Kata - A Reluctant Shaman Story

He’s naked. Every curve of muscle, every scar and tattoo a stark contrast to the sharp lines of his body. He stands at rapt attention; his form perfect and his sword arm unwavering.  His eyes are closed as he centers and grounds himself. I love watching him like this. Drives him nuts, but he’s too disciplined to break and tell me to go away. Resting on the dew-wet grass, I sit quietly for that moment that always comes.

Every morning he comes out here and does his exercises. Some mornings it’s simple calisthenics, others he takes off for a run around the woods nearby. But today is special, and that’s why I’m out here slowly letting dew soak through my pants as the sun breaks the horizon.

Milk Run - A Dauntless Story

The ship moved silently through the dark.  The Dauntless was far beyond the charted systems and well outside of the normal shipping lanes. The stars were distant pin-pricks in a sea of black.
“Navigation shows nominal drift. Secondary stability thrusters offline for diagnostic checks and port main thruster is showing a variable reading on heat sensor two. Decker is enroute to bay 4 to for EVA and I’m awaiting his signal to cut all power to the port main thruster so we don’t accidentally cook our engineer. Sneed reports that armory inventory is complete, and on your desk, and Rocker units are showing green across the board. Comms reports no abnormal chatter on the commercial and civie channels and no pings within range. Oh, and dipshit is waiting in your briefing room.” XO McGrath gave her report. Captain Page lifted his eyebrow at his second.

Piglet and the Oak Tree - A Flash Fiction Short

The storm raged overhead, wind whipping through the forest as rain lashed through canopy. Branches swayed and clashed and the ground grew sodden. Forks of lightning illuminate the sky as rumbles of thunder roar between the boughs.
The small piglet scrambles through the dark and the wet, terrified and alone. Separated from its herd, the small pig crashes through bushes and underbrush, too scared to think. It wants it’s family, the comforting touches of brothers and sisters pressing in from the sides, the protective all-encompassing presence of mother, the gruff affection from father. The storm had scattered them, and the piglet ran deeper into the old wood.

Home - A Flash Fiction Short

She pushed through the door to her little place roughly. She was exhausted and sore, and just wanted to be done with the day. Her little house was tucked back in the woods a bit, which allowed her the luxury of being left the hell alone when she felt like this. She flopped bonelessly into her favorite chair and took a deep breath. The sound of a chair scuffing across the floor comes from her kitchen.

New Lands

The chanting was growing more insistent. Gregory gripped his dagger's sweat-slicked hilt and concentrated on his breathing, remembering everything the order had taught him. The cultists in the next room were oblivious to his presence and hadn't noticed the missing guards, whose bodies were cooling in a supply closet.

Darkness Waking

The field stands barren, a craggy and uneven square forgotten beyond the edge of anyone's property lines. A bent and burnt tree stands in the middle of the field, casting contorted shadows across the stony earth. Nothing else grows here; nothing has grown here in a long time. Looking, the field feels...wrong. It's borders, the swell and shape of the uneven surface, the skeletal reach of the tree limbs are just...wrong in a way you can't quite touch. The lines don’t seem to be right. The perspective shifts wrong. The light bends weird. Its wrong and looking too long hurts the mind and strains the eyes.

They Ran - A Flash Fiction Short

They didn’t talk to each other. They moved quickly and quietly, winding through the suburban neighborhood just as the dark grey of dawn lightened into morning. One had a bloodied bandage wrapped around his forehead, where a richochet had cut deep when that guy in the suit had started shooting at everyone on I-5. They were lucky, a lot of people hadn’t gotten off the interstate yesterday but they had. All of the obvious ways out of the city were now jammed packed with cars and bodies, all trying to escape what was happening. And, today, those ways out were now death traps.