lastsyllable
Joined June 2009 and calls As the Moon Climbs home.
93 stories, 0 challenges, 214 comments, and 86 friends
Who wants to be a writer? I do!
Stories
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Ornithorhynchus Paradoxus
Like Thomas plunging prurient fingers into Christ’s bleeding side, Shaw slid scissors under brittle skin, snipped through dead fur to find stitches beneath where none existed. Impossible that such a creature could evolve; bird bill and feet, beaver t...
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Body Dysmorphia
“Just one more time, doctor,” the man pleaded. “Please?” Dr. Habber tapped the hologram of the patient’s chart that floated above her hand, flicking through its many pages with a frown. “John, if I approve this, you&...
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Subtilize
Quentin took longer than he expected to suss out the robot’s problem. It was a standard E-class bot, a learning agent programmed to score entrance exams for Parkview College. Diagnostics showed the hardware was fine, all sensors and systems funct...
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Rataplan
Reese’s body shook with staccato beats he could no longer tell apart. Rain rattled against metal sheets, thumped against tarps. Machine guns fired. Bullets struck concrete and sandbags, hard earth and soft flesh. His own heart drove blood through...
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Makeup
“Great as usual, Sara,” Mike said, studying the sores and wounds lining his green-tinged arms. Sara smiled. “Thanks. Send the next victim over, please? Six more and we can start shooting when Steve is ready.” Mike ambled over to...
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Yen
The radishes had been bad enough. Jacob’s wife swore she’d die without them, and they were too poor to buy any, so he sneaked into Dame Gothel’s garden to steal some. Just a few, hardly noticeable among the lush carpet of greens. Then...
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Heliolatry
Houyi was almost sorry to have shot them now that their dying forms surrounded him, cooling as their blood watered the parched earth. He could have simply subdued them as their father Dijun had requested—but no. The Sun-birds were spoiled, mischi...
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Amok
Lisa didn’t know why the man let her live. One second she was eating a burger, the next she hid under the table as he fired round after round into the other people in the restaurant. The young basketball players. The old woman and her grandson. T...
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Curiosity Kills
Dana sprawled on her bed in her room upstairs, reading the assigned parts of Hamlet for class. She wanted to talk to Stacy about Aiden, but if she got another C in English her parents would ground her again. They’d given her a lecture before they...
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Haunted House For Sale
“So, that’s the grand tour,” the realtor said, flashing her pearly whites at Hank. “What do you think?” “Needs a lot of work,” he said, ticking off items on his fingers. “Every door and window squeaks, no...
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The Customer Is Always Right
Leah was idly arranging a vase of carnations when the customer approached her: an older man, wearing a heavy coat despite the mild spring weather, and already scowling. Business had been slow, so she summoned her most cheerful smile. “Give me a b...
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Bad Habit
We’d thought the church would be safe from the legions of undead. We were wrong. Alone, they were weak and easily dispatched, but together they formed a battering ram of flesh that turned the tall oak doors into firewood. Even the stained glass w...
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Leaving
It’s spring in Miami and everything is leaving. The snowbirds who flew down for the winter with the actual birds have packed their suitcases and locked the doors of their vacation homes. The spring break students have stumbled off the beache...
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Prohibition
“I wish you wouldn’t hang around those places,” Daisy said. Jim sighed. “It’s not dangerous like the Feds say. We just—” Daisy held up a hand. “Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know about speake...
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Right Hand Woman
“Good morning, Mr. Poole.” Nola Shields stood in the living room of her employer’s downtown penthouse, her black suit neatly pressed, her shoes shined. “Good morning, Ms. Shields.” Roy Poole examined the clothes she had la...
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Confession
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Lucid
I stood under a lamppost, its flickering light turning the street into an empty off-tempo night club. A tiny old man in front of me was hunched over smoking a cigarette, pointed ears sticking up through his white hair. He smelled like a barn. “Th...
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Where Have All the Flowers Gone
The train from Munich to Zurich only ran once a day since the fighting had escalated. Armored rail cars scouted first, removing bodies from the tracks or stopping the train to disarm explosives. The five-hour trip was now three times that long. Still, ...
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Cacophony
Connor heard the wailing before he saw its source. Thinking someone was in trouble, he veered off the path and toward the river, branches slapping his arms as he ran. He reached the edge of the tree line and saw the scene clearly, drawing back in alarm...
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Fire of Sky and Air
“Ragnarok is coming.” Mani frowned at his sister, Sol, as she handed him the reins of the sun chariot. “How do you know?” To his surprise, she blushed. “My, you know, hasn’t started.” Mani stared at her blankly...
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The Doors of Perception
“Welcome back, Giselle,” Randy said. Giselle groaned. “Sorbet. Now.” Randy handed her the lemon ice to cleanse her palate. Prophecy by glossolalia always left a weird taste in her mouth; this time it was cigarettes, whiskey and ...
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Yellow
Kate wore black clothes to work so she could go straight to the funeral instead of stopping at home to change. It was cold for March, so she looped her favorite yellow scarf around her neck and made a mental note to remove it before she got to the wake...
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Super Is As Super Does
Blast Girl stared at the device in horror. “It’s a bomb!” “How much time—” Jade Fist began. “Fifteen seconds!” They knew they wouldn’t make it out of the building before it blew up. Despite her expl...
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Airy Nothings
“Hey, Puck, you sodding bastard, look at me!” I peered at the furious fairy over the rim of my beer mug. “Good morrow, fairest spirit in the land. What cause—” “Don’t talk to me like that,” she said. R...
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Gravitas
My father sent me a postcard of the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. On the back, he wrote: “Tread lightly, she is near Under the snow Speak gently, she can hear the daisies grow.” Oscar Wilde’s lines, but I knew “she” me...
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Paris, Je Vous Combattrai
The protesters surrounded me, brandishing signs with anti-war slogans. I didn’t speak French, so I had no idea what they were shouting, but given my Navy dress uniform I could guess. Not wanting to cause trouble, I kept walking along the bank of ...
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Kiss Me, I'm Inebriated
“I love St. Patrick’s Day!” the cute, drunk brunette told Dave. He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Behind them, the band played a treacly version of Danny Boy, with the crowd in the bar singing along to the few bits that p...
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Objets d'Art
The last time I saw Paris, I was on a mission. My boyfriend and I assembled our tools—guidebook, cameras, tickets—and made our way to the nearest Metro station. After a short ride made long by a Frenchman who took a cavalier approach to hyg...
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Workaholic
“The last time I saw Paris,” he said, taking a drag from his cigarette, “it was on fire.” “Because you set it on fire,” I said. “Well.” He waved dismissively, smoke curling around his scarred right hand. “Someone had to.” My jaw cle...
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Those Who Favor Fire
“The last time I saw Paris,” he said, taking a drag from his cigarette, “it was on fire.” “Because you set it on fire,” I said. “Well.” He waved dismissively, smoke curling around his scarred right hand. ...
