Excerpt

How do we read Meditations?
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. If you want to be quiet, then do the few things that are necessary. The way you often think, the way your heart looks, is because your heart is saturated with thoughts.
By Derasom4 years ago in Fiction
The Push
The Push Stan woke to a misty rain pinging off the edge of his helmet, the steady drip impacting on the webbing strapped to his chest, each splash matching the impacting explosions of the shelling penetrating the land above. As he lifted the blanket from around his shoulders he felt the skittering of a rat from the small of his back, with fur black as night and eyes of crimson, it shreaked up the wall into its burrow. Stan paid no mind and wiped the sleep from his eyes as the dawn light crested the top of the trench. He turned his head and peered into the periscope sight which was fixed next to him. It was the same view every morning, blackened trees, fog and barbed wire.
By Ian J Roberts 4 years ago in Fiction
Tiny Wishes
ONE “Listen,” she said, turning around to face him. “I don't like having a male roommate. I think you will agree that getting shacked up with a woman you don't know isn't your idea of a good time.”
By Stephanie Van Orman4 years ago in Fiction
The Train
The sound of the train turning around a corner abruptly woke me. I felt my body being slightly rocked by the turn. As I opened my eyes the train was going through a tunnel. Everything went darker. It seemed to be night. I still felt drunk. The section I was in came out of the tunnel. I was sitting by the window. I looked out the window and didn’t recognize the town we were going through. To be honest, I had no idea how I got on the train. Oh man, I can feel the hangover coming on. I sat there in partial agony, trying to comprehend the situation I was in. I am on a train.
By Kohl Younger4 years ago in Fiction
The Consequences of Oxygen Deprivation and the Existential Crises that Occur After Being Adrift in Space for Far Too Long
Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. What am I talking about? I know that nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space - I'm in the vacuum of space and I have been screaming for what feels like enough time for the universe to implode and then explode back out again. Big bang, number two. That would be fantastic right now, really. Just my luck if the universe came to a halt with its incessant expanding and began the process all over again.
By Jaimie4 years ago in Fiction
Chapter 10
After her head was broken, Leila went out proudly with her head wrapped in a bandage. If someone asked her, she would untie the bandage and show them the black scar, which was a little red around the edges and stuck out from her hairline. Eventually, she forgot about it, and if someone stared at her, at the white scar left on her skin, she would make a vicious gesture, meaning: What are you looking at! None of your business! She said nothing to me and never thanked me for handing her stones and using the edge of my apron to wipe the blood that came out of her. From that time on, we began to compare our guts, which had nothing to do with school anymore.
By EliasCarr4 years ago in Fiction
Chapter 7
According to Leila's brother, Reno, Leila learned to read when she was about three years old, looking at the pictures and letters in his literacy textbook. He did his homework in the kitchen and his sister always sat next to him, learning faster and more than he did.
By EliasCarr4 years ago in Fiction
Chapter 6
Like I said before, Ms. Oliviero fell off the podium that day and her cheekbone hit the corner of the table, and I thought she was dead, just like my grandfather or Melina's husband, who died at work. I thought Leila was responsible, that she would be sentenced to death. After a while - I can't say for how long - nothing happened, just both people disappeared, the teacher and the student disappeared from our lives.
By EliasCarr4 years ago in Fiction
Chapter 9
The fight between her and Enzo that morning is a very important thing in our long story. Since that time, Leila has shown some attitudes that are hard to describe. For example, it was clear to me: that Leila could control the use of her talents on her own. That's how she treated Don Achille's son. Not only did she not want to defeat him, but she also calculated the timing of her silences and answers so that she would not be defeated by him. We weren't friends at the time, and I couldn't ask her why she did that. There was no need to ask at all, I could have guessed why, she, like me, knew not only not to offend Don Achille, but also his family.
By EliasCarr4 years ago in Fiction
Chapter 8
It's also possible that this was my way of coping with jealousy and hatred and suppressing those emotions, or that it was a disguise for my low self-esteem and perceived charm. Of course, I easily put up with Leila's dominance and her bullying.
By EliasCarr4 years ago in Fiction
Chapter 5
I don't miss our childhood at all, because our childhood was full of violence. All kinds of things happened to us, at home, outside, every day. But I remember that I never felt bad about the life we encountered then, life was like that, it was normal. One of the responsibilities we learned growing up was that we had to make life harder for others before it made it harder for us.
By EliasCarr4 years ago in Fiction
Chapter 4
Blood, as a rule, comes out of wounds only after heated arguments and dirty insults, and things always follow this order. My father - I think he was a good man, but he also cursed when confronted with people who, in his words, "did not deserve to live in this world," especially Don Achille, for whom my father always found a reason. Sometimes, I put my hands over my ears to avoid hearing those unpleasant words. When my father spoke to my mother about Don Achille, he would call him "your cousin," and my mother would immediately deny the relationship (they were distant cousins) and join my father in his curses. Their anger scared me, and what scared me the most was that Don Achille might have heard him cursing from far away, and I was afraid he would come and kill my parents.
By EliasCarr4 years ago in Fiction