The scents of rust and iron, cold and damp, filled Iris’s head as she awoke with a jerk, calling for her father. She had been racked with night terrors once more, the first time in nine months. However, these new nightmares were not fabrications, composites of television ghouls, and perturbing stories in the news. It […]
Tag: human trafficking
The Collector: Two
The door swung in, and with it, the dark, the evil shadows lurking in every corridor of the macabre fortress the children called home. Rennard twisted about, fearful he had been discovered by the master, only to find Jacob, soaked from head to sock, standing at the threshold. Glaring at Rennard as though he were the […]
The Collector: One
Stagnate, chilly water splashed at corpse-colored flesh as the drainage pool rose with the flow of rainwater spilling through the channel. The rains would be a blessing, the humidity and warmth, the fresh and soothing scent, and the cleansing purity of it washing away long-standing water; however, for the girl in the sewer, it was […]
The Love Market: Epilogue
The days of thunder and towering fire passed, but not without the slow chugging on of time in the face of such bedlam. Once it was finally played out, the nation went from a writhing snake rife with parasites and disease into a patchwork of cities that were bleeding out. Still, a sense of centralized […]
The Love Market: Chapter Seventeen
It took several minutes for Piper to disentangle herself as well as Sequoia from the wreckage of the truck. There was a fleeting moment where she had attempted to drag the others from the vehicle, but the notion seemed superfluous. Rose wasn’t moving anymore, and Mika’s head hung at an odd angle. Monroe had let […]
The Love Market: Chapter Nine
The map, showing what was left of connecting lines running through the states, was recent, printed just that year by some other factory likely closed indefinitely now, but was nonetheless out of date. From snippets of news Piper had gotten from those passing through looking for work, at least another quarter of the major cities […]
The Love Market: Chapter Eight
“I told Peter about the cyclones and what I thought of them, and he told me again that it didn’t work like that and that when the time came, it would be safe for me to leave the House. But I told him the same thing I would have told him any other time before […]
The Love Market: Chapter Seven
“There used to be some others who lived in the House, and Peter would bring them to my room to play. These playmates were there when the visitors were too, but I didn’t notice that very often. And these playmates, a bit older than me, left the House during my last birthday. They were old […]
The Love Market: Chapter Six
“I learned about storms from the screens, and I wish I hadn’t because I saw how they hurt people, killed people, made people sad, and struggle to keep living. Peter says we’re lucky to live away from where bad storms happen anymore. I asked if maybe the cyclones would figure out where we were and […]
The Love Market: Chapter Five
“A base is where all the men and women who work for our army live. The work they do isn’t like what I have to do or what I’d have to do there. But, mister… Peter says that someone should be over there and will need to be there to help them in the way […]
Trazor 