I smell smoke. The scent draws me out of sleep, from the longest nightmare I’ve ever endured. But I’m waking to something far worse. Paul, his mouth spewing blood, his eyes dull. He looks at me and says, “Metis, you’re a beautiful boy.” And then his head falls against my shoulder. His heart stops. My… Continue reading 1.42 – The World is Red Now
Tag: Dystopian
THE MASK GOES BACK ON
1.41 – The Shadow They Cast Together
Shaking, shivering, and pouring entirely too much sweat, Bedevil soars over Houston after Gabe. Plumes of smoke rise just south of downtown, from Gabe’s march toward the Shrine. She wants to fly faster, to push harder, but her stomach already wants to flop out of her mouth, and her legs and arms tremble just from… Continue reading 1.41 – The Shadow They Cast Together
1.40 – Someone Unknown
Flashfire will never admit he is afraid. The gnawing beast in his gut can’t be fear. But the images coming out of PK Resonance… the news… Highheart’s panicked message about Home Run and Megajoule and Pandahead… They’re certainly making him feel something. Home Run and Megajoule. Somehow the same person. A person that Flashfire has… Continue reading 1.40 – Someone Unknown
1.39 – One-Mind-In-Many
Bedevil looks down onto the office building she and Gabe raided only a couple of weeks ago. Thunderheads flash and growl as they roll over the swampy city she hates. The only good thing here is Gabe, and maybe that one gyro joint not too far from the Shrine. Sweat drenches her clothes. She transmutes… Continue reading 1.39 – One-Mind-In-Many
1.38 – The Oldest Emotion
River Oaks is, bluntly put, stupid rich. Condo towers draped in warm light and with lush greenery at their heels rise above shopping centers designed to look classy. Actual infrastructure and roads connect all of this together, and the drone cover is heavy. Just goes to show that, given enough money, a pre-Affect way of… Continue reading 1.38 – The Oldest Emotion
1.37 – A Holy Terror
From the third story of a crumbling parking garage, filled with rusting cars abandoned long ago, I study the ruins of the college. The swamp has retaken much of the campus, growing over all the buildings and cracking the lecture halls open from below. I dart across the rooftops, searching for any warm bodies among… Continue reading 1.37 – A Holy Terror
1.36 – A Mistake and a Miracle
A peal of thunder wakes Bedevil up from probably the worst sleep of her life. Immediately, her stomach twists. She rolls over, barely making it off the bed before her lunch makes good on its threat to return and ends up all over the prison floor. Chunks of pasta and meat are still recognizable in… Continue reading 1.36 – A Mistake and a Miracle
1.35 – Temperature
I sit there, remembering everything that happened the day I escaped the lab, Paul still looking at me on the TV screen. “That should have unlocked a lot of memories for you. I hope it doesn’t wake up your brother. I hope it’s been long enough that he’s starved out. But now you know the… Continue reading 1.35 – Temperature
1.34 – Apotheosis
There was no day or night in that place. There were times of darkness and times of intense, buzzing light. There was no sky, only finely fissured white ceiling tiles. No grass or dirt, no flower or fruit, just the cold ceramic and metal floor. We ate on tables made of stainless steel, sitting on… Continue reading 1.34 – Apotheosis
The Megajoule Series 
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