[ Roughly based on a dream I had regarding Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree ( Read more... )

[ Just a reminder that I have a new journal here: http://onlyfragments.com/ ]

Silas masked a nose wrinkle of displeasure behind his usual nonchalant sneer. Humans; why did they all have to reek so terribly? Could they not still smell the animal musk poorly smothered in floral perfumes and harsh aftershaves? Being trapped in a room full of hot, ( Read more... )

[ Announcement: I now have my own site for writing: http://onlyfragments.com/ I will still be updating and checking my LJ regularly, but when linking or directing people to my writing, it will be to my Wordpress blog instead ( Read more... )

Tanim edged up the darkened stairwell, the wooden steps polished to a dangerous sheen by hundreds of years of passing feet. At the top of the stairs he stopped and drew in a slow, calming breath, allowed himself a moment to gather his thoughts. No sense going in with his nerves already wound tight; he needed to remain clear headed or he wouldn't be ( Read more... )

I walked in the cold place between the worlds. Nothing but a steel sky above my head and a featureless wasteland of frozen snow in all directions. I did not know whether I stumbled toward the warmth of the great hall or back to the blood stained battlefield yet I pressed forward without pause. To stop now would be to succumb to exhaustion and an ( Read more... )

Awake at 3 AM because of you. I shouldn't be surprised; this isn't the first time, it won't be the last. (No, no, you'll never let it be the last, will you?) A dream this time, rapidly fading before the harsh glow of the computer screen. I will capture its essence if I can. You, the mad, unhappy genius, seeker of the elusive philosopher's stone, ( Read more... )

I reached out my hand but could not bring myself to touch the festering blisters. His howling reverberated in my mind, a lingering echo of the cry he refused to spit forth as the hot blade split his flesh. The burns, a network of angry red welts criss-crossing his porcelain skin like a bloody mask, shaped an elaborate crescent moon design down the ( Read more... )

Madness slowly eats away at his reason as if he is all acid with no base in his blood to neutralize the caustic liquid. It dissolves words one by one, carving rust rimmed holes in his mind that taunt him with the things he has forgotten. Inconsequential words deteriorate first so that in the beginning he mistakes the odd absences for mere ( Read more... )

♢They are near. ♢He emerges from the cave as the snow falls all around, thick fat flakes that catch in his wild hair and do not melt. He stands very still on the slick rock ledge, listening, scenting, casting out for trace of the enemy. The wind carries the distant reek of fear and death. He scowls. Filthy, pathetic creatures; they dare not ( Read more... )

Wavelets rippled in the water and I leaned over the railing, straining for a glimpse of nacre scaled skin or delicate webbed fingers. Around me the leering men sucked on their ashen cigarettes and tossed bills into the pool like coins into a wishing well. She surfaced in a trembling of bubbles, copper seaweed hair plastered about her pale face. The ( Read more... )