Simon had just loaded the skeleton onto his cart when he heard shouting coming from the fresh grave beside him. He pulled his shovel back out and began moving the dirt from the shouting to the grave that he’d just finished digging. Having gotten the skeleton, all he had left to do was fill it … [Read more…]
When I first found him, he told me that he couldn’t be trusted. I should have listened. I didn’t, though. Everybody talks about themselves like they’re a real bad guy. I figured I wouldn’t pay attention, because it was just his way of talking himself up. It wasn’t though. I really shouldn’t have trusted him. … [Read more…]
Raymond found the bundle of twigs that made up the nest fascinating, but he didn’t know why. It was late in the year, and all the leaves had fallen, leaving visible an otherwise bare branch wrapped in a bundle of sticks where a bird had made its nest. After school, Raymond would stand under the … [Read more…]
It was pretty clear that the dog had just been wrong. I figured he’d just made an honest mistake, and I didn’t hold it against him at all. But nonetheless, the man was really easy-going, and not hard to get along with at all. In fact, one of the first things he did was offer … [Read more…]
Vox went down to the river in the morning, the way he had for years. That morning, however, he was joined by a crow that fluttered over to a tree nearby. It flapped its wings kind of frantically, as it landed on an outstretched branch of the pine beneath it. The bird had a bit … [Read more…]
Sampson had died several years before, so he really had no business worrying about Laura’s dating situation. It was ridiculous, and he knew that it was stupid. His superiors kept telling him that it was stupid. His friends kept telling him it was stupid. Even the little ghost kids who hung around him, bored, knew … [Read more…]
I first met her in the forest. My leg was bleeding profusely, because the diamond had finally made its way to the surface and broken the skin. So, she offered to help me, and she wrapped my right arm over her shoulders and helped me limp away from there. When she got me home, she … [Read more…]
As he hit the snooze button again, Sampson was sure he heard voices coming out of the clock. “Told you.” “Yeah, you were right.” Even though all he really wanted was to go back to sleep, Sampson sat up and looked over at the clock. He thought about giving it a shake just to see … [Read more…]
Lucas went with the others into the beautiful room where the committee did its work. It had once been a grand library, and marble pillars framed rows of books. There were high balconies all around the sides of the room, looking over the gigantic oval, wooden table that the Academia had had moved into the … [Read more…]
The tree had died and there couldn’t be any doubt about it. It had hung in for a few years, sprouting a few green branches every summer, even though the rest of the tree stayed bare. But that spring even those last, surviving branches hadn’t come back. Now the tree was just a wooden skeleton … [Read more…]