Alone on January 2, 2012

I took the train out from North York, staring at my phone and the last three messages I sent into the silent, digital maw. I bit back bitter tears, thinking that maybe I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time... with the wrong person. Luckily, most wrong places have train stations out.

Fear, Utterly Reviled By Years

I thought she'd slam the door on me, but she hurdled over the couch, sheer panic on her sweat-sheened face. I whipped around and drove my shoulder into the door, forcing it against the horror on our heels. "What does it want!?" Just on the other side of the door, we heard it coo: "U-nye-loo-lay-doo?" …

A Beautiful Night

She slid closer, wrapping the blanket tighter around her shoulders, murmuring softly under her frosted breath as she fought against blessed sleep. The other put out her cigarette, complaining idly about the cold while thinking about love and loss. The one who dragged them both outside smiled as lights streaked across the sky. "Beautiful night." …

A Meeting between Friends

I arrived at the coffee shop near Midland early. I was always early when it came to friendly meetings. (Yes, I know that it was rude to be late, but if that was really true, then for those who come too early, weren't you forcing the others to become late on your behalf?) I felt …

After the Night

The sound of the door closing wrenched him from his drunken slumber and into the crushing reality of consciousness. He groaned, the sour smell of cheap beer and bad sex clinging to him like a film. Blearily he reached for his glasses and instead found a note written in crisp lettering: "Hopefully see you tonight?" …

The Anticipation of a Moment

He sighed, leaning back with a look of thoughtful contemplation, then returned to the manuscript. Another smoked beside the window, reading, brows furrowed. She watched them eagerly, eyes gleaming with anticipation. "Well?" someone said. A moment of silence dawned with the sun, pregnant with effort, skill, and no little amount of divine inspiration. "It's perfect." …

An Inconvenient Wall

Aram punched the wall again, mostly out of frustration, but also out of a morbid need to commit to his foolish experiment. Yes, his knuckles were split and raw and his hands were shattered, but he consumed enough painkillers to ignore such inconveniences, and the wall at least splintered with every thousand blows - he …

Somewhere in Nevada

He flicked his cigarette into the desert and began to light another one with the practiced motion of a salaryman. His assistant was pissing on the cracked earth beside Highway 50 because he insisted on drinking four energy drinks for breakfast. A scraggly kitten approached, meowing. The salaryman frowned, uneasy. Two men and a kitten …

Two, Alone

She laughed, tossing back the phone, "How depressing!" The writer felt defensive, "That's like, my schtick - a dreary poet who rejects catharsis." "Oh, honey,” she murmured, a finger prodding his cheek, “Rejection implies choice.” Across the room, a grey shorthair yawned with an air of annoyance, wondering why it’s human was talking to himself …

11:22PM

Jittery and anxious, he played over their conversation in his head for the seventy-third time. There was definitely something to it, right? He wasn't overthinking things - this was perfectly normal behavior (for whatever passes for "normal" nowadays, right?). He carefully typed out his thoughts, the haptic feedback turning every word into a heartbeat. SENT …