Border, KS

BEGIN CHAPTER 13: Following Nightmares Sunday wasn’t hard for Siobhan and Antigone, primarily because it resembled a sleep-over. Lacey and Monica spent the day over and they played video games with Ryan, did homework, and Antigone even got them all to try Yoga. Then, since there was no one there to stop them, they stayed […]

“Where am I?” Walter let the question hang in the air, and noticed almost immediately that there was no resonance to it. It seemed like he was back in something related to him, but as he looked to the side he saw the others walking beside him. But none of them answered, their eyes fixed […]

Walter knew instantly that it was a battle. There was too much that sounded the same for it to be anything but fighting, even though it quickly became apparent that the weapons were very different from the ones he had used. Some people were wielding swords in sizes ranging from normal to ludicrous with ease, […]

The change from pure black to a very dark gray was so subtle at first, the lightening so gradual, that Walter didn’t notice it. None of the others noticed until that point either, until all at once all three of them stopped and looked around. “Weird,” Walter commented, reaching out to try to touch the […]

A long emptiness waited for them as they walked, swirling out in front of them. A slow wind blew, rustling their clothing. After what was probably a few minutes of walking, Morgan reached out and snapped her fingers. A glowing blue light appeared, bobbing along merrily next to her and illuminating the two of them […]

Lightning flashed high up on the hills. It illuminated a green land in the middle of a rain, powerful but not strong enough to put out the house that was on fire. The flames licked up in defiance of the precipitation, proclaiming their existence to heaven and proclaiming the tragedy within. The house had been […]

When he was younger he thought that if he ever got used to looking at corpses, then he would have to leave or he would risk losing something important in his psyche permanently. That went away by the end of his first two deployments. Not even one percent of them were caused by him. The […]

“Ok…” Morgan began quickly, looking between us, “maybe it’s good the others didn’t get through. This is going to get very bad, very fast. I need to explain and I don’t have a lot of time, so no pretending magic doesn’t exist or anything. Ok?” Walter nodded, looking around at the encroaching mist. “Deal. What’s […]

When Walter could tell what was happening again, he knew for sure that he wasn’t in the attic of the High School any more. There was a palpable sense of being outside that pressed in on him before he could even recognize anything he saw. The weather was warm but dry, and there was the […]

There was a familiar and comforting weight to the gear that Walter wore, and more comfort in the ritual of checking every pocket carefully to make sure things where we he had wanted to stow them. He was wearing a black tactical vest, designed with separate kinds of plates to stop both stabbing and firearms. […]