that change would come in the form of a new job or a new toothbrush, I didn’t know. I was never the most adventurous person, I’ve always found it difficult to veer away from my comfort zone and…
Still no messages on my phone. I guess he wasn’t going to call me back after all. I can’t really blame him, maybe I came on a bit too fast yesterday. I had noticed him long before he noticed me. His shiny black hair and unnatural blue eyes. I wasn’t the only one watching him,…
“Hey slow the hell down, would ya!?” I shouted at my friend as he sprinted past the encroaching tress that surrounded us. We’d been walking for about half an hour and I think he was starting to get impatient. He practically had to drag me and my other friend out here to show us some…
Sometimes decisions in life aren’t easy to make, and rather than being driven by morals or logic, they’re driven by emotion and sheer necessity to survive. From time to time, everyone is forced to make a decision like this, and I am no different. That being said, it doesn’t mean I’m proud of what I…
It has been said that you should never meet your idols. It was the Christmas of 2005 that I came face to face with mine; someone the majority of people don’t believe in, after a certain age, of course. I was ten years old at the time and still held on to my beliefs, regardless…
My name is Jim McGraw. I was the Command Module Pilot of Apollo 19. Contrary to popular belief, there were at least two more missions to the moon that were kept secret from the public. I flew to the moon in June of 1973 under the command of Commander Thomas Caird. Our friend, Steve Willis,…
“You can only hold a smile for so long, after that it’s just teeth.” ¬- Chuck Palahniuk By the time I had made my way into town I was just about ready to collapse. Sprinting for your life through cornfields and over long stretches of gravel roads at 1:00 a.m. will do that to a…
A few days ago, I uprooted my entire existence and relocated to the Southwest Cape of Stewart Island, New Zealand. Initially, I had intended this trip as an escape, to be shared with my wife as we lived out the rest of our days in beach-dwelling bliss. Yet, as we aged, I began fostering a…
Someone was in my kitchen last night. I moved to this apartment about a year ago, and I swear that I haven’t gotten a single good night’s sleep since then. Every day, it’s been the same: get up, shove some cheap crap down my throat, go to school or work, come home, veg out in…
When you are admitted to a hospital, they place on your wrist a white wristband with your name on it. But there are other different colored wristbands which symbolizes other things. The red wristbands are placed on dead people. There was one surgeon who worked on night shift in a school hospital. He had just…