GlassShields

Amelia took a deep breath that she didn't need. Below her, white-tipped waves crashed against the shore and against the bottom of the cliff which she stood on. A wicked wind lashed around her, push and pulling at her hair, her dress. Her hair was black, but the dress was white, pure. Her skin was sunken and gray, her eyes pale and dull, having lost their light long ago. Amelia edged closer to the cliff's edge. One misstep - or one that seemed to be a mistake - would send her hurtling over the edge, to the icy waves below and to her death. Amelia looked down; her toes were peeping over the edge of the cliff. It would all be over soon, she kne

MONDAYS CHILD IS FAIR OF FACE An All-American beauty, she was. Blond hair, blue eyes, dimples. Tiny bones, curves in all the right places, and, to top it all off, a smile that said, "I want to be your friend. You can trust me, and tell me your secrets, and we can be best friends." 'Course, the smile was fake (although, to be fair, the boobs were real), but she was an amazing actress. Minus the murderous streak, she really was a perfect All-American beauty, complete with talent and smarts (she had to have talent and smarts, or she never would've gotten away with the murders.) TUESDAYS CHILD IS FULL OF GRACE She was a dancer. She taught others

The sky was purple and pink and orange, with thin wispy clouds floating lazily across the descending sun. Soon the sun would be gone from the sky, maybe forever, and Jackson would rush out of the field and back to the little house that he'd inherited from his grandparents. There he would eat reheated pasta, pray profusely (obsessively, some might say; Jackson wouldn't say that, though, no, you can never pray too much, never be in too much awe of God's power, just in case He decided that, you know what, you can forget about waking up in the morning, you unworthy little maggots, yeah, what do you think about that, hm hm hm?) that God saw fit to

"Your girlfriend is in the living room and I can't take it anymore." Elle could hear Brandon's voice coming from Jonathan's room, his typically happy voice bitter and laced with disgust. Elle's hands were folded in her lap and she squeezed her fingers with both anger and shame as she listened to Brandon rouse her boyfriend. "Get her out." She couldn't hear Jonathan's reply, and really wished she could. A few seconds later, Brandon trundled out of Jonathan's room. He glanced at her before walking to the kitchen behind the couch where she sat, then into his own room. The door closed loudly. Elle knew Brandon had never liked her much, and now s

"Did you know that sometimes stars fall from the sky to the earth and where they hit the ground, they leave this...this stuff, kind of like dust?" They were in a forest and Alexa had no idea why, but she didn't really care much. Alexa shook her head. How ridiculous, how overdone, how...how...how...wonderful. "There's no such thing as stardust. I'm not five." It was really nice how her words all came out the way she wanted them to in dreams. "You don't believe me?" The speaker was a man, an adult, but he had the boyish face of a ten-year-old. He sounded a little put-off. "Of course not." Alexa began to walk away, but the man caught up with

When she talks, she talks loudly, like no one's listening but she's trying to make everyone hear her anyway. And her smiles are always big grins, never tightlipped or fake. "Why smile at all if I'm not sincere?" She watches scary movies at night, with all the lights off, and when the movie ends, she doesn't turn on all the lights or race back to her room. She turns the movie off, and if you ever get a good look at her face, you'll see that it's a little empty, not scared but maybe a little sad – just the tiniest bit. But you know she wasn't spacing out during the film because she'll tell you all about the movie the next day. She bakes a

The men dragged him in. He was frantic, telling them he had the money. Fairies don't need money and so they laughed at that. He struggled to stay on his feet, but they dragged him because he was so much smaller than them and his eyes searched for her, his mouth forming the word 'Run.' "Run away with me!" And they dragged him in and - And they turned back and smiled at her, watching her and beckoning her forth. And he screamed. And he laughed, and he said, "You coming?" And he disappeared. And he disappeared. *** The forest is deep and dark. Dark and deep. You can't see in, but the things inside can see out. The things can see me.

"Smile," he said, "smile for me." His words were like mist, soft, intangible, fleeting. His fingers were like steel curled around my arm, my neck, my chin; cold and hard rods of steel. That's how I thought of him; like mist and steel, steel and mist. Misty steel, steel mist, misty steals, those shoes were a real steal, Misty, a real bargain, I would've gotten you a pair, but I forgot your size; I found you some nice steel cuffs, though, we'll clamp those around your wrists, hang you from the ceiling, watch you twist. His hands around my neck were making it hard to think. I smiled, forcing my lips to move into an expression I didn't feel. He

have you tried whispering in the rain with no one around softly telling god your secrets? do you ever dance alone without music pounding your joy into the ground? how often do you sing as loud as you possible screaming your feelings to the sky? because a god hears over the rain and the earth multiplies your joy and sometimes if you listen the clouds sing back to you

the scent of country rain the feel of sand between toes the taste of sugar on the tongue - can you bottle it? can you capture the sound of a laugh the smile of an old man the softness of a sweater - can you put it in a bottle stopper it with a cork and set the sensation on a shelf to be enjoyed later?