Technology moves at an exponential rate. For every door we as an advanced society open, three more sit behind it, ready and waiting for each of their respective locks to inevitably, for better or worse,

The steady mechanical whir of the handheld industrial vacuum cleaner bellowed out from within Vincent’s shaking, thickly encased right hand. The sound and the power of the thing was enormous. As it roared,

Timmy opened his eyes and waited, his terrified, myopic gaze slowly scanning the dark, dimly lit room. First, he felt it. That familiar weight, like two cloaked, phantasmal hands - pushing stubbornly down

“Darling, you know the knight can’t move there!” The old man shouted as he slapped playfully at the young woman's still hovering hand, the black knight suspended there wriggling uneasily in her grip as

I AM SANTA “Holy shit, would you look at that?” Bennie Jones muttered softly under his breath, his young, innocent eyes momentarily widening, nearly bulging out of their gaunt, early-morning sockets. Emanating

At Least Everyone's Okay “Tommy, stop playing with that!” Freddie Galston shouted at the top of his lungs, his gargantuan meaty body twisting nearly a full one hundred and eighty degrees around to meet

“Listen, you don’t understand.” Rodney Daniels muttered impatiently under his breath, his mouth pressed directly into the receiver of his blocky, beige rotary telephone. As he spoke, he absentmindedly

“I mean, there’s seven of them. Do we even have room for seven new people right now? The supplies?” Maggie McCarthy spoke carefully, looking each of the other eight council members in the eye as she did,

“Good luck, my love” Her lips pressed against his for a moment, soft - but brisk - like that final white capped crest of ocean, set tall upon the highest wake of the tide. He held her for a moment longer

“There it is! You see it?” A deep voice drawled smoothly out into the clear, deep night. “Hell no, I don’t see a thing. Where?” Another responded. “Right there!” A man pointed one jagged, yellowing fingernail

“Man, there she is,” George exclaimed, more to himself than to anyone else. “She’s beautiful!” Chimed Harry, staring intently in the same direction as his brother. “That’s it, today’s the day. I’m going

“Oh fuck, he’s got a gun!” Somebody screamed, high over the hustle and bustle of the mid-morning commuter traffic. It was a brilliant mid-June morning in the summer of 1976, and nary a complaint could

When we were sixteen years old, the world was a much smaller place than it is today. Whether we didn’t understand, or we just didn’t want to, I’m still not sure. But we should have. Our days were spent

“I should kill you where you stand, you little piece of shit!” Freddie Burnton roared, his usually melodic down-home drawl nearly bursting at the seams with indignation and rage. Beneath him crouched quivering

“You see that? No, no. Here, this here! The inscription, see it?” Tony Herd spoke with the impatience of a man three-fourths done walking the plank. Fucking resigned to it. He held the gleaming blade directly

The darkness was suffocating. All around him Thomas clawed and beat at the cold, wet stone that lay now, resolute, beneath his now trembling knees. From one end of this dank, moldy cavern to the next,

The Mask Makers’ eyes were wondering. Scanning the racks of leather and hair, his makeup kit sat open and ready. He saw every possibility laid out before him, of every life that he could lead, if even

It was a mewling, impish whimper. A sound nearer almost to silence than to any sound at all. A sound, in fact, that could have been no greater than that noise made by the tick tack tick brought forth by

The water was a crisp, delicate blue. It stretched out before him for miles and miles. It was endlessness at last. The machine beneath him thrashed and roared in its lust for dry land; yearning for its

“Shark Boy, Shark Boy” the shrill chorus of prepubescent voices rang out over the elementary schoolyard. They danced around him and sang their insults, clanging and clacking their palms onto the cold green