Writing Gallery
Excerpt from "Howl's Song" Chapter 16: Catching the Train
On the eve hours of the waning half moon, cusping the time to reboard the Great Achilles, the Beastial Sanctuary is overcome with a sudden, inexplicable cold snap. Trees are covered with the icy cold bite of hail and snow. Woodland creatures retreat to their burrows and warm caves alike to take shelter from the harshness. Everyone was expecting the summer to arrive with breezy air along with roadside trips to sea level for a weeklong vacation. Instead, anyone that isn’t built for extreme colds are forced to take cover in their homes, piling on every single snowstorm technique they could recall. In the cabin at Tablet Lake, the trio are faring in various levels of stability. For Vortex, this sudden snap is incredibly unpleasant. Approaching the waxing half moon has left her with enough fur to provide a decent layer of protection. Coming from the islands, though, her exposure to frosty tundra weather is minimal, if nonexistent. She has opted to bundle up with three to four levels of blankets available in her room. She shivers as she nestles deeper into the duvets. A hot cocoa is nursed in her hands poking out from the confines. With Axle, their metal is able to absorb the temperatures with no complaints. They were brought inside to rest aside the werewolf’s doorway. Right now, they are sleeping, their murky black slit for an eye shut in a peaceful manner. The two raised their concerns about needing to brave the storm for the mission- Axle piped up beforehand to set their minds at ease by informing them of being attuned to the moonstone’s peak attainment. ‘When the moon has risen far enough to beam down on the gate, I will let you know. Save your strength in the meantime,’ they said prior to shutting their eyelid.
The Graveyard Shift: Flash Fiction
You lift the last of the heavy brown packages and load them onto the semi-truck. Your company had recently acquired some sort of contract with a prosthetic team. They’ve been taking on a lot of contracts. Most of them are with complex machinery. Your team had joked they’re being replaced by robots, and sending these boxes off was a firing in waiting. You check the clock on the wall. 1:52AM. These graveyard shifts are making your bones ache something fierce. You try to swipe the sweat off your brow, but are blocked by the new PPE. Right. Particle helmets or something. Everyone has to wear these weird tinted face things because of hazardous material in the boxes. Doesn’t help that this boiler suit is making you sweat up a storm. Only eight more minutes until your ten minute break. You wonder if you should go grab some coffee or use the bathroom during then. While you wait for more boxes at your post, you remember some of your coworkers complaining about how upper management got rid of the coffee maker in the break room. In fact, they took out the fridge and microwave. They said they would replace it soon, but “soon” was two months ago. What’s the hold up? You hit your shin on a beam. You brace for pain, but it doesn’t come. Instead you hear a metallic thud ring out. It came from you. Slowly, you roll up your pant sleeve. Staring in horror, you turn back to see the incoming boxes for you to load. Off in the distance, you spot some higher ups talking in hushed whispers to your manager at his office. They leave, but the door is not fully shut. You quickly check if anyone is paying attention. Sneaking away, you slip inside the dimly lit room. On the desk are papers with business jargon you can’t decipher. You find a contract with the prosthetic company. “New Beginnings”. They specialize in prosthetics for people who have lost limbs from work related accidents. When did you lose your leg? Flashing memories hit your mind, as fire, screams, and pain come all back. There’s another contract. “SeCond Wind Industries”. They regenerate new muscle and tissues for senior patients. “Reanimate Inc”, reversing muscle entropy. There are scattered reports for incidents, life insurance, and… death certificates. You sift through them, and cannot break your gaze as you read your own name. You don’t feel sick. You can’t feel sick. You rush out of the office to the bathrooms. Shucking the helmet off, you are greeted with your ivory white skull with white lights for eyes. You aren’t being replaced with robots. Your job found it cheaper to use your corpse and fit it with choice prosthetics to keep you alive without paying you a single penny. You go slack jawed, and let out a bone-chilling scream. An alarm goes off in the warehouse. Armed security guards break into the bathroom, surrounding you to “take you in”.
Snippet from "Little Beauty and The Witch Beast" Chapter 5: At The Beast's Mercy
“Which one of you is Miss Diana?!” Akko asks, rattling the bars with her hands. “Neither, you stupid little girl,” the redheaded one snaps back. “We’re her confidants. She’ll be here with you shortly to determine your sentence.” “Please, she’s just a child!” Ursula pleads to the two. “Hush, you!” they tell her. “You haven’t been cooperating this entire time- why should we listen to your demands?!” Ursula withers back, wanting to shrink into herself. “Now, what is this ‘thing’ that the old hag didn’t want us to see?” Ursula gawks at them in indignation. She is not that old! “Not telling,” Akko says, sticking her tongue out like a brat. “You little-! Barbara, show her what happens when you don’t listen to your superiors,” the redheaded dryad says. “With pleasure, Hannah,” the black haired dryad (now revealed to be the one called Barbara) says. Thorns and barbs whip up around Akko’s ankles, squeezing tight and pressing painfully into her skin. Akko screams out in pain. “No!” Ursula begs, trying her best to pry the tight vines around her apprentice’s legs off. “Okay, okay!” Akko breaks. She reaches behind her to pull out- a stick? An ordinary, brown stick. “You can’t be serious,” Barbara dumbfoundedly says. “You think I’m stupid?” “Don’t believe me?” Akko bluffs. “Then how do you explain THIS-!” she flicks the end of it like a witch’s wand. Barbara releases her hold on the girl’s ankles, the two backing up in tandem. The stick does nothing. A beat of silence passes. “I can’t believe we fell for that,” Hannah says. “Show us the real thing, you liar!” “I’m serious! Just- give me a second-” Akko lies once more, continuing to flick the stick around. Ursula winces at the sight, furrowing her thin eyebrows together. “Are we seriously going to entertain this fool?” Barbara asks. That makes Akko’s blood begin to run hot. “She clearly knows nothing about magic-”. It’s rising to a simmering boil. “-with armor like that, it’s a no brainer she’s at best cannon fodder and at worst a farm peasant forced to fight.” Now it’s boiling. “YOU TAKE THAT BACK!” Akko declares, putting every ounce of anger into the flick. Something clicks at the tip, then shoots out. A fireball erupts from the stick. Hannah and Barbara barely dodge out of the way. The embers hit the other end of the unoccupied jail cell across from them, dissipating with an eerie smoky hiss.
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