They smiled at each other as they twirled on the dance floor, spinning around the other couples who had boring lives and would all go home and bicker.

“You know, we’re the happiest two people here,” he said.

“Probably happier than the bride and groom,” she agreed.

“And this is why I’ll never marry.”

“Because you’d rather dance with strangers?”

“Of course,” he scoffed. “I don’t ever want to tie myself down to a single woman. I can’t be monogamous.”

“Oh, really?.”

“Yeah, seriously,” he said.

“Well, I’m getting married someday,” she said, and danced the night away from him.… Read the rest

“But I didn’t!” she begged.

“You did! We watch it all, we know you did.”

“But I didn’t mean to,” she said.

“There are rules for everything, and they are rules for a reason. There is a reason we assign you jobs, assign you housing, assign you recreation time. You don’t need to know those reasons, you just need to abide.”

“I do not abide!”

“Very well. That is admission of guilt for Rule #6, ‘Never Fall in Love’. You’re sentenced to a life alone, because you don’t know how to – “

“I know how to love. That’s all … Read the rest

It starts with my heart racing.

I can feel it beating faster but I also feel it expanding in my chest, putting a pressure on that spikes my anxiety.

I tense up. I start panicking, it’s flight or flight time, and I’m used to flight. That’s the kinder, more obvious choice, but that’s not something I can do in public, or in front of friends and family.

Only in my mind can I fight off that which raises my hackles and makes me feel like I’ll kill or die to make it stop.

“Close your fucking mouth when you’re chewing!”… Read the rest

We knew from the very first moment that he was the one.

He fit the description perfectly – skin white as porcelain, black hair, black eyes, eyes that were a void, and terrible to behold.

He came quietly, opening and shutting the door so only the faintest whiff of smoke and light from the burning pyre made its way into the sanctuary.

At the altar, he turned and rose his arms, the smell of sulfur stinging our noses.

“Are you all worthy?” his voice boomed.

And suddenly we realized we weren’t, so we ran as fast and far as we … Read the rest

The rain is battering the skylight, and Bess sits close to the radiator, chilled to the bone.

Her eyes are glued to her computer, watching the little dot that was Mike moving away from her as she wept.

“I’m done,” he’d said. “I’m leaving.”

But she couldn’t let him go in weather like this. The rain would turn to ice at any moment. She had to go after him.

Bess sped as fast as she could to reach him, but the dark, icy rain was blinding and her tires were starting to slip.

They never found each other.

Or Bess.… Read the rest