Not a story this week, but an announcement. I’m putting StoryLab on hiatus for a while. How long, I’m uncertain, but for the foreseeable future.
While telling stories is my first love and something I plan to continue to do, right now I have so many irons in the fire with The Undead Institute, Illustrated Sci-Fi, 8 Word Stories, Pineapple Comics and a thousand other things I want to do that I need a break … Read More
“One time the Mounties were playing hockey and one broke a bone and we were like, ‘Glad you’re not American, eh?’”
“And a rather terrible stereotype…” Samuel’s mind raced. He’d known Thaddeus for years. “a useless anecdote… Several accents in the space of a few lines. Oh, no… he’s—the author—he’s a hack—and he’s editing…”
Samuel felt the tomb falling down around him. The ancient stone and inscription melted into an alien planet with bright purple walls and … Read More
Samuel dropped to the cold, stone floor. “It—it’s safe,” he said.
He stood in a dim, underground chamber with hand-smoothed walls. An intricate carving lay ten meters ahead of him. Thin and ghostly, in the twilight beyond his lantern’s reach, he focused hard on making out the bits and bobs of the language he had studied half his life.
He was an independent thinker; one the University couldn’t stop from completing this “fool’s errand.” If he was … Read More
The zombie traveled deep into the nuclear winter. The cold no longer bothered him nor made his limbs ache, but the nights when his body froze he had to wait for it to thaw to move on. The cat had followed him from the Southern coast all the way up to this winter wasteland.
He moaned to himself as he shuffled forward with the cat still following. She sometimes left for days on end, hunting rats … Read More
The zombie shuffled along intent on nothing and nowhere. His insatiable hunger for brains couldn’t be satisfied here. Even at night he kept shuffling forward till he tripped and rolled head over heals to a stop. Having lost the sense of his limbs when he was infected, killed, and then revived by the zombie contagion, he could not tell whether they were all attached or not. He could see his right hand’s silhouette, ring finger … Read More
Long after most of humanity had hidden itself away in the mountains to the west and ceded the land to the hordes, a lone, zombie shuffled through a trailer park. His horde had disbanded long ago and it had been months since he’d seen another zombie, years since he’d seen a human. He shuffled past double wide homes ripped apart by apocalyptic events till he neared one still mostly intact.
He had no need for food … Read More
A few days later, Cara sat in one of the comfy chairs her Mom had moved up to her room. She binge-watched all the media she’d missed while in the hospital, but barely registered what happened on the screens. She heard a soft rap at the window behind her. “Come in!” She said.
The soft rap came again.
“Come in!” she hollered.
Again the soft rapping.
“COME IN!” She shouted at the top of her lungs.
The soft rapping came … Read More
Cara stared into space as she answered Chu, “Samara did it. I-I’m not sure…”
Chu looked at Peters. They left.
Cara shuddered. She wasn’t sure why she’d protected DT. He was the reason Samara was dead. But protecting him felt like loyalty to Samara and that felt right.
“You okay?” her mother asked.
Cara gave her mother the withering stare only family can inflict on someone. She turned away with the force of a slammed door.
#
They discharged Cara six … Read More
The detectives arrived early the next morning. Though Cara didn’t want to talk, she didn’t have the energy to protest.
“Thank you,” Peters said to Cara and her Mom.
Chu was not so cordial. “Toxicology reports came back on your friend,” Chu said. He held up a little baggy with two white and blue striped, square pills. “Wanna tell me about these?”
Cara shook her head.
Chu cleared his throat. “I’ve found kids dead from these pills. Who sold … Read More
“Cara.” Marissa’s expression softened as she took Cara’s hand. “That was her life. she ended it on the best terms she could, in the happiest way she could. If it hadn’t been this trip, it would’ve been another. She’s gone, but she doesn’t have to deal with this crap again. I’m happy for her.”
“You’re saying she committed some kind of suicide?”
“Near enough.”
“No! She wouldn’t. We’d made plans. We were gonna room together next year, we … Read More
“Why would you—” Cara’s Mom started, but Cara answered them.
“Nothing illegal.”
“Both Cara and Samara are… were 18.” Cara’s mom said.
“That may prevent possession charges, Ma’am,” Peters said. “But assisting in a death, even as a guide or an angel, is still against the law.”
“Will we find Ketamine?” Chu asked.
“Ketamine’s not illegal,” Cara snapped at him.
“Not by itself.”
Cara shrunk in the chair even while her face stayed resolute and defiant.
“What else was in the Ketamine?” Chu … Read More
Samara’s body shook with the force of the electric pulse. The EMT pulled the defibrillator paddles away. The EMT’s partner felt for a pulse on Samara’s wrist.
“Nothing,” he said.
“Clear!” The EMT shouted and shocked Samara again. Her body contorted and convulsed. The second EMT tried for a pulse on Samara’s neck.
“Still nothing.”
The EMT turned up the voltage, shouted once more, and shocked Samara’s body, but Samara’s lips were turning blue.
Cara looked on from the sidewalk, … Read More
Sam built a time machine out of two scratchy blankets, a transistor radio, his favorite pinwheel, and the thing that beeped beside his bed. He set the dial and left for the future.
The next day, when his mother came to visit, he told her of the wonders the future held. Of the amazing gadgets that cleaned the house for her, made dinner every night, got those bloodstains out of his sweater, and eradicated brain tumors. … Read More
From deep in the cave, a belch reverberated. Klon adjusted his grip on the spear and walked toward it. He sprinkled forma root behind him. Its red, psychic resonance clear in his mind. He’d volunteered for the sacrifice. His brother, Klar, who hadn’t volunteered, never returned.
Klon rounded a corner and found the monster. It belched again. A bloody shred of ceremonial robes landed in front of Klon as a toxic miasma blew over him. His eyes burned. The world … Read More
A tenuous peace had reigned in the Smith household when Skittles yawned and said, “They love us more.”
“Nonsense,” Duke replied.
Skittles pointed to the immaculate cat tree and the overflowing cat feeder, then to the dirty dog bed and the empty dog dishes.
Duke growled. “We’ll see.”
The dogs, Roscoe and Duke, worked their puppy dog eyes and wagged their tails.
The cats, Skittles and Pinklionlady, ignored everyone.
The dogs didn’t want to just win; they wanted to destroy the … Read More
