Inka's Curse Part 6: Bad News 2

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…my best. If I don’t make it and they find my body, have it returned to Ruth for me. She’s the innkeeper at Wellspring.” Titan might be like a brother to me but Ruth has been more than an aunt to me. She’s like a mother to me but I’d never tell her that.

“Alright. I’ve met her before from the few times I’ve visited on vacation,” Titan says thoughtfully, “but it was long ago when I was just a boy.”

“That was most likely before I had to move in with her because I don’t ever remember seeing you…

By Cristina Collazo

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A Peculiar Demise

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The weirdness began on the day I died…

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…view from up here is incredible and makes me feel somehow complete, which is ironic. I’m aware of the fact that I’m dead, although any disassociation from my material being doesn’t seem to have kicked in yet. I look down, out across the world that I’ve called home for thirty-six years, and I realise with some slight sense of melancholy that I won’t miss it at all. I’ve had a damn good run. But all good things, as they say, must come to an…

By Martin Webb

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Inka's Curse Part 5: Bad News

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…to rest comfortably at the local inn before leaving. Who knows how long and dangerous the trip is going to be precisely. I didn’t sleep comfortably that night. I tossed and turned in bed as I tried keeping my mind off this uncomfortable chest plate and the weird sword that won’t speak to me anymore. As soon as the sun starts to rise, I get up from the bed. I have to travel by day.

When I’m about to leave Moon Valley, Titan stops me.

Why can’t I ever avoid him? He’s got some eagle eyes. Although at the moment…


By Cristina Collazo

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The Abyss

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…slate-like under my bare feet; cold, slick, impenetrable. The air is stale and clammy. My hands blindly lunge into obscurity; nothing within grasp, only the vacuum of the dark barren. The cold emanates from within my soul and spreads through the fibers of my nerves, embracing every inch of my body. I call out; my voice falling flat, no walls to echo my shout. I shiver, not knowing if this is from the chilling dankness or my own fear and fall to the ground.

Sobbing, I crawl through the misty darkness for hours. The floor is slick from the dewy…

By Tracey Koehler

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Inka's Curse Part 4: Trapped

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…village has already been cleaned up or melted away. Before I search for Albert, I decide to take care of me. I sell the fish in a bundle for twenty coins and a coin per seashell ending up with twenty-six coins. Twenty-five will be spent on the room. I offer the last coin to the innkeeper as a tip. I cook up and devour my seaweed for lunch at the center fire before finding the armorsmith.

What might have been a mighty combatant back in the day was currently a cumbersome man. He stood in front of the armory shop…

By Cristina Collazo

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My Daddy

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…couldn’t accuse my daddy of being a physical bully for he never showed the back of his hand to any of us. He didn’t scream or throw things, barely ever raised his voice. But he was cruel in one meaningful way. His sense of humour. That man thought he was about the funniest person he knew and no one could tell him different. Now, I should explain, his sole goal in life was to make himself laugh. His was an audience of one. What other folks did was their business.

Take me for example. My mother had named my three…

By David Milburn

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Inka's Curse Part 3: Moon Valley

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…yell out overwhelming surprised. Blood and pieces of bear meat instantly flew at me. My upset stomach grumbled as I wiped myself clean.

“Eat up,” the sword said. I want to be angry at it, but it mercifully saved my life.

I clutched the sword to the bear. “Could you heat up again?” It did not. How was I meant to eat? I wasn’t planning on eating raw bear meat. Maybe I should…

By Cristina Collazo

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The Devils Hands

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This is a small piece about a boy who started a wave of bullying for my sister and I in middle school

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…was handsome, popular, loved and he held the entire school in the palm of his hand. The very hand that tipped over the first domino.

One day we were children and the next day, we weren’t. We were monsters, I shed blood defending what little of mine was left to defend but in the end we were outnumbered. We plunged our white flags into the soil and we left.

Years later I met the devil again, he was just as handsome as he had been before. His boyish good looks exchanged for a mans. As fate…

By The Ink & Salt Club

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It's The Same As It Never Was

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…they found him he was wet, shivering, naked and under three burlap blankets. His skin was riddled with insect bites, bits of leaves and indescribable things were embedded in his flesh. He had been struggling to finish what may have been a beautiful lullabye to a baby hummingbird when he had been discovered. He repeatedly uttered the following in a melodioc yet tragic and desparate yearn of passion.......'Forsake the slake of moonlit rise, for take the make of heartbreak prise, be my glory, my story my endless relentless tries....just be and be for me and mine'. ........ They covered…

By Shauna Woodbury

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The Provincial

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…flinched as I heard a thud, followed by mad fluttering. I cautiously approached the kitchen window, and peered through the murkiness outdoors. A massive black bird lay on the ground, flapping his wings, but unable to right himself. The poor thing must have lost his bearings in this weather and flew into the the large picture window. His fluttering became erratic, then slowed, and finally stopped.

The weather outside was dank and the ground covered in thick fog; not a day to spend outdoors by any means. It was, however, perfect for an evening inside with a good book and…

By Tracey Koehler

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