Our small group was charged with a vague assignment to clear out an evil presence in a large library. Walking among the dim aisles of old dusty books, I freqently imagined lit candles in places, but I don't think I ever actually saw any candles. At first, the books all seemed to be a uniform brown with obscured unreadable titles on the spines, but ( Read more... )

I was visiting my parents, and I had hooked up one of my many old video game consoles that I still have stored in their closets. The game [p] and I were playing was impressive, and I was surprised I had forgotten it. It was sort of in the format of SNES Zelda, but with a much deeper story. It had some bugs, though, and would crash occasionally ( Read more... )

I sensed there was something wrong with my car, but I didn't really have any clear reason. I am sometimes paranoid that anything I hear or smell out of the ordinary while driving indicates a need for expensive repairs to my car. This despite the car's having been extremely reliable for years and never needing any sort of repairs ( Read more... )

It was hard to complain, really, about all the attention our friends paid us. From the day we moved in to the apartment, at least one or two people had been there helping with things every day. Sometimes we'd come home to find that someone had come in and cleaned up the whole place, and once in the middle of the night I almost ran into an old woman ( Read more... )

I had a hard time finding my car in the large church parking lot, and [f] suggested that I take the white police van that was parked nearby. Music was playing inside it, and it obviously had a good sound system. I looked inside the van and saw that it would be a fun vehicle to have, but then I realized that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to ( Read more... )

[e] and I were walking home from a restaurant with [p], [a], and [c]. As we walked, a teenage black girl approached us and gripped my arm. She explained that she had some sort of problem and asked me for money. Without thinking, I replied that it is my policy not to give cash to people who approach me on the street. I looked at her, and she was now ( Read more... )

I was to meet [e] and a few other people at a movie theater in a mall at a certain time. When I got there, I was surprised to find the theater extremely small--there were only 15-20 seats and even they were crowded together between thick red curtains. There were a couple of empty seats, but I never like taking a seat when there are not enough ( Read more... )

My paper was due in a day or so, but I hadn't started writing it, or even read the book yet that it was to be based on. The book was about a boy and his sister, and evidently a true story. [e] had read it already and described for me the final scene, in which the boy and his sister were being swept down a river along with flags of many different ( Read more... )

[e] and I walked among the different animal cages. There were all kinds of dogs and cats available for adoption. People were gathered in different places on the grassy field--some having picnics, and others just standing around clearings as if there would be some sport or performance soon ( Read more... )

Although it was past dark, I still needed to walk across the hill to my parents' house and bring our dog back home. There were a lot of people in the house, and some rooms were above others so that I had to climb bookshelves to reach them. On one shelf in a bathroom I saw what I assumed to be a Christmas present for me--a boxed set of Orson Scott ( Read more... )