Leyre Garcia

Logan Pengelly

Sean King

LifezVictory

Rietje Becker

Sam Becker

English

I never thought this day would come...a strange disease has spread throughout the entire world. People is being held in quarantine facilities to avoid exposure. Food and water are limited, even toilet paper, who would thought of that!

Not seeing the people you love the most, it was very hard, you could only see them by video call, all this was a nightmare

then suddenly Oculus came out with the new Qwest so I had to use that but my Facebook got shut down so it didn't work

It turned out I was happier without facebook. I traded my smartphone in for a flip phone. I traded my playstation in for some board games. I started going outside. I joined a volleyball league and took a cooking class. I grew a mustache and started saying "groovy" all the time.

Little did I know, that this was because I'd contracted a severe case of Oldtimidus. I was quarantined with my flip phone and boardgames for a month while I died a slow, painful and lonely death. Don't let the same happen to you! Embrace this generation and its amenities!

I paged the beeper of my old pal Bert. When he pulled up in his Dodge Stratus I knew that stepping into his car meant leaving behind contemporary culture and going whole hog on the past. I looked at Bert’s pine-scented air freshener with great comfort and opened the door.

Quarantine

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Juan Sebastián Escobar

Today is the cheerleading tournament. I am so nervous! I know we practiced a lot...the jumps, the dance...the moves...but still I can’t feel at ease. If we win this we will be able to go to the finals in Whynot, NC, I am so excited!

Me and the girls are walking to the event, what a beautiful day! the sun is reflecting on the roofs, flowers seem more alive than any other day, it feels like the whole world knew this is an important day. We are chatting and laughing when suddenly I get a call.

"Is this Riley Cole?" the voice inquired. Immediately, I feel a cold sweat spreading across my brow. How could someone still know me by that name? I looked down at my girls with a nervous smile. "Who wants to know?" I ask into the phone. Mentally, I begin packing for a long trip.

I was the heir to the Cole family business, and raised to be a Cole Slaw Queen. But I turned my back on that life. If you knew what I knew about commercial cabbage farms, you'd understand my choice to go underground.

But you don't. So now we are all happily in our own places, with all of you eating Cole Slaw and me eating hushpuppies. They go better with fish, anyway.

I ate the hush puppies, all thirty-five of them. Turns out I had discovered the limit of what my stomach deemed acceptable. I spent the night in agony.

The Cole Slaw Chronicles

Kara S

Sunny Anomaly

Erin Malody

KW Taylor

Harmonie Winters

Tracie+L Mauriello

Lauryn Zimmerman

Or so I think my father thought. I wouldn't know exactly because that was the last time we all saw him. He knew he was risking his life out there, but when he promised me that he'd be back, he looked like he really meant it. Or maybe it's because I believed him that I broke down.

I’d never known a life without my father, and I didn’t want to learn how to. That was how my grief slowly evolved into something much worse. My coping mechanism became a very real hallucination of him. No one could tell me it wasn’t real at the time, that’s how bad it was.

I had long conversations with Dad every day, we were inseparable. Sometimes we’d argue, but we always worked it out. Neighbors learned to leave me alone when I talked with my deceased dad.

I told Dad about my ambitions and goals. Where I wanted to go to college. What I was going to major in. The type of job I’d apply for. 
Those were the sorts of things he’d want to know. The things that would have made him proud.

When I was finished, I stood up and touched the headstone. “Thanks for the talk, Dad,” I said. I kissed my palm and pressed it to the inscription of his first name, then turned and made my way back to the car.

I felt a little uneasy as I entered the vehicle, as if a thousand eyes were piercing me. Slowly, I let out a shaky breath, tightening my hands on the wheel.

My fears were confirmed when I heard a deep, grotesque sneeze from the backseat.

I was afraid to look back to see who was back there, but as i wrestled with my fear, i heard a familiar voice call my name, he said.....

“Orazia! Orazia Venezuela!” 

I caught my breath. Everyone knew we weren’t supposed to use our real names here. I had to leave quickly. 

I filled my pockets with breath mints, put my glass on the bar, and headed for the door.

I bolted out with my heart racing and my adrenaline running wild. My mind raced nonstop and anxiety caused me to break out in a sweat. I had to stop once my body finally began to give out on me as the adrenaline wore off. I can’t believe I said my real name.

In my haste, I hadn’t noticed which direction I’d run, but I felt the eyes upon me. Then I saw them. Large black eyes set into the rocks and natural structures. As I watched, figures stepped from the surfaces, the natural tones shifting. The now silvery figures whispered my name.

..memories of the life he had, the family and friends. Knowing that they will miss him and he will miss them as well. Most of all knowing that the mission he embarks on starting a new colony on Mars will start a new chapter not only for him, but for humanity.

Dreams Wash Away

Dreams Wash Away: Part II

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Paz Waz

zeej qooj

Physics of Gaming

C. S. Lytal

Lynsie Lucas

Emma Mazzucco

Alice was in trouble. She was floundering. She was sinking. The worst possibilities her friends had suggested were no longer abstract potentials. They were concrete and absolute. Waves of probability had collapsed and now formed the violent landscape she had failed to navigate.

Her TikTok views were in the toilet. She should have paid attention to the algorithms. It was clear to Alice that viewers hadn’t subscribed to watch her makeup tutorials but to see Mr. Fuzzy Bottom upstage her. He was the real social influencer, not her. She ruined it all by

making that video where she talked smack about Mr. Fuzzy Bottom while simultaneously showing off how to do a perfect batwing eyeliner. No one cared about her stupid makeup, she realized. She was being canceled for her remarks about her TikTok nemesis. Why did no one understand?

There was only one thing for it, she would have to frame Mr Fuzzy Bottom. Drag his name through the dirt for all Tik Tokkers to see, then the tables would be turned. All she needed to do was hack into his Tik Tok and

Delete the source code, it was fullproof. Only one problem, Elmo The Mob Boss was in town and might be fustrated if I take out Mr Fuzzy Bottom.I'd need someone to take him out before I frame Mr Fuzzy bottom...

"Sir, this is a Wendy's," fluted the voice of the purple-furred, lemon-nosed cashier. "Do you... want fries with that?" I glared at her, just some dumb college muppet clearly unable to appreciate the genius of my grand plans. "You'll see. Papa Elmo's days are numbered, and then I

will be the new boss in this town,” I said in a hushed voice to the pencil-thin muppet with the orange shock of hair tied up on my floorboard. “No fries, kid.” “You don’t want anything do ya?” I asked my former lab assistant. A muffled, “meep,” was all he could muster.

"I know things got kind of smelly on this one, Beaker, and I'm sorry." He just blinked. "I tried to run a better lab than your former boss, but it's not easy. I guess I failed. You are I are the only ones who know what happened here, and that's one too many." A sad "meep" escaped

his thin lips and for a moment, I considered that what I was about to do might not be necessary. Did he really have to die? He might be able to keep a secret. And even if he spoke the truth, how many people could tell a truthful "meep" from a lie?

I was wrong everyone found out. But how? I asked him but he ignored me. Why would he do this to me?

TikTok tactics

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Diana Tobey

I'd been following the man for 3 days when he finally noticed.

He stopped short in his tracks and turned to stare me dead in the eyes, with haunted eyes that seemed to look through me rather than at me.

I noticed him tired, was he crying before maybe? That look he had was the saddest I ever saw. He was getting closer to me, he was scaring me, but in the end he just hugged me. He said me:

"You will never know how much licorice you can eat until you've had too much." Then he winked and smiled sadly.

I stood there thinking of those wise words, looking at the extra licorice bag I had in my pocket. I closed my eyes and grabbed the bag, I threw it away with a big league pitcher force. Then I started walking away not looking back, I was ready to start a new chapter

Suddenly something hit me upside the head. I twisted around holding my neck in pain. “You dropped something,” said a being composed of slippery, shiny licorice. “This isn’t over,” I retorted and threw the pouch in the air. It burst into black smoke shrouding both of us and I ran.

Liquor Itch

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Annabelle annabellechase333@gmail.com

I wake up to find myself in a forest, tied to a wooden chair. I struggle to get out. Then, ahead of me approaches a figure. In the gleam of the moonlight, it is clear that he is holding a knife.

He was holding the knife tightly pointing at me, I was paralyzed with fear even though I was tied to that wooden chair, I tried to scream or ask for help but nobody could hear me

"No one can save you," he sneered. "Even if they could, it's not like anyone would want to. Not after what you've done."

"Is it really so wrong, though? All I said was that most of the Marvel movies bore me." A woman overhearing this gasps, a waiter drops his tray, a small child bursts into tears. In the distance, sirens erupt. "It's just my opinion..." I say sheepishly.

The next thing I hear before everything goes black is the piercing of a plate glass window. When I come to Thor is lifting me up by my shirt collar. “Still feel the same way?” he asks eyeing my soiled slacks. “No sir,” I responded. “I enjoy Marvel movies THOR-oughly.”

THOR-oughly

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LAYONYA ♡

There seemed to be enough space in-between us, but this was the first time I’d ever sat next to a human being.

They were smellier than I had imagined. Back on my home planet Xeroth, I had specialized in Human Behavior. I thought I was prepared. Now sitting next to my first one, I froze. “The name’s Darrel”, the human said. “Looks like we’re travel
buddies!”

My eyes watering, I ran through the tooth baring ritual known as a “smile”. Suppressing a cough, I said “Darrel, it’s nice to smell you. Uh, ah, to meet you! Sorry!” As he frowned I said, “sorry, I’m from Brunei, my English is not smelling? OK?”

Darrel chortled, his expression softening a bit. "Ah! Well, that certainly explains a lot. Not to worry."

"So, it's really okay?" Maria asked, still a little unsure. "It's okay that I bring five hundred sink plungers with me?"

“Yes Maria! You have to follow your destiny! Is the only way you will become the best plumber in town”...Maria was so surprised, her eyes watered and a big smile was painted on her face.

Smell you later

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Kimberlie Pengelly

One day, when I was walking home from coding class....a zombie stopped me and asked me for directions. He was trying to get to

the department store attached to the mall. Apparently, there is a big sale and he was meeting someone at a buffet. He apologized for bothering me and explained he had developed a poor sense of direction after his brain was eaten by some other zombie. I explained

that I was a zombie too and my job (I was hired) was to H.O.Z (help other zombies) so I HAD to help him to get money

it was a little difficult though, he was always losing his head. I finally got him a job, driving other zombies to the road restaurants, he was so close to getting fired, being one of the oldest zombies, the so called primordials, didn't make him an easy task

It was really depressing. You work, work, work, your whole life. Then you don't even get to enjoy retirement for very long before you get zombified. Then as a zombie, you need a job? I thought being a zombie was a job. Shambling, lurching, moaning... those are your only skills.

I found myself sitting across from an undead CPA. “I don’t like the look of this,” she said, scanning my 401k. We each moaned. “Reckon you’ll be working another 20 years. Have any skills?” My jaw dropped. The CPA facepalmed and her nose fell off. Guess living’s the easy part.

Zombie's hurdles

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Zoe Becker

When the sun rose the next morning, Susan rubbed her eyes three more times than usual. The character of the light in her bedroom wasn’t the cool gray tone she’d grown used to over the last few weeks. But it also wasn’t golden and warm. It seemed, against all odds, to be pink.

Susan opened the window to a cloudless cotton candy pink sky. She saw her neighbors on the sidewalk, the light glowing on their faces. As she watched the light seemed to turn each one into a small hairy creature.

Susan gasped as she watched her neighbors she only ever known turn into hairy beasts, all on 4 legs crawling on the sidewalk. Slowly, one of her neighbors turned its hairy head toward Susan...

Suddenly, Susan saw her partner Julie dash toward her blowing on a whistle that sent the beasts scurrying away in pain. “It’s an ultrasonic whistle — we discovered at the lab that it wards them off, but we still don’t know why they shapeshift to begin with.”

I sighed in relief. "Have you found any ways to detect them when they are shape shifted? Any rules of what shapes they can shift into?"

“There are no rules,” it said icily, morphing into an uncanny vision of … myself! Without thinking, I tased the creature, which instantly wilted into a pile of lettuce-like tissue. I grabbed a broom and cleaned the remains, overcome by the thought: how many more me’s were there?

The Beasts Within Us

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"Well, that settles it," I said. "I am never doing that again!"

I said, but still I kept doing it, it was non-stop, like an obsession, I kept missing her, but at the same time I hate her for all the evil she has caused me.

I promised myself to change everything after my return, I'll have to get the strength from anywhere, I don't have an alternative. I remember vividly when we were together at the Circus, she said to me that ...

No matter how much public we have we should wear the best clown makeup ever!! So I decided I was going to be the best circus clown ever, even if the show was done for one person! She was my inspiration so I wasn’t ready to let her down

My audience was two senile old people, a puppy, and a parakeet. And I was going to put on the best possible show for my audience. First, I'd need 2 cream pies and 6 dozen skinny balloons.

I walked to center ring, the spotlight at my back. This wild crew may have lost their minds but they were my audience and I wouldn’t let them down. At the end I took a bow—my face covered in cream—and let the applause wash over me. A clown’s oath, I thought, must never be broken.

A Clown’s Oath

Justine Hood

It took me a minute to fully register what I was seeing. Why was the apple in my hand PURPLE?

Maybe it wasn’t an apple after all, maybe it was a huge grape! And all of this was just a weird dream...it was like stepping into Barney the dinosaur nightmare.

Oh f..., I shouldn't have thought
about it, the last thing this dream needs is a bloody purple dinosaur with psycho eyes and a soft voice. I try to and finally manage to wake up, I get out of bed, and to the bathroom, I look up to the mirror and almost scream to death when I saw

my face. Mascara and eyeshadow streaked across my cheeks, making me look as bruised and battered as a bar fight, and my fake eyelashes drooped down like in a Cubist portrait. “That’s the last time I take Ambien when I’m drunk.”

I sat there by the toilet, throw up formulating in my mouth. I had no motivation to get up due to my pounding head and jello legs. "Why would my friends let me drink?!". I laid down on the bathroom floor contemplating...

the provincial life left behind. Why had I moved to the big city? The farm had provided everything. I longed for my sturdy community, my fiancé whom I’d never speak to again. I thought about my new false friends and committed myself to a new chapter, better than the last.

Ambienance

Matt

I had just arrived at Evelyn’s 4th birthday party, balloons in hand, when all hell broke loose. Nothing changes the power dynamic between an adult and a child faster than a pressurized garden hose.

Jasper Barnaby had pulled the hose out of the small fish pond that birthday girl Evelyn’s father cared for meticulously. The spray of water first hit the golden retriever begging for birthday cake near a group of gossiping mothers. Then it hit the mothers themselves. My balloons

caught a draft of wind, and I purposefully loosened my grip to let one fly away, thinking to myself,

Whyyyy?! Not that one! Then I remember I had two more of those in my backpack...what a relieve I felt

So I started eating those last two cheese sticks while I sat in the cliff watching my other stick floating in the immeasurable size of the ocean thinking about life and the future, I felt sad for a moment until i realized ...

that this wasn't the end, but my new, fresh beginning. A time to let go of the past and let my new life come into affect. Now my "New Year, New Me" had finally come and was here to stay.

Let Go

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Beth Grego

The first thing you have to understand is that in 1990, every elementary school kid had—or desired—a slap bracelet. The second thing you have to understand is why they got banned.

Lori was the bully queen of slap bracelets; every color, every style, no sharing. The trouble started when Beth Williams transferred to our school. She wasn’t a trouble maker. Lori took that role. Beth was a nice girl, just…different. You see she had an unusually skinny neck.

Skinnier than any neck that Lori had ever seen. This intrigued Lori, and she thought of a dubious plan.

It had to be her Lori thought. Who else met that description? She looked at the strange woman—more giraffe than a human, really. “Over here!” Lori screamed. The bobbing head whipped around. Both parties stared in disbelieve. Then, in a split second-decision, Lori threw an apple.

The giraffe-woman ate the apple in one bite! Whoa!! Exclaimed Lori...that was fast! She reached inside her bag but she then realized there were no more apples left...What to do know?How could I lure this creature now?

Then she remembered the raisins—a box that had been in her pocket for months. She extracted a clump. The raisins were squished together, covered in dust and hair. The creature approached and gratefully ate its fill. Then they both laid down together, and peacefully spooned.

Slap!

Ethan Klein

Nan Tsai

Talya Brettler

A band of misfits, stoic and seasoned, stood at the city gates, the night wind whipping around them. They had traveled inland from the safety of the coasts, united in purpose. They looked onward with hope, their faces awash in neon light. Suddenly, the gates creaked open.

Entering through the city gate the band senses an unusual, eery calm. This neighborhood is typically bustling and festive. Now the only movement they see are hooded figures furtively tucking into dark doorways.

They seem to be avoiding something, but not because they are afraid—the intermittent giggles and gleaming eyes pierce through the windowpanes. With hesitation, the band decides to knock on the tavern's half-open door.

“Knock. Knock.” The door creaks open further and the space is lit by a single candle burning in the corner.

Stepping into the dim space, their shadows danced on the wall behind them. Then a sudden gust of wind slammed the door behind them and blew out the candle as a cackle of bone-chilling laughter filled the room.

Clearly there was a stranger in their midst, an interloper. Everyone's eyes darted around the room but it was too hard to see by moonlight. The ritual had ended abruptly, but it had likely done its job. With any luck the spell's effects would be reveal themselves within moments.

All ritual participants soon felt an onrushing surge of energy rise up through their bodies. Tingling anticipatory zeal virtually crackled between their fingers. Then, looking down, there WAS something crackling between their fingers!

Zap. Zap. There are sparks coming out of their palms, traveling through the fingers, and drifting into the air.

Each zap manifests into a marshmallow, and the band of misfits rejoices, as they had planned to make s’mores but forgot to bring the most crucial ingredient.

The sound of zapping filled the night air as they manifested one fluff of white after another, until finally they were all ready to complete the ritual, to swallow the s’more and forever keep the night’s events a secret from the world.

Marshmagic

I felt a hand and my hair sprang from every nook and cranny of my body and when I turned around, my face went from pure fear to unbeatable disappointment. I laughed at the creature"

A seven foot tall dancing teddy bear is physically imposing of course. But it was far from terrifying. Until it started singing...

I started screaming, I was very scared, I didn't expect that thing to be alive, so I grabbed it and threw it on the ground

And it suddenly exploded into hundred of pieces. Small copies of that thing were crawling on the ground, screeching in pain. It was a deafening sound.

The tiny pieces of the monster began to throb in a rhythmic pattern, inching closer and closer together until they reformed into a larger, uglier copy of its previous form.

Bass thundered louder and louder as the hideous form bounded around the room. It had no discernible eyes yet it could clearly see. It aggressively leapt toward the meekest target when a piercing guitar chord rang out and a purple bolt pierced the creature, never to congeal again.

The Night of the living Teddy bear

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Florence From The Stars

Zoey S

Cloé Veilleux

Jade Ludo

Sam Lövstad

transgamedev community

Dani Masiglat

The soup is alive. The soup is angry. It wants revenge...

Frozen, trapped in plastic, stuck at the back of your freezer - the soup bitterly plots its' revenge.

Revenge is a dish best served cold, they say. But to the soup leftovers, freezing and forgotten in the freezer, this expression would take a whole new meaning! Yes! Its revenge would be the stuff of legend! Surely, scientists would create a new measuring unit in its honor!

With a sense of purpose, you remove the frosty soup from the fridge, and peel back the plastic cover. You retrieve a large spoon and begin to dig it into the frozen broth. Unless they knew, the target of your revenge will be none the wiser to its frozen state until it's too late.

Chips of crystalline minestrone melt on the bench as you hack at the frigid soup like a cryptozoologist unearthing an alien corpse from an ice cave.
They say revenge is a dish best served cold, and when the sound of something metallic rings through the air, it's bon appétit time.

You took a bite, not one thought about the consequences. Maybe there are none? Then you turn around, and see eyes on you, devastate eyes. You stop chewing a few seconds, but then your eyes change and you stare back while checking faster and faster.

You swallow, noting that it actually tasted pretty good. You look up, and the eyes on you are more curious, now, from a creature you don't recognize. While it felt a little hostile before, it sure doesn't now.

Instead it looks upon you with a sad, knowing pity, staring into your soul. Slowly, its eyes begin to bleed. Not blood. Soup. You fall to your knees and your lips tremble, something bubbling up and dribbling down your chin. The soup. Perhaps there were consequences after all...

Minestrone at Midnight

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As predicted, Ariana woke up with a dull headache and a sore throat. Every breath she expelled felt warm and contagious. She got dressed without showering and stumbled out the front door in search of her next victim.

But there were just ZOMBIES but she saw a zombie holding a poster for a app named Klikaklu so she scanned the code with her IPhone 4

And suddenly realized she needed to update the app, but it was too late, the zombies got angry and started to chase her...she ran and ran until she came to a

Spencer Gifts. She ran inside and lowered the metal gate, then made a beeline for the replica swords behind the counter. It was time to dice some undead.

She pulled her hair into a ponytail as she whispered some words of affirmation in the cheap dressing room mirror, “I’m a badass bitch. No guts, no glory.” She grabbed one sword in each hand, and turned just in time to see ...

A skinless hand opened her door. She chopped it off, pushed past the creature and ran past the sale rack. Her sword, heavy but swift, sliced its way to the exit. “No pain, no gain,” she intoned. With a bold kick to the door she burst into the parking lot, her freedom obtained.

Zombie Discount

Tony Rodriguez

The garden. It is a special place. Roses, Chrysanthemums, Laurel bushes, Marigolds. Not squids though. Especially huge squids. There was one there now, twitching as it’s life dwindled away in the sunshine. A black helicopter hovered overhead, thudding, like an armed spider

ready to pounce. The helicopter loomed over the giant squid withering away in the garden and turned on its loudspeaker. “Attention Giant Squid. You are in Violation of This Area’s Squid Regulations. Please Return to your Pond.” But the squid had no intention of leaving. It would

rather die than take orders from a human. Particularly since, at the moment, it seemed that its death was imminent.

With one last glare, it sauntered to the edge of the window, licked its paw a few times, and then jumped into the dark night. One one life left to live.

The puppy leapt toward its target cool air rushing past its ears. It was young but had so much to prove. By the time it arrived at the scene it seemed too late. A teenager in a denim jacket lay face down, barely breathing, a strong scent of peanut butter in the air.

The puppy salivated as he approached the teenager. Seconds later coughing was heard- the teen, his face covered in drool, was alive! As a reward, he gave his denim jacket to the pup, who had it tailored to perfectly fit his tiny biceps, making him the coolest pup in the litter.

Squid’s Journey

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So it’s like that, I thought, letting the letter flutter to the ground as I tossed my head back in exasperation. This was not the first letter of this sort, but this one seemed urgent to the point of coming off threatening. Should I even justify it by acknowledging it?

How could my brother-in-law have done this to me? The contents of the letter ran through my mind. The words, “cease and desist,” “punitive damages,” “livestock,” “unpasteurized,” leapt out at me. I knew I needed to respond but how?!

Using my years of experience as an interpretive dancer I crafted the perfect response. It would require the right conditions: low light, three well-trained sheep and Ricky Martin’s latest jam. I called my brother-in-law and set a time for this legal rebuttal.

I pulled out my old binder from under the bed. Covered in dust, I wiped off the cover and opened to the first page. My trusty choreography manual. This was the routine that would catapult me to the top. I just had to gather my materials.

And went to the audition! I got my dancing shoes, my sparkly leotard and my trusty dancing cane. I felt ready! I memorized the choreography and felt good! I arrived at the spot and opened the doors and yelled!

“TAPPITY TAP, I LOVE TO TAP! SLAP AND CLAP! NEVER GO SLOW! IF YOU DON’T CAST ME IN THIS SHOW, I’LL SHUFFLE OFF TO BUFFALO-O-O-O!” And then I took a bow.

Byline

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