Everything was better...

SLEEP

Jenny was actually at the point in the sleep deprivation where she’d moved well past feeling ill, and her whole body trembling. All of that had passed in day two. She’d burnt herself twice with a soldering iron and had accidently stabbed herself with a screwdriver, but she was better now. The trembling and nausea were gone, and other than tired, bleary eyes that were dry and a tad itchy, she felt good. It also helped that she was getting a lovely back massage from the purple and green polka dotted elephant she’d been hallucinating for the last two hours.

The day will come...

RISING

Under the canopy of leaves, under the thorny vines strangling the trees, under the bramble and brush and thicket and undergrowth, under the dried leaves, under the mushy compost, under the thick grey clay on the bank of the slow-moving creek with the slime-covered rocks, it is buried. It is buried, and it waits. It waits for its rising, and yes that day will come. The day of its rising was foretold. What has been foretold always comes to pass, that is why it is foretold—so that we may recognize the signs. It will rise and it will walk.

It was never like the movies...

ESCAPE

It might not have been the wisest thing to do, but punching the vampire in the face was the only thing she could think of. Grace’s clenched fist crushed into the ungiving cheekbone of the creature of the night, a painful shock traveling up her arm and back down to her knuckles, and she was fairly certain something was broken. If not broken—at least horribly sprained. But the vampire let go of her. Not entirely—but he loosened his grip, he was so startled by her brazenness. Grace twisted hard, like they taught in self defense classes, and ran.

They came so far for so little...

EXPLORATION

It spoke. Its voice was only noise to human ears; a rubbery grinding sound like under-inflated tires on an old gravel road. Its long, mechanical limbs raised and lifted as it moved, possibly in some gesticulation, wondering what the tiny, squishy figures were doing, intruding in its lair. The humans spoke to it; explained that they were peaceful explorer from a planet called Earth, long dead and far away. The humans offered it a hand in friendship, and the creature backed away, insulted that the ugly bio-creatures would whip out such an obscene appendage, right there in the throne room.

It also smelled of aged fish...

HOME

Els Criboth Kinnten.  That was what was carved over the tiny wooden door that blended nearly-perfectly into the bark of the twisted oak tree.

You are not welcome here.  That was the rough translation.

The minuscule brass doorknob had a twisted symbol on it  meant to ward off trespassers, friends and unwanted family members. Plingoth slid his key into the lock with satisfaction. A Crelleth’s home was where he hung his hat, and he hung his hat in a place too inhospitable for anyone to want to visit there. It was as it should be. That’s all he asked for

They never figure it out on their own...

MUSE

The lack of productivity wasn’t Aubrey fault; the Muse had left her. Quite abruptly, too. Just after dinner. She’d been rinsing her plate, when the Muse silently got up and left. For a moment, she wasn’t even aware of the Muse’s absence, until she looked over at the table, and saw the half-eaten pie and coffee sitting there, and the Muse nowhere to be found.

She threw her sponge into the sink and called after the Muse. “Hey! What’s going on?”

“If I have to explain it, you’ll never understand!” The front door slammed, and Aubrey was alone.

It was odd...

CONFECTION

Sherman sniffed the air. “It smells like… cupcakes.”

Ellen took in a deep breath, concentrating on everything around her. “It does. Quite a bit.” She looked around for any sign of cream frosting and vanilla, but there were no man-mad confections anywhere near them. She inhaled again, slower this time. “In fact, I can’t smell anything else.”

Nodding, Sherman looked around them. Usually the rain forest floor smelled of wet wood and dung and exotic animals and waxy, thick leaves. And right now, it smelled like… cupcakes. “I think we’d do well to leave this place.”

Ellen followed after him.

She said so much with so little...

It was always like this...

A heart's desire...

QUEST


She thunked the severed robot head on the floor. It clanged against the marble of the great hall with a metallic dink that echoed of the pillars and arches. Sparks crackled at the ends of the crinkled wires protruding from the neck like baby’s breath and a bride’s bouquet.

“This.” The single word was breathy from her labor. “This is what you asked me to kill, and it is done.”

The man who sat upon the gilded throne at the center of the great hall nodded. “And so it will be, that you shall be awarded according to your wish.”