“The world’s your oyster!” they said.
I want to say they lied, pin the blame on anyone but myself, but I can’t.
I could’ve made something of my life. Instead I chose the unthinkable.
He’s been in prison for nine years because of what I did. Six more to go.
Gabrielle Soong is a 17-year-old high schooler and aspiring writer. Besides writing, her favorite things are music, reading, and soccer. She has big plans to travel the world and write novels.
The unopened letter stared me down. He’d promised to write, but this was the first letter in weeks.
I anticipated what it said: his time abroad changed him.
Finding courage, I began reading. Everything became clear with that last line:
“Distance can’t separate us. I return next week. Marry me.”
Jennifer Carnesi is an eleventh-grade student in southern Louisiana. Besides writing she enjoys drawing, dance and spending time with friends.
Marveling at this adventure, this unknown, she simply must write her travels down.
Vanished journal. Panic. She retraces back to the restaurant.
“Ma’am, this yours?”
Turning around, she gets lost in his eyes. “Yes… Yes, it is.”
Dancing under the string-light stars. It’s the most beautiful place in Paris, France.
Maddi Chiota is a junior at Northlake Christian School attending a Creative Writing class. She is an athlete, artist, and writer. She also adores cats.
“We leave in five minutes,” he said.
Grey hairs muzzled out of his nostrils like worn felt. He smelled like ammonia. A holstered Leatherman dangled from his belt.
He was my last chance.
I glanced past him, at the smoke rising from the snowy yard.
“I can’t go,” I said.
Sean Higgins lives in an old farmhouse in Ypsilanti, Michigan with his wife and three insane cats. He works as an editor for a Research Firm. His work has been published in Bartleby Snopes.
Andy knew how to train a tortoise to move fast. Really fast. It was an eclectic, yet very rarely used skill.
However, when Trevor, a forty-one-year-old tortoise, won the New Haven Marathon in world-record time, news spread quickly throughout the four-legged community. Suddenly, tortoises everywhere began sprinting at lightning speeds.
“Don’t go,” a poor, old Iranian Mother begged. “Everything is the same in every part of the world.”
“They don’t have the same limitations,” Daughter replied, passing the gate of the airport.
“They have their own. Don’t go. Please!” Mother begged.
“They don’t have family limitations,” the daughter murmured quietly.
Saeed Rezaee, from Iran, holds a B.A. in English Translation and shares his creative writing at teanglish.com.
“You believe in them?”
“Of course!”
“Rubbish, there is no such thing as superheroes!”
The speeding truck that crushed him got away.
“Only a miracle can save him,” they said.
Five hours later:
“Operation successful,” said the young surgeon.
“I take back my words,” he said when he came to.
Andy believes in keeping her bio shorter than fifty words for this one. To follow her mischief, click on www.andypaula.in.
As a kid, I got glasses.
I never wore them.
Didn’t want to see the world as it truly was.
Didn’t want to see who was reflected
in the mirror.
Pockmarked friends;
flawed broads.
Hiding them in my closet,
I rejoiced,
reveling in the life
God intended me to witness.
Daniel N. Flanagan is a Worcester, MA native. He is the author of three short stories and twenty-two poems, featured in Poppy Road Review, Three Line Poetry, and more. His first poetry chap-book is due for publication and purchase this Summer ’14. Check him out at DanFlanagan.webs.com and follow him @DanielNFlanagan.
A bat flapped over the twins’ heads as they entered the nave of the abandoned church. The faint whimper of an infant seemed to pull them toward the altar.
“Do you hear that?” Michael whispered to his sister Luci.
At that moment Luci bared her teeth and grinned. “I do.”
James Kowalczyk was born and raised in Brooklyn but now lives in Northern California with his wife and two daughters. His work has appeared both in print and online.
Match.com confirmed what Ryan and Darla’s friends had been telling them for years: they were perfect for each other. According to the website’s dating algorithms they were a 100% match.
Unfortunately, Eharmony said otherwise, and this was a good enough reason for Darla to reject Ryan once and for all.
Daniel Slaten is a Mountain Dew-addicted writer who currently resides and writes in Montgomery, AL.