Sibilant (1)・Sibilant (2)・Sibilant (3)・Sibilant (4)・Sibilant (5)・Sibilant (6)・Sibilant (7) Michael continued helping Alan despite the cessation of his passion for the project. Embarrassment over the ridiculous

Sibilant (1)・Sibilant (2)・Sibilant (3)・Sibilant (4)・Sibilant (5)・Sibilant (6) "Why did you do that?" Alan's jaw was tight. Michael put down his headphones. "I'm sorry?" "What,

Crushed the stalk of rosemary between her nails, sucked the odor into her nostrils, rubbed the oil onto her fingers, tossed the stalk onto the ground. A gust caught pine needles and spirited them onto

It is possible to abandon technology entirely and retreat into wilderness, to transform overnight all you know. After taking the bus as far as he could, he called a cab and let it fade down a dirt

Sibilant (1)・Sibilant (2)・Sibilant (3)・Sibilant (4)・Sibilant (5) Hans Holbein the Younger was one of the most famous artists of the Danse Macabre. Michael particularly liked how Death dragged people in

THERE was once a man named Jesse who longed for a daughter, as he had only three sons: Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah. In those days, there was much battle, bloodshed, turmoil, and heartache, and Jesse felt

Sibilant (1)・Sibilant (2)・Sibilant (3)・Sibilant (4) The imminent quality of death did not plague Michael or the majority of his classmates. With lives so free of violence or disease, their death remained

Sibilant (1) ・Sibilant (2)・Sibilant (3) Immersion in dream worlds eventually began to mar Michael's academic performance. His sleep had not suffered--he'd never slept so long and well--but challenging

Sibilant (1) ・Sibilant (2) The contemplative reader will have noticed that Michael’s life seemed unusually free of distress. Undeniable. It is a great help to be a precocious child, but Michael possessed

Sibilant (1) This "Gothic" self-actualization resumed an unexpected form, hearkening back to his childhood with its focus on the animal kingdom, for Michael's dorm was soon decorated with small frames

From Michael’s earliest memory, he had been attracted to the Gothic, defined as shards of existence possessing a dark allure while avoiding the melodramatic, gaudy, or trite. As a child this manifested

The Grounds (1) The Grounds (2) The nostalgic scent of mildew laced with cold air greeted me the moment I half-descended into the basement. Everything was precisely as it had been in my childhood days,

The Grounds (1) The vibrant light filtering through white gossamer curtains banished the previous night's fears, and I stretched with a sense of luxurious indulgence. I had inherited a fortune, and a stately

The cold, grizzled volt of vultures scoured the landscape with a temperamental glower, crushing my faint hope of a warm homecoming. What madman would choose to live here? I burrowed in my coat pocket for

Giant of the Black Forest (1) I know that you must be very worried for poor Nell, all alone in the darkest forest with horrendous beasts — but you mustn’t be too concerned, for something wonderful is about

My Original Retelling of a Classic Folktale Collected in Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales (1849) by James Orchard Halliwell Winter had its own character here: maternal violence — or so she'd heard from

Though a single species, humanity’s abnormal intellect provides its members with a startling scope of variety. The same organs, same habitual leanings, and same inevitable march toward self-destruction

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She sat in the bath until her skin became wrinkled and glowing, like her dried rose petals that greedily sucked up the thundering water. She told him, laughing, she'd read somewhere that the hands and

From my earliest memories, my sister kept notes. Rarely longer than a few sentences, these would be carefully folded into smaller squares and stashed, like a squirrel might bury a nut. She would tuck them