Loki is widely considered to be one of the greatest villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Yes, it’s true, Loki tried to conquer both Earth and Asgard and also fought the Avengers. However, […]
My left hand played with the hem of my dress clothes as I followed the stream of middle schoolers further backstage. We were all dressed similarly, with the boys wearing tuxedos and ties and […]
Every single one of the two million people who fly every day passes through the airport. Those people are there with purpose, whether to attend a funeral, go to a camp, or to return […]
“The murder was timed perfectly. The target had no hope.
Never call the victim by their name. It personalizes the situation and you will hesitate as you realize what you are doing. The advice seeped into The Comrade’s mind as he threw the knife. It was a perfect hit, like always. The Comrade’s real name was Braydon, but nobody called him that. He had enhanced senses that allowed him to track things easily.”
The air was cool and the winds were strong. Below me, I could see hues of scarlet and shades of golden, with a handful of orange. Buildings were scattered around, some lights on and some lights off. The sun had barely risen.
It was so frigid outside, it might as well have been winter.
We stood there in silence for a long time, in thick scarves and puffy jackets.
Charles Smith was born in 1898 in Bath, England, and usually went by Charlie. Charlie’s father had died of Tuberculosis by the time Charlie was two. Charlie had very little memory of his father, and although it was an inconvenience to his mother, it never was a terrible inconvenience to Charlie other than his mother taking up whatever extra jobs she could find. Even though she had to work a lot, Mrs. Smith always found time to play with her son and was, overall, a very loving mother.
Jeremy and Matthew are always with me on the bus ride to school and during lunch. So far, they are still my only friends. And I have learned the school better. Apparently, the boys on my basketball team from gym class are known as the bullies in the grade. Of course, they aren’t very bright. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were failing every subject in school. My mind is always wandering during class, thinking about what I’ve been through.
“H-huh? What? Has my hearing gone bad or something? I glanced to my side, only to see Karin’s eyes filled with hope and determination. Her eyes were the complete opposite of mine, filled with despair and malice. I looked forward once again, trying to find the trace of a joke on the scout’s face. All I could see was joyful seriousness.”
“Cecilia tied her up, and I taped her mouth shut. I took the blade and touched it to her chest, then her eyes opened. I winced as I saw her mouth try to open but it couldn’t, and instead a slow tear dripped from her eye. I couldn’t deal with watching her suffer. I lifted up the blade and brought it back down to her chest.”
“Oliver could never have explained what happened in the entirety of his death, he could never quite grasp it, but he saw colors that were impossible to see, sounds that were impossible to hear, smelling smells that were impossible to smell, feeling sensations that were impossible to experience.”
“It was three weeks ago and my team was on the field, in the middle of our first soccer game. Except for me. And my attention.
I was thinking, honestly, I wish I could be sleeping instead of sitting here in this stuffy uniform with all of these shin guards and stuff—
Wham! Someone from the other team ran straight into me, sending my skinny body soaring through the air and landing on the grassy earth with a thud.”
““Sky,” I whispered. Whenever someone would yell, Sky would cover her ears and scrunch her eyes and dance around in a circle until they stopped. And with everything that was going on, I was not in the mood for one of her tantrums. But if I had known I would never hear her yell again, I would have done it in a heartbeat.”
“I’m scared that if I make it out of the dark room, I’ll go back to that place. Filled with locked doors and judgeful stares. Lies and constant eyes. Staring. Always.”
“Some details only noticed by the wise,
Beautiful worlds live in disguise,
Small moments catch uninspired eyes.”
“The beautiful color of the blue flowers
They must be happy when there are rain showers
They must be happy after hours
But it’s not true their sadness devours”
“There’s an old legend that states that one night a burning star fell from the sky and slammed into a mountain range. It caused a catastrophic explosion, tossing huge hunks of rock and dirt and debris around the mountains for miles.”
“I remember you, Bubbe Ester. / The smell of your house is what I remember clearly, / The smell that comes with things that have been loved over time, That carries so many memories with it.”
“Gone for a walk / The sun beaming hot on my back / Trees offer their shade to passersby / The sweet smell of summer in the air”
“I forgot sometimes — well, that was exactly the problem, I forgot. I was not as young as I used to be, so I may have wandered a little far into the forest, forgetting to turn around before my old body got too tired.”
“darting through her head, faster / than her hand can keep up with. / She tries / to grasp one before / it disappears, but her hand holds / nothing / except a pen. / The sound of it scratching / against paper fills / the empty silence.”
“My dad used to tell me that if life throws something bad at you, you just have to live through it and then let it go. He said that you should take into account those bad things, but then, in a way, forget that they ever happened. Well, I hate to tell you, Dad, but sometimes, that’s not really how life works. “
“There’s a glock in my hands, and I look at it. I weigh it, shifting it from one hand to the other, letting them crack under the pressure and fall as the gun swivels each time whatever Drake song is playing drops a beat.”
“Full of stories / Both joyous and bitter / Used to accomplish dreams and goals”
“Hi Confusion, Although I never expected you to come, I guess you’re welcome, because confusion leads to thought, and thought leads to finally maybe making sense of some chapter of this crazy, twisting, turning, torrentuous story called life.”
“Get dressed – Does it really matter what you wear. People will judge you either way. You keep glancing back at your bed, just wishing you could crawl back to safety. The only thing your outfit needs is long sleeves.”
“The worst gray haired creatures to roam the earth, / They leave and scrounge for rats and mice alike, / And they are even worse while giving birth, / Do not cross their paths whilst on a hike,”
“I must serve them because alas, such are the ways of the clouds / I gather worms although alas, such are the ways of the clouds”
” Terminal Storm / Shrieks of laughter fill the air, / Joyous new leaves flutter, / Clouds roll in to halt it all.”
“Everyone’s life has a place where it keeps / all the important memories / whether it is a box or a shelf, / A cart or a peanut butter jar,”
“The floor beneath my feet was vibrating as our small, dirty car rolled down the old, dirt road that led toward the city. It was a gloomy morning. Small droplets of rain pattered the window lightly. There was no sunlight because the fog was too thick to let light reach the dirt road. My mother was in the front seat, the place where my father used to sit, squinting to see the road ahead of us.”
“Elsu woke up, like every morning. Hungry. Living in the winter pit houses during the harshest winter that he had ever experienced.”
“Once there was a butterfly who was named Carl. He lived in the West District of New Yorkie in the United States of Animalerica. Where Carl was from, everybody was an animal.”
“I remember that day. I remember the darkness of the smoke, lifting off from the ground, taking my child from me. He had been taken, at only three years old, to some planet called Earth, forced into a normal life. A life in which he wasn’t my son.”
“When I awoke, the TV was beeping like crazy. All the stations were showing the local news channel. ‘Do not touch the floor,’ they yelled. ‘It will kill!'”
“Ripped jeans on rugged rocks ripping into my skin. I actually took some time to count it one day, when I wasn’t doing anything (I usually am), and there were twenty six. Twenty six old scars and new scrapes. Twenty six days I sat at the corner of a beach no one goes to, waiting for a person who, in theory, doesn’t even exist.”
“Three minutes before total darkness. Three minutes before a killer’s in my house. Three minutes before the lights go out. ‘And tonight at 9:30 P.M., we will be talking about th-‘ the spokesman stopped talking as I changed the channel to a random TV show.”
“In 2006, a rule was implemented that stated that all players picked in the NBA draft must be 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft, and any player, who is not an international player, must be at least one year removed from the graduation of his high school class.”
“I give in. It’s a box of pizza. This thing could last me like half a week. If I have two slices per day, I can make this last for four days! I store the box behind the dumpster along with the rest of my meager possessions. This includes a pair of shorts, for when the weather gets hot, and a jacket, for when the weather gets cold.”
“Time wears gloves on its hands. / It tiptoes past us, / Cautious of alerting us to its shadowy presence. / We only notice its movement once it has gone.”
“A layer of skin has been peeled away / Revealing what lies beneath me / Secrets exposing themselves / In the burning light”
“Anger and fear are very similar / they both lead to death / fear: the most powerful spark in history / anger: a flame that burns faster”
“My palms were sweating. My head was shaking as I walked into the room. I was holding my violin in my hand and my bow in the other. I knew I had to make this perfect. It was my one shot.”
“I got it / Even though it’s been years since the last time / I shot it”
“You watched your grandfather die. / I believe you were 7 years old at the time / But the strangest thing was even though he wasn’t blind / he refused to acknowledge your face.”
“Earbuds vibrating inside my head / A barrier from those who leave me dead / They park their hearse outside my weary skull / Emotions bubble but my face remains dull”
“Mary went upstairs later that night to check on Jamie. She knocked on his door quietly. ‘Jamie… are you there? It’s Mommy.’ Mary jiggled the handle and the door was locked.There was no sound. ‘Jamie… I’m sorry I yelled at you earlier.’ Still, no reply came.”
“Take a breath. Foot up foot forward foot down. Take a breath. Then you’re at the top but uh oh you fell down.”
“Simon had stopped listening a while ago, but there was no point in ruining Jessica’s perfect Valentine’s Day. Simon was less interested in the painfully boring play-by-play commentary on his girlfriend’s day and more interested in a pink sock lying in the middle of a patch of grass.”
“When I was eleven and younger, my mom and dad were always the “parents” in my life. They were always telling me what to do and frustrating me. So, when I decided it was time for me to become a young lady, I wanted respect from my parents, as well as my siblings.”
“A pet provides comfort, love, humor, responsibility, and an adorable face. A pet will be there when you are sad, and any pet, from a fish to a cow, can be all out hilarious. So, in your life, should you get a pet?”
“It’s sad that there are a lot of evil people trying to harm innocent, kind people like me. I mean, a community worker doesn’t deserve the devil, right? I remembered that hideous girl with the warts and excess makeup. Was I evil in her eyes when I harshly rejected her? Was she feeling what I’m going through right now? How did she recover from it? For the first time, I wondered if there truly was someone that is a perfect match for me.”
“How could nuclear fusion affect the world? The enormous idea and concept of nuclear fusion can change the world in ways both large and small.”
“Rows of empty, dust-covered pews line the church behind him, in front of him stands only the altar.”
“My social studies teacher is crazy and my Spanish teacher makes us sing songs with a bird called Pepito. So, there’s already a lot to overcome this year, but I feel I will need to overcome worse things.”
“It’s a little bit on the cold side, but it’s August, and in a month summer will be over and gone. I’m not ready for summer to end yet. I still want to go to the pool and learn how to do a dive off the diving board. I still want to experiment with our new ice cream machine and learn how to make mint chocolate ice cream that doesn’t taste like toothpaste.”
“There are some things that people who never do theater don’t understand, like the excitement and nerves of opening night. They don’t understand how many times you have to make up the words as you’ve gone along because you’ve forgotten them. The bond you all develop at the last few rehearsals. The anticipation during the director’s speech. Trying to stay quiet backstage, but ending up laughing at least once.”
‘“Water is the source most needed in this desert,” said Ama. “People would kill for it. Our forefathers were torn apart by it. That’s why there are gangs. Jym’s gang is evil. They won’t stop until they have control over all the gangs in the desert. And now they have all the weapons they want. If they have control over the oasis, they will be able to control all the gangs, even ours.”’
“She didn’t open her eyes or anything, not even when we dropped her body into the nearby lake and pulled her back up, but something crazy happened.
My sister’s blonde hair turned cerulean blue, and her closed eyes opened to show that her brown irises were now ice blue. Even her naturally tanned skin turned extremely pale, pale enough to rival a vampire’s.”
“Didn’t they have common sense? When someone is choking, you get them water! You don’t just leave them there to choke and get sent to the hospital because they’ve been coughing for so long!”
” I peer behind the curtains to make sure that there are no hot pink hearses in the parking lot. When I do, I find multiple hot pink hearses, which means I am being followed. I don’t know by whom or why, but I know that my life’s in danger.”
“As the clock winds down, Jake’s teammates look up at the scoreboard with anticipation. Leading the Wolves by two points with just thirty-eight seconds to go, Jake and the Sharks are looking to seal the win. Jake passes to Chris who looks for a way to get to the basket. Just one bucket would be enough for the Sharks to win tonight.”
“White is a color that shines like the moon.
White is a color that breaks through the gloom.”
“Crystal, white, sugar-light,
how beautiful is the snow?”
“His fingers wrap /
around her neck. /
This necklace is /
the present no one /
asked for.”
“To mend the sore bone that kept her from flying, that kept them all from soaring. The quiet community off of Route 9, their refugee camp. Broken Wings Way.”
“She snapped her fingers, and, as if by some invisible force, Marcus was thrown across the room, and hit the wall. He winced in pain, but his eyes still held a malicious glint.”
“They embraced for a long time, not speaking anything for several minutes. Finally, Enoch piped up.
‘Hey Daddy? Where’s Ansel?’
Stephen let loose a small sigh. ‘Wherever you’d like him to be, Enoch. Always.'”
“The ambulance had turned its siren off. Mike knew what that meant. He looked at the cracked watch on his right wrist. Time of death: 12:01.”
“That night, with his child still at home, he hacked into the security system and broke into the museum. He got all the way to the dinosaur model before there was a loud whirring sound, and the dinosaur’s tail whipped around and created a crack in the wall.”
“Or perhaps I would stroll across a fire.
I could watch the destruction
and the beauty,
without letting anything reach me”
“I wanted to help her, this magical being who had saved me from my pain.
She doesn’t come back until the next day. But this time when she appears, she is tied up to a chair, in chains, the red coated man walking around her.”
“Writopia!”
“I was thrown into the junkyard, by the Trash Man.
I swam out of the junkyard and saw my mom.
I yelled but she was busy on facebook.com!”
“Round and round upon the ground,
the carousel goes spinning.”
“The logical part of my brain yells at me. I need to control myself. Every day, I promise myself that next time I will go straight to bed. Every day, I break that promise.”
“‘Don’t you ever try to tell me what to do. Do you think I’m scared to blow this whole stupid school up, huh? ‘Cause that’s what I’ma do if you don’t shut the hell up!'”
“But when he hooked a dolphin he fell in
and grabbed its fin and was never to be found again.”
“i was called to the funeral, and i wore a yellow dress
to commemorate the color of her cheeks”
“But the knowledge that one day
The chains will return
Sieges your liberty.”
“I smile winningly at him but the muscles in my face hurt so I stop and then the jackhammer in my chest breaks through and it’s okay though because I am the first.
But really. It’s okay. I’m okay.”
“’So you’re half-demon?’ she asks.
‘Yeah,’ Cass says. ‘And so are you.’”
“I can’t take from others
Because I know how hard it is to give.”
“As you plan to make a leaf pile, a work of childish creation, the brown leaf sits at the edge of your vision. You put it at the top. Quite strange, how sending it to its imminent toppling seems to be a nice gesture.”
“I crawl into bed and put my sheets on.
‘Good night Shimmer,’ I murmur to my dog.
My eyes close and I drift to sleep.”
“the birds sighed your stolen song most begrudgingly right after you left
To kiss another’s cheek”
“On my frieze tells a story
and helps me grow.”
“By following these simple steps, you can shame your sadness into that dark, decrepit part of your brain we like to call The Subconscious.”
“Each one
As luminous as a pearl”
“the gods paint a psychedelic watercolor
on your window.”
“He remembers flickering lights and desperately grasping at the man with the hazel eyes’ hand, sweaty and terrified of the occurrences outside of the closet they were concealed in.”
“The second thing I notice is the fallen, crumbling buildings. Most of them are still on fire. There’s a burning piece of wood only a few feet away from me. There isn’t a single living person in my vicinity. Emphasis on “
“This morning,
my broken dreams suddenly
appeared in my cupped hands.”
I’m trying to keep up with you on a trembling tundra
of crushed snow cones, dribbled with flavorings that’ve bled.”
“From a young age, the dream was planted in their minds after being packed into the bed of the family pick up truck, full of blankets and barbeque for the tailgate, as they winded down the dirt roads towards the stadium.”
“My breath came in fast heaves and there were tears in my eyes as I spoke. “You can’t take back the past, Justin. And you can’t blame it on me.”
Through the sea of adrenaline and tears I heard a sound. Sirens.”
“Afterward I wait. Wait for the guilt that always comes crashing. Big waves that suffocate. Choke me to tears.
And like always, I cry on the way home. And it overflows my car. I am teetering on the top of a mountain.
Guilty of a crime. Very very guilty.”
“I pause beside the swirling red, white, and blue column outside the barbershop and peer in at the calendar on the wall. November 11, 1955.
1955?!”
“The officers on duty said they just hadn’t noticed it, while dozens of travelers said that they remembered the briefcase being there even hours before the tragedy. The stories just didn’t add up.”
“I was terrified. I frantically looked around. I saw, to my relief, the agent, the man with the blonde hair, who had arrested me. He rushed in, and they brawled. “
“But there is one thing that brings back a flood of joy, sadness and all of the other feelings from the movie Inside Out: a doormat of a chicken.”
“She was the one, with that same *** smirk, to slip it onto her own neck, declaring herself king. The new ruler. The guardian angel. And she didn’t cry once.”
“The man’s face was scraped raw by sand, blood stained his beard, which was long and unkempt, hung in thick strands past his chest. Blood dribbled slowly from the corner of his mouth, which was twisted in a grimace of agony.”
“Breathe, Carrie, she thought to herself, Just breathe and it’ll be over before you know it. They’ll leave before dawn, Carrie, they always do.”
” Friends lend a helping hand in times of need and make our life easier. They can offer a meal, explanations for homework or help someone deal with their feelings in times of crisis.”
“As Mark and Leo stepped into one of the homes, the world felt like it was tipping over. The warmth and light and enclosure felt claustrophobic, but Mark didn’t care.”
“Liam was shocked. The Jacksons were mean, but they had been decent enough to let him eat. “CHILD ABUSE!” he shouted. He ran to the kitchen and dialed 911.”
“The window was tinted, but I could see a few officers talking. One of them was the same officer that had come to my house. He was walking on a brace, and a bandage was on his nose. He shot me a look that could kill”
“When she was twelve, I was fifteen.
She wore a bunny suit. No one talked about it.
Before she was a bunny, though, she was the neighborhood cadaver.”
“Once when I asked the Worldwielder about this he smiled, gave me a pat on the head, and hinted, “non-Euclidean,” before climbing the great big staircase to the places above.”
“Before long, the figure had grabbed the Mona Lisa, not forgetting to put on black gloves (that certainly didn’t stand out compared to the rest of his dark outfit) and then swiftly exited the room. Unfortunately, the thief had forgotten to deactivate the alarms that initiated when someone left the building; as soon as he set his gloved hands on the handle of the doors, a deafening alarm screeched throughout the museum.”
“My skin is prim, buffed until all the callouses have chipped away,
gilded like my eyes, my straight locks, my button-nose.
But, my dear, there is a loneliness in polite. A void among the dyed roots.
A core like a dilapidated creature, made of polished metal, with a coating
of rust that lies beneath it all.”
“I slowly drew the gun out, the weight odd in my hands. This was nothing like the high-tech, aerodynamic models we trained with in school. This was heavy in the back, and seemed to resonate with pure physical power. There were no settings, no long-range or short-range dials. Just a Flick The Safety, Point At Target, And Shoot kind of gun.”
“These woods have bewitched time.
The trees and knolls and rocks,
Statues of their former selves.”
“Your two-year incessant torment of me has done a lot to make me who I am now. I suppose that was your plan all along, wasn’t it? You wanted to make me a better person, didn’t you?”
“‘When I was your age…’
There are few words more hated
Than these
Because a rant always follows.
Generations are different, for God’s sake!”
I had to crane my neck slightly to have a full view of the gleaming crescent looming in the distance. I turned to see it, and at the same time he did too. We were suddenly inches apart, our noses so close they could almost brush against each other. I breathed in; he breathed out.
“This is your go-to guide on surviving being a twin.
Well, this is NOT going to be easy. You see, to be honest, being a twin is awful. Take it from me. So now for the tips.”
“No one could pay me to live in an office, no matter what career,
The older I grow up, however, there is a growing fear,
That I will be that man, who every day walks into here,
A grey glass building furnished with laminated plywood,
An earthly purgatory of despair, a dull life stuck in the mud.”
“I slipped out of the house quietly, knowing that if my parents knew what I was doing, they’d lock me in my room for sure. No parent wants their kid knocking on the door of a house that sounds like something out of a bad horror/sci-fi movie.”
“The dinner table was eerily silent. Nothing but the smacking of tongues against the roofs of mouths broke the spell. I sat in a furious haze, determine to keep my lips locked, as this was my vow. This continued for at least another minute — me staring down crossly at my lamb sausages, refusing to make eye contact with anyone.”
“Similes are some great stuff
I can never get enough
Metaphors are like chamomile tea
Subtle but strong enough for me”
“That day her head was down, buried beneath a plaid scarf. Her hair was shorter then. And I thought her eyes had been greener, but maybe that was just the illusion that the street lamps cast as they flickered and we crunched onward. Maybe they just got greener with every moment that I spent thinking of that night, biting my cheek until I felt the blood break through.”
“Fleeting.
Tears wiped from crinkled eyes, heads thrown back with laughter.
Petals waving in the wind. Fast moments.
Forgotten.”
“Normality shielded by your ignorance
my world blocked by the disgusted look on your immaculate faces
my head booming with perceptions that you will never hear. Not from my beastly face”
“I’m going to be late again, she mentally noted, looking up at the crowded corridor. In her hurry, she almost bumped into one of the many girls oblivious to anyone besides herself. Brown curls reeking of hairspray brushed against her lips, and she made a face when the nasty poisonous smell crept up her nostrils.”
“My foot falls are marked by the crackle of twigs and papery leaves,
Around me, I know they’re watching, waiting; they’re somewhere.
Pulling my spindly frame up the ladder, I see the woods differently.”
“I am a human.
Not perfect, not the best at everything, but that’s ok.
There is no right or wrong.
But I am still the unique one.
I am that person that people say ‘they’re different’ and I love the thought
of: ‘She is not the same.'”
“She flopped down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling, a newfound excitement welling up inside her. She could live forever! She could see a bright future where she made tons of friends and did all sorts of crazy things! But, the best part was that she could never die! Yi knew that there were going to be fun times ahead of her.”
“As your aura fades from
your jacket,
your car,
my memory,
I have trouble recollecting
the time we had together.
Only hospital beds and funeral homes
seem to come to mind.”
“Tragedy struck the cast of Finding Bigfoot yesterday, as what was once a fabricated show preying upon the dementia of elderly conspiracy theorists quickly turned into an all-too-real nightmare, when in their fake search, they actually came across a Bigfoot-like creature.”
“It wasn’t silent, as nothing ever really is.
Moonlight lay on the waves
and hung in her tears.”
“My soul could’ve been violently ripped from my body as it crossed over, leaving the past behind. Would I have seen my dying body from above, clawing at my solid presence, desperately hanging on to the last bit of my small existence?”
“I went to a camp called Camp Zelo. It’s named after Erik Zelo, the discoverer of the land. It’s been in their family for generations. It’s full of adventure and discovery and the family really liked me. I was one of the best campers and…you’re not even listening”
I was bitten by a bunny, or, how I managed to overthrow the human race. Chapter One “I’m never picking up a bunny again!!!” I shrieked, dropping Walnut from my arm and clutching […]
I watched, but I could not see clearly. I stood, but I did not move an inch. I opened my mouth, but no words came out. I watched, with tear-filled eyes as those […]
“In movies, scenes like this are often played out in slow motion, but in life, it couldn’t be more different. It’s a heady, jagged rush and the sudden unbalance with your foot leaving the water and hot flesh and blood crashing through icy whitecaps, the action making everything fast and alive.”
Her journey would be long
As if a sorcerer, she rose her hands in the air, calling upon the earth
The cold took hold, choking her in the darkness
“Sometimes, we’d just stall for a while. We never wanted to stop talking, but, we’d sometimes run out of things to say. We’d fill our conversations with padding, useless shit. Always keeping our eyes on the clocks, and then the minute it changed from 11:59 to 12 it was over.”
“I go to Instagram
and tap
the hashtags
#cutting, #depressed and #suicidal
#self-hating #starving #breaking
#fat #ugly #loser #trash”
“Age is no longer a restraint here in Endgame. What matters is your experience. You have to fight to survive around here.”
“I liked how it rolled off my tongue like a fish into water. b-l-u-e. B for brain. L for Leather. U for underneath. And E for earth. everything.”
“…the ones who had been hanging
from street lights and shooting stars,
who asked for help in the form
of loud music, slow dancing,
painting in dark colors, tying
red balloons to doorknobs…”
“Big Apple, Big dreams, Big debts. Big, vacant holes that she just couldn’t fill. Big, whopping tears, then finally, dry eyes in the desert. And now the soothing voice that enveloped her like a warm blanket.”