A story I wrote within The SIlver City world.
“Mr. Jones. How may we help you this afternoon?” the host asked. She stood behind the hololounge’s glass encased desk in absolute stillness.
Afternoon, Mr. Jones repeated in his head. How does anyone know what afternoon is inside this prison of a city?
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“When I meet the mountains?” Boragog asked.
“Head towards the light,” the voice said.
“And when I meet the sea?”
“Head towards the light.”
“And when I meet the forest?”
“Head towards the light.”
Boragog lumbered forward, never tiring, always seeking, always asking when he would reach the light, and so the world began to turn.
Read moreThe sun could not have felt warmer on Alice's skin. She closed her eyes again, taking it all in.
"A masterpiece," Neebowitz, chief editor of Retort media had said. "Never before has an audience seen such daring. Such greatness. And with the execution of Shakespeare if he lived to be five hundred years old."
"I'm not sure how to go on with the rest of my life," said the president of the United Countries. She was in tears when she said it.
"Who are you?" said Mary MacGleesh, her long-time rival, said with wide-eyed fascination.
Read moreChildren's laughter echoed through the park, rising above the buskers and the birds. Alice thought it was a natural thing that children were louder than the rest. Their maturing voices were trying to find their place in the world. Alice wondered if hers were the only ears tuned to the sound of children. She could easily sort out the various noises in the busy park and focus on the one she wanted to hear most. She followed the laughter to a group of children running in circles around a pole.
Read moreHano pulled his hand from the dome’s inner surface, leaving a heated imprint that thinned and disappeared. The Silver City came back into focus, sprouting from the fractured desert like a lighthouse on a dead sea. A perfect silver cylinder, touching clouds during the day and blending with the stars at night. The sun dipped towards the horizon behind the city, casting out a long shadow that reached across the desert towards the dome.
"I told you not to do that," Karo said. "They know when people touch it."
"Then they can come and stop me," Hano replied.
Read moreShortlisted story for World Nomads 2014 writing scholarship
With a distant pop in the sky, a deep fear flooded my senses. An idle girl bolted down the fenced course, but no one followed. The rest of us waited. We knew a second pop was coming, and something worse.
Read moreE.V. Jean shuffled to the wide leather sofa, agitated. She took 1 pillow from the left and put it on the right. She walked back to her observation point in front of the large roaring fireplace. Better, she thought, but something was missing. The doorbell rang. E.V. Jean perked up. She flattened the wrinkles in her dress and walked to the door.
Read more"There's food in Varana," Ratcher said. He eased his head against fishing nets at the back of the boat and braced a hand on the rudder.
"Aye,” Stephon said. “And gallows."
Read moreThe cup rattled it's metallic guts. The cruel injustice of a bill's silence, the man thought. When the cup rattled coins it was an audible question for more coins. When the more important, more valuable paper mixed in with the rattle the sound muffled as if satisfied by the meal.
Read more16 years.
This is it, Ryan thought. 16 years of school led to this moment.
The man at the podium rattled on about responsibility and possibility. Ryan, amongst his classmates, had the opportunity to change the world. They were taught how to achieve and now was their chance to prove it.
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