It was the simplicity of it all that startled Ally. Had it always been this way? Hues seamlessly blended together, descending in a smooth gradient, dimmest with abysmal depth overhead and brightest with shallow sight at the line where the sky ceased and the landscape began. She found it hard to believe that the dome…

Let me cut you with it. Paper-thin, through the skin. It’d be a sharp incision. Hardly felt, barely seen, won’t leave a trail of evidence. At best, you’d get a beaded necklace, easily washed off with a confession. A little dry with some pressure. It’d be gone in a moment. So let me cut you…

The painter’s legs took over as his mind traveled far beyond the hustles and bustles teeming the raucous streets of Fez Souks. It was almost pitiful to think about it, that he was so ready to give, to spray lavishly onto the canvas his affection for the city, and that deep within there was an…

The children of the sun must’ve been mischievous again, stealing the lilac velour sack from their parent’s working desk and accidentally ripping it open at the seams. A shower of golden marbles rained down, weighty and burning, diving into the dark, cold, and endless blueness covering the massive playground. The violent drops sent waves of…

Ally likes to play a game she cannot sway in her favor, add some flavor, ’til she loses it forever. Allison was born a winner. Straight As through high school, two golds and one silver in swimming, and a piano teaching certificate at fifteen. She never added a wrinkle to her parents’ eyebrows. The principal…

When Mother finally walked into his room just past midnight, the 14-year-old Vic knew that it wasn’t for a nighttime story. He was too old for that. “I would let her next time,” Vic flared, clenching every word to prevent the trembles from escaping, “I would; I’m not joking.” “No, you wouldn’t,” there was so…

She’s a little bastard. In Eliza’s case, words always fall through the cracks and get splattered onto the ground. But in her defense, verbalizing internal stirring, twisting, and jittering (one would call these “passions”) in the presence of another is never her strongest suit. Naush knows that, so it makes it all the while more…

Snow-rain is a new word Vic has to add to his dictionary. The clouds above the head filter out the color of the sunshine. The whole Montreux is cast in a gray hue. Flakes that escape the greedy foliage of pine trees travel down the hills through the winter breeze, greeting Christmas shoppers and humming…

“Can you stop it? Can you stop the waves from hitting the shores, thrashing themselves upon the rocks repeatedly and yet again, trying to climb the dike that holds back the unstoppable force of devastation that aims to do no good but overflow the only sanctuary I have built for you, for your image, for your…

It was this close. The wine glass was perching at the edge of the nightstand, but it was just out of reach so that Eliza would have to free her upper body from the clingy arms around her neck to grab it. Damn it. She wanted to savor the sweetness of the still silence, but…