Stories tagged “UNP”

  • Terror at the Mall

    Katie and I were sitting on the bench at the mall when these two weird guys walked in. Overweight and ethnic looking, Asian or Mexican definitely, they wore black trench coats and moved together as one, feet in step, arms swinging the same way. The cre...

  • Meetings in the Morning

    The dark skin and white tribal tattoos marked him one of the Addorhaja, a people with a penchant for collecting skulls and dealing with demons. According to rumors, their demons walked with them, sometimes visible, sometimes not, but dangerous in eithe...

  • Nothing for Nothing

    That stopped me in my tracks. My Sword? The blade I carried, I had earned, but it wasn’t anything special. It was a sword, a tool of violence. A specialized tool, and one I used as well as any craftsman but a tool non-the-less. Still it was mine ...

  • The Potion

    The purple powder bubbled into on the surface of the drink making large filmy bubbles, and giving the entire mixture a sinister tinge. It was disturbing. Worse, it smelled like urine. I waited for everything to soak in, before giving it a stir. Maybe i...

  • Taken

    This is a dark place and I am ill amused. Pulling my coat tighter, I glared at that seething sky to little effect, I am sad to say. I don’t know how I came to this place, nor where it is. The flora and fauna are strange to me, though I am a biolo...

  • Taken: Lost in the Fog

    I know not how long I wandered, the fog a deceitful guide that carried with it a foul and most unfamiliar stench. The forest surrounding the house of my youth was a thick patch of wilderness that had successfully fought off civilization’s touch f...

  • The Third Sacrifice (Mature)

    The stench of burning flesh was harsh inside the antiseptic steel of the vault. Seven hooded figures, robes splattered with blood from the first sacrifice, gathered in a semi-circle, next to the round door and watched with a certain amount of awe, as m...

  • One Step Closer to the End

    Everyone else looked on uncomfortably, shifting their feet. Willing to participate in human sacrifice, they got cold feet at a little bickering. It almost made me laugh. The fire had died down, red and gray ashes churning into smaller and smaller piles...

  • Proof

    “We have access to criminals, specifically criminals on death row. Except instead of an injection, you’ll do the deed. You understand that we have to know that you can do what you say you can do. We need proof.” There were a thousand ...

  • Necessity Dictates Tyranny (Mature)

    “What would have happened if I hadn’t done it?” I felt numb. “Look kid, don’t ask questions you don’t really want to know. Right now, the whole world is looking for people like you and most of us are worried. Counter...

  • Two Deaths

    It had happened twice before I was sure it was me. The first time some guy was pawing my sister at a party. I didn’t like to think about it, but he’d dropped dead in my hands. The EMT’s thought it was a heart attack. They couldn’...

  • The Recruiter

    The lobby was empty. A bored man sat behind a desk, idly thumbing through a magazine without really looking at it. He was wearing a simple turtle-neck but I could tell he was a military man. It wasn’t the shaved head, bulky frame, or piercing eye...

  • Small Comfort

    I looked up from the bottom of the well. It was a dry well, or had been. Now it was damp. Dark clouds spat rain and though the opening that faced the sky wasn’t very wide, water streamed down the rough, pitted brick in dark rivulets. Water that p...

  • Standing Time

    It was one of those nights when people stand outside. Summer or winter, it happens during that sliver of time some call twilight, others call dusk. In the summer, it can bring us together. People who end up outside at the same time nod or wave, even ca...

  • The Text to Adventure

    I refreshed the screen and the icon of the chat bubble changed into a shadowed crescent moon. Stupid facebook. Super convenient when it worked, very irritating when it didn’t. Oh well, Bryan could wait until tomorrow. I powered off the monitor an...

  • Rememberance of the First Sighting

    I am beginning to give credence to the idea that my house is haunted. At first I thought it was the fever-dreams, because that’s the first time I really remember seeing- it. I had woken up with my face buried in a sweat-soaked pillow. The only li...

  • Making Enemies

    I watched the blond get up from her table and carry her purse with her to the bathroom, while her date smiled nervously and nodded. It was easier to think of her as the blond. Even thinking her name would twist my emotions into knots. It was better thi...

  • Curtains

    Tragic notes hung in the air as the harpist’s delicate fingers plucked the last string. The assembled crowd, all men and women of proper breeding, stayed silent as they tried to hold on to the emotions bared by the lingering music. A deep sadness...

  • A Symptom of the Times

    My men worked in plastic ponchos, taking pictures and uploading them to the central database. The thin material didn’t keep the rain out, it just slowed it down. By now everyone was uncomfortable- bordering on miserable. A black sedan pulled up t...

  • Hunt Resumed

    A pair of silver bells chimed in my pocket as I walked. The sounds they made would draw attention, attention I could ill afford, but I didn’t dare leave them behind. I traveled light, my clothes exchanged at the poorer of the two Goodwills- the o...

  • Tactical Agitation

    Nausea gripped me and I turned to spit. Blood splattered on the ground. Blinking, I was amazed to find myself on my feet- leaning unsteadily against the shattered remains of some building, but on my feet. Realization was slow in coming. I still stood. ...

  • A Wild Ride (Mature)

    Neon signs beckoned with the garish vulgarity of a broken prostitute. By now they were easy to ignore, with so many clamoring to be heard, none stood out, and the eye slid past the visual noise. In a sad way, those signs represented the best and worst ...

  • Blunting the Spearhead

    “Even though my brother has tainted his august and royal blood with marriage to an inferior, blood must be thicker than water. Command of this new venture will fall to him, though in truth I know you are better suited to it. If the business ends ...

  • A Change in Family Dynamics

    “Never trust a man in a trenchcoat. Whether spy, mage, or madman, he is not to be trusted. It’s like wearing a sign that says ‘Hey look, I’m untrustworthy!’.” My Uncle Dan was semi-drunk. He pretty much only existed ...

  • The Last of the Malcontent

    “Stand tall, citizens! Know that the superman lives.” The crisp voice blared from the speakers that had been set up on every block. Dozens of people in the streets stopped what they were doing and looked up, faces taut with fear. In many ey...