Fishy Circumstances
Dec 19th
October 18, 2008—Salem Asylum
“Mr. Montgomery!” Janice Airworthy exclaimed with overdone delight. “We hoped you’d be here today. We need your assistance with Ms. Trent’s cell again.”
Chester Montgomery had never understood why Janice felt the need to speak in plural like that. There was no “we.” The High Boss, as Chester referred to [...]
Lions, Tigers, and Tentacles
May 17th
All right. I took a nap again, because I was tired, okay? I fell asleep, and it happened to be in a bed… so it was a nap. I didn’t even plan on it this time.
And then I dreamed.
I was walking through the hallway at Giuseppe High (a Red-Ribbon School of Awesomeness), or somewhere– maybe [...]
Penguin Perils
Apr 13th
Beep…Beep…Beep…’Oh no,’ I inwardly groaned. It was my watch. ‘Always with the beeping.’ I thought unhappily. ‘Some day, I’ll figure out how to change that.’
I slowly and involuntarily made to get out of bed. The big problem was, I wasn’t lying on a bed. I opened my eyes and saw…sky? ‘That can’t be right,’ I [...]
Health, Stealth, and Holiday Spirit
Jan 25th
4:57 PM
Ivy was listening intently, her left ear lightly caressing the grainy surface of the faintly ajar wooden door before her. She stood painfully still so as not to disturb the silence with the predictable, sanity-wrenching screech of the oil-deprived door hinges. Hearing a steady thrum of running water at last, she crept [...]
Thought Train Infarction
Oct 16th
First off, there is alacrity. Not the noun, but the word itself. With no idea as to its meaning or the reason for its presence, the word has pressed itself firmly and perhaps indelibly into the deep folds of my grey matter, between the lyrics to a song about raindrops that I can’t honestly say [...]
Between a Nail & a Hammer
Jun 11th
“Well, you’re awful brave,” said the man next to me sluggishly, perhaps even drunkenly, as I pondered what in the world my problem was. My hands did not shake. My respiration was regular. The only evidence that I was not cool as a cucumber were my eyes, owlishly large and flitting back [...]
Hapless
Mar 31st
It’s my turn. My name has been called. I start– where has the time gone?
I take a breath. People are staring, now. My trembling hands grip the paper. Jerkily, I stand. My eyes are wide and my throat is attempting to close. I look down as I push the [...]
To Sleep, Or Not To Sleep
Mar 30th
A Shakespearean Soliloque Re-Write
To sleep, or not to sleep: that is the question:
Whether ’tis better in the end to succumb
To the gentle pull of dreams,
Or to resist the urge and use that time,
And by resisting lose precious awareness;
To lay– no useful thought inside my head
Hours on end of aimless mind wand’ring
Or make the best of [...]
Just Another Day
Mar 7th
by Abby Koop
“Bus!” came her mother’s frantic shriek from her position beside the
dining room window.
It was precisely 6:57 a.m. on Wednesday, February 21, and Katie
Hardestin was in the process of pulling her second, brand-new,
just-like-the-pair-she’d-lost-three-months-ago pink earring out if its
position in the flimsy piece of cardboard. She expelled a heavy,
exasperated sigh.
“Coming!”
The bus would [...]
Diary of Ms. Van Tassel
Nov 15th
by Abby Koop
October 11, 1816
Dear Diary,
Abraham stopped by for a chat again today. His horse ride here had given him a sort of stormy, unrefined look, and yet he still managed to maintain a perfectly graceful sort of aura. When I told him so, his face turned bright red.
I am quite certain I strike [...]
