Stories tagged “challenge”
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John's Sweet Program
John sat happily in his chair at work. “Im done! It’s finally done!” John tells his boss Dan about a tool he wrote that will improve collaboration on projects for the team. As he brings it up and shows all the possibilities and the ef...
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There are No Words
He lay back against the pristine white bed sheets, closed his eyes and tried to remember. It wasn’t always like this, he was sure of it. People used to see the world so differently. They used to have metaphor, imagery; they used to be able to talk ab...
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The Mitochondrial Society
I remembered all I had learned about him despite never having seen him or met him. He was commonly known as Eldest Father. Everyone listened to him, because he had won their hearts and minds. The legends of his past deeds and insights, despite rumors o...
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The Sky
The sky is large on large days and small on small days. What the hell does that really mean? Are some days bigger than others? I suppose days can feel longer and shorter, especially if those days have some big event, like a wedding, or a funeral, or a ...
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Nothing Deviant At All
“This is glorious!” Brian exclaimed, staring at his laptop. “Stop looking at porn, dude!” I faked a parental tone, hoping the accusation would embarrass my roommate with his sister in the room. She’d swung to see what he w...
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Unlikely Companions
Why the hell is it so cold? I knew that there would be some discomfort involved, but I didn’t know that feeling the cold would be one of them. I’m not supposed to be conscious. The day before the lights went out, I sat in the park with . . ...
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Trapped Here
I wake with a start. But that can’t possibly be the right word for it. I haven’t moved a muscle in what feels like a lifetime. It’s been years I’m pretty certain. But then again, it might only be a matter of hours. It’s ju...
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Triskadekaphobia
It was everywhere. This was the last straw. No more would this idiotic figure be present in the human race! No more! I would obliterate it! It would no longer haunt me on every single street! It would no longer be a presence in my life, or anyone’...
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One is the Loneliest Number
No one would write my obituary. (I don’t even know 6 10-letter words!)
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'Til Death
“Marry me!” he shrieked at her, gesticulating wildly. His bloodshot eyes met hers and held them, shoes crunching the gravel of the apartment roof as he paced. “No.” “NO!” the man screamed in a mockery of the woman...
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Dying Embers
..[].. Torched, charred. Ashes. Lina – silenced forever. ..[]..
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There is only one way out
Men exaggerate. Women reproduce. Death culls. … … … … … … …
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The Voicemail
“You have one new message,” the soft robotic voice says, “today, 12:31pm.” “It’s me…you,” from what you can tell, it’s your own voice on the phone, and you seem to be hysterical. “Now is your ...
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Heartache
Break me open and still my beating heart for it must be you before the anguish.
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The Last Thing on My Mind
I changed the selection on my iPod, lifting it from where it sat near the gearshift and glancing down periodically to make sure I was getting the right album. I needed something soothing. It had been a long day. Now I was driving home, exhausted. Perha...
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A Cold Day In Between
My name is Danny Morita and I’m a Shinigami. That means “death spirit,” more or less. For those of you who watch those new-fangled Japanese cartoons, we don’t go around fighting people with stupidly huge swords or drop killer no...
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I, Khaos!
There was one form of magic the tyrant had not mastered: death magic. And so the young actor who had seen his own mother and father tortured to death before his eyes had to master it. He forged his own death into a sword tempered in a child’s blo...
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Time Travel: Six Feet Deep
At first I screamed, I cried, I kicked, I clawed. Alone. The darkness was so black that I thought to be swallowed by it. Then eventually something inside me broke. Then nothing. The velvet began to droop, and for the longest time a piece of it tickled ...
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A silver lining, oh yes I should think so...
Any successful execution by firing squad results in just one thing: a healthy corpse. In this regard at least, today’s effort was a stunning success. Those present: myself, a small group of onlookers, three marksmen and a miscreant tied to a pole...
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High Tide
The gently ebbing current drew down to the depths, where the scuttling creatures feasted methodically in the darkness. Our bodies were never found.
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Leap of Faith
“I knew you didn’t exist the day you let my wife die.” I say this to no one in particular as I hop up onto the ledge. I feel the wind in my hair as I gaze over my shoulder and down fifteen stories. “What kind of a loving god let...
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The Fires of Hades
He stood there panting, watching, waiting. Every muscle in his body was alight with a teatherball yellow flame from effort. Blood slid down the blade and splashed like sand into a small pool. The demon watched him, searching him for weakness. The other...
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We Can Collect It For You... For A Price
Her ankle length coat was seamless, and the black leather draped as softly as silk. It was tank grown, of course, but clearly tailor made. This was not one of the cheap off the shelf coats. This had been grown to order. And, he thought, fit was somethi...
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Claire
Click. His eyes opened. He could taste the metal of the gun, but he was not dead. He took the gun out of his mouth and stared at it. Apparently that bullet was a dud. For a full hour, Jason sat on the couch, gun in hand and stared. He was alive. He had...