Lina found a paper with a short message on the table. "Burn all of the dolls before it's too late."
Fiction
She didn’t give it too much thought at the time because she was too worried. Her grandmother, having fallen ill two years ago, had given her an old rusty key. Since then, it had become like a safety blanket, something she kept in her pocket at all times. She felt it brought her calm when she was about to break. Now that Grandmother had actually died, the key had become indispensable. It had been a long week after the funeral. People had come in and out of Grandmother’s home, and she’d had to smile throughout all of it. Ever since mother had passed, she was the only one left living in the area, and the only one who’d taken care of Grandmother, so the responsibility had naturally fallen on her. Yet she did everything, trying to act like Grandmother would have acted in this situation. She reassured crying family members, […]
Locks
The problem with coffee was the caffeine. Decaf didn’t make everyone’s thoughts louder...
A Super Hero Thing
Sometimes he wondered what had happened to the students at the university...
Star
The boy tried to pull the restraints off. They were tight. Still, he pulled and kept trying. They hurt his wrists. He tried kicking or using his legs off the chair and pull on the ropes around his wrists. It did nothing. To make it worse, being unable to see because of the thick blindfold heightened his other senses. His heartbeat thumped like a war drum though it had little fight left. His breath pained him on his lips, both of them dry and broken from screaming and swearing. “Please let me go,” he pleaded. Hours ago, he’d sworn he’d kill the old man. He threatened and argued. Now, he begged. “I swear. I will not tell on you. I ain’t no snitch, sir.” “Quiet boy,” the old man responded, his voice calm and controlled. Too restrained for someone who had just been shouted at for nearly two hours. Or, […]
Dolls
It was as if he lost all of his body heat through his eyes. A sight? As one of the leading researchers in the medical field, he never expected that a mere display could freeze him on the spot. Rows. Racks. Cattle had it better. At least, the animals were dead as they hung from their hooks. It seemed they were not as kind to humans as humans were to animals. “Get your shit together, doctor!” the single soldier sent to accompany him said. The doctor blinked quickly, as he snapped back to reality. That was true. He was here for a reason, not just to be shocked by the image of laboratory human experiments. They were supposed to find out why they had suddenly left earth and opened the doors to their special quarantined floor. “I’m sorry. Let’s go,” the doctor said. Leading, the doctor walked across the main […]
Eyes
Gunshots. The men scream. Her heartbeat. It rings in her ears. Her breath, shallow and quick as she runs, burns her throat. Her nostrils flare up, and her eyes tear up. The bundle she holds against her chest moves a little, reassuring her that he’s still alive. She stops momentarily, her back against one of the many pine trees around her house, and checks on him. The boy holds his hands up against his face, as if to complain about being woken up. He doesn’t cry though. He’s been such a good boy so far. He needs to be quiet or the creature will pursue. She glances back at her house. Through the windows, she sees the shadows move haphazardly. More gun blasts. Windows shatter. The men scream again. “She’s too fucking fast!” “Just distract her long enough for Jean to run away!” More gunshots. A screech follows. It breaks […]
Vinegar
The table cloth dances with the light breeze. It’s cold, it being a nine in the evening on a January. Luckily, there’s an outdoor heater next to me, the warmth cradling me like a holy spirit. I am cleaning my glasses, my fingers rubbing the microfiber cloth against the glass, wiping a little stubborn smudge. Using my breath, I fog the lens up and wipe it away successfully. I put the glasses on and lean back on my chair. The bitter scent of my tea is strong enough to reach me. Tea isn’t really my thing. It just happens to be that there’s a café across the street from the alley I have my sight on, and coffee tastes awful. I had it once a long time ago. Now, I wouldn’t be caught dead with a cup of it. Even the smell of it irritates me. That’s why I order […]
Scent
My eyes burned, and I felt as if I had too much alcohol before bed. I pulled the watch from my nightstand, and muttered the words to myself, “3:33am,” a part of me hoping that the time would be different. I cursed. It was the same time I’ve seen every night for over a month. Tossing the watch back on the nightstand, I turned around to face away from the damn clock, and stared at the wall. The threes floated around in my head, my mind drifting back to sleep, part of my consciousness already in that surreal world. Yet, the threes came back and ripped my eyes open again. *** When it first began, I did not think much of it. I thought it was just something strange, a coincidence. And like most of the weird things in life, I reasoned that with time it would pass and I […]
Knock Knock Knock
When Jean saw her for the first time, he nearly froze, a hiccup in his mind, but let it go as a passing glitch. A janitor, after all, never stood a chance with an actual Tempus University student. However, when he saw her a second time, he could no longer lie to himself. It wasn’t just his programming. So, for the next two weeks, he kept “bumping” into her, trying to play it off as a coincidence though it was an excuse to say hello, talk for a bit, and learn more about her, bolstering his obsession. Her name was Estrella Fuentes, an engineering student, one of the best. She kept her hair short, styled to the left, and wore a flower behind her ear every day. But what caught Jean’s attention more was how she changed the flower depending on what she wore, making every day exciting. In the […]