Stream of Consciousness

ELIAS!
At eighty, Elias discovered that silence weighs heavily sometimes. It weighs on the chest. It fills every room. It lingers long after footsteps should have come back. Silence, he realized too late, isn’t just the absence of sound. It is everything that never returned.
By Lori A. A.2 months ago in Fiction
The NEED to always WIN!
The need for humans to always win is a driving force of immense proportions. We must choose craft - for the other side of our soul would simmer in a never ending fire of which only a dragon of legend could endure, without imploding and exploding.
By Novel Allen2 months ago in Fiction
Hollywood Hils
1 —When I was a little girl, my home wasn’t exactly a welcoming place. My parents argued all the time and completely forgot about me. The only thing that could take my mind off reality was the movies on TV. They transported me to another world… sometimes a horror movie, other times a western, a comedy, a drama… whatever. And it may sound silly, but watching those movies on the small TV screen made my eyes light up and made me truly happy, even if only for the duration of the movie.
By Cesar González Torres2 months ago in Fiction
Fragments of a Perfect Whole
Today. Ritual. Morning begins. I count steps. Thirteen movements create my sanctuary. My colleagues whisper about precision controlling my existence.
By SUEDE the poet2 months ago in Fiction
Craftation in the Garden of Literary Delights
In the garden of earthly delights where beauty meets debauchery. That’s where we sit and discuss it all. Craft without catharsis. Our protagonist thought long and hard about the prospect. I imagine them — or us, if you envision yourself as one of them — waiting like those in that play of waiting and existentialism. We’re always waiting, and even when waiting doesn’t explicitly carry emotion, it’s there. How do you remove the release necessary to create something others will connect with?
By Paul Stewart2 months ago in Fiction
The Shape of What She Didn't Say
I. Catalog She did not tell him she found his laugh too loud for restaurants. She did not correct him when he introduced her as his girlfriend to his mother, though they had been on four dates and she had not agreed to this.
By Destiny S. Harris2 months ago in Fiction
Marshall's Observations. Runner-Up in Craft Over Catharsis Challenge.
Marshall watched seagulls and crows playing in the wind among pink-tinted cloud beds that slowly turned gray as the sun hung at the sea's horizon. He used his iPhone to focus on the reflections in the water and snapped a photo. He liked the result; it showed a butterscotch sun sitting on the water below a pink cloud, with the ferry in the foreground.
By Andrea Corwin 2 months ago in Fiction
Born To Run
He watched the embers waltz skyward with the campfire tendrils, mixing and twisting until they all faded to black. Despite the warmth of the evening, he felt a shiver run through his shoulders that felt so much older than the candles at last weekend's birthday party indicated. While he appreciated everyone’s attendance, he stole every glance at the clock, counting down the moments until they left and he could depart.
By Matthew J. Fromm2 months ago in Fiction
The Inverse Calculus of Us
"The clock has struck three, the coffee is cold, and the shadows are beginning to speak. Welcome back to the desk of The Night Writer, where the stories are brewed in the dark."
By The Night Writer 🌙 2 months ago in Fiction
Craft Over Catharsis. Honorable Mention in Craft Over Catharsis Challenge.
Okayyy, craft over catharsis, craft over catharsis.... What do they mean by that? Why don't I get it? Is it a language thing... is that why I have such a hard time understanding this challenge? Or am I just stupid? A fraudster? A swindler? What word am I looking for?
By Cristal S.2 months ago in Fiction
The Golem
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WRITER’S NOTE: The golem originates in Jewish folklore as a figure formed from clay and animated through sacred language. Created for necessity rather than companionship, the golem exists to protect, labor, and endure. They are believed to be emotionless.
By Jesse Lee2 months ago in Fiction
Past Lives. Content Warning.
War made for odd couples. To Private Jim Mclellan, Sepp seemed a good man; better at least than some of the monsters he heard stories of deeper into the Reich. Real monsters. This Sepp almost reminded Jim of his uncle; the one from Wisconsin he met a few times at Weddings.
By Matthew J. Fromm2 months ago in Fiction