"I Know Adverbs Are Controversial, But "said Softly" Means Something Different Than 'whispered' And This

You will delve into the depths of your emotional dumpster fire and gorge the rodents on the remnants of your imagination, suffering for inspiration with the rest of us.

You will not use AI to get ideas for your story. You will lie on the floor and have wretched visions like god intended

Life is a game of chess, and your opponent is time. 

“Burn.”

The power of a spell is inversely proportional to the amount of words in its name. You, hated and exiled, invented the first single word spell:

The Duties of The Older Brother Of A Magical Girl:

1. Do not get in her way while she’s fighting monsters.

2. Do get in the way when humans don’t know boundaries

3. Do kill the men who put hands on her without permission

Magical girls kill monsters all the time, but they're not allowed to kill humans. But you're not a magical girl; you're her older brother.

Who’s next?

If you're reading this...

go write three sentences on your current writing project.

Home Is Where The Heart Was

My chest was a home

Filled with warmth and light and love

My sternum the front door

That had welcomed many a friend and family

My ribs were once brightly painted siding,

A soft gray exterior that protected the treasures inside

My heart pumped hot water through my arteries

Providing warmth for nightly baths and mugs of hot cocoa

My lungs were the sturdy walls that kept the roof above our heads

My diaphragm the soft carpeting and cool wood

That had known running and cuddles from feet and paws alike

My spinal cord and nerves kept the lights on and the temperature just right

My vertebrae were a strong foundation

Solid and secure, keeping everything upright

My chest is an old, abandoned house

My sternum is the slamming storm door

The broken latch leaving it to swing wide in the wind

My ribs, the battered siding

Years of abandonment leaving them caked in dirt and grime

Termites and rot have eaten through the panels, leaving gaping wounds

My heart is the failing water heater

My arteries are the corroded copper pipes

My lungs are the creaking walls

Shifting and sinking, slowly collapsing

The wood floors of my diaphragm have sunken in, and the carpet is threadbare

Torrents of tears have seeped in through the leaky roof,

Now darkness grows from rotted wounds and mold scars stale strands

My spinal cord is the busted breaker box; My nerves: fraying electrical wires

My vertebrae are the crumbling foundation

My chest will be condemned someday

Caved in like a house of cards, not wood and stone

The love it once housed has moved on

And its protection is no longer needed

There will be no one there to witness it’s fall

And no one to grieve for the memories lost

- A. Yenzer

Pyromancy has been known as the most deadly magic to be born with for centuries. Parents mourn their children the second their powers begin to manifest because they know their child will be dead before they have even had a chance to live. Magic specialties develop along with puberty and most pyromancers are dead by 20. It’s not a pretty death, they burn from the inside out because fire needs fuel. Fire magic? Well that feeds on the soul. Only the most responsible and diligent with their magic make it to 25. The only way to keep the flames from licking at your soul is to stay far from the fire. But they have to use it too, power is meant to be used and a build up of such a volatile power can turn the body into a ticking time bomb.

The older I got the more impressed everyone was, my parents were so proud when I made it to 24, albeit waiting for the other shoe to drop. I’ll admit I was too. I was confused having made it so long, I’d never been very conservative with my power. But as the years kept passing and I kept getting older, that pride turned to fear. Not for me but themselves, for how powerful must I be to have made it to 29? I haven’t aged, my power hasn’t waned, and somehow I’m still alive. I didn’t know why or how, and neither did anyone else. Soon that uncertainty turned to fear, that fear turned to anger, and I unwillingly became the boogie man of my own home. Anywhere I went, people would cross to the other side of the street, store owners would flip their closed signs, and children would run screaming at the sight of me.

The village that raised me began to shun me, my parents couldn’t look me in the eye. I finally moved into a small cottage just inside the edge of the forest that lined the village and it was like the whole place took a sigh of relief. I couldn’t blame them, I was afraid of my own power too but I couldn’t run away from it. It burned inside me but never seemed to touch my soul. The more a fire power burns at your soul, the more burns manifest on your body, yet my skin is unmarred, unscarred, clean.

When my 30th birthday came and went without any change, I wandered farther into the woods and tried to burn my power out of me. I poured every ounce of rage and sorrow into my power and let it explode out of me. When I woke in a smoldering clearing of black the next morning, I trudged home in defeat. As the days passed, I noticed the town was in mourning and as more and more burials were held at the cemetery between the town and my forest, I came to a swift and devastating realization.

I wasn’t dead because my power was eating at the souls of others instead of my own.

I collapsed into my bed and stayed there for days. I didn’t eat, I didn’t get up, I just laid there. Mourning all of those who died because of me, grieving for those who lost because of me, and letting the sorrow drown me in the hopes that I might finally relieve this world of my soul.

It didn’t work.

When I woke up one morning to an urgent knocking on my door, I almost thought I’d imagined it. I almost ignored it. But when you go so long in isolation, the prospect of another person’s presence is invigorating. I only opened the door a crack, sure I looked and smelled a mess after so long in bed. The sight of my mother stopped me in my tracks. The tears in her eyes tore me in two and I knew that one of those live that had been taken by my burning flame was that of my own father.

I let her in and she only took one step before falling into my arms. Our sobs rang out through the cottage and maybe even into the village but we didn’t care. We finally fell into a sorrowful silence, our heaving breathes between quiet sobs the only sound to be heard. I helped my mother up from the floor, into my softest chair, and moved to get us both a glass of water. We sat in silence as we drank them.

When she finally spoke it was heavenly despite her words. She was the first voice I’d heard besides my own in so long. Her words were painful though. As she told me everything…

Pyromancy is ridiculously dangerous. Most pyromancers die before they turn 20 and 25 is considered ancient by their standards. You have reached 30 and show no signs of slowing down.

Precipice

The sharp click of the switch

reverberates through the air

as you turn off the light in the laundry room

and step into the kitchen.

Your steps stutter to a stop

on the cool laminate sticking to your soles

when your mind catches on

the sliding glass door

in your peripheral. There is a man,

standing on the precipice

of where the porch light’s glow

is swallowed by the dark.

Balaclava and clothes carved from obsidian

tempt the night to draw him in. The dying

bulb above the door is just strong enough

to drag his silhouette into its illumination.

Your gaze latches on

where his should be, instead

two brimming pools of black abyss

stare back, looking through you.

Your head is screaming,

“Don’t look too closely!

He might be real

this time.”

Wind wails against the walls outside,

the house creaks and groans in protest

and leaves scrape bark branches

as their trees bend with the gust.

The sudden sounds steal

air from your chest in

a sharp gasp. Muscles tense

and your eyes slam shut.

Dissipating

in the darkness,

the vision is gone

when they snap open again.

Your recurring apparition

leaves less fear

lingering in your blood now.

So,

Push your shoulders back

and wrench the weight

of anxious paranoia

off your chest.

You'll finish getting

ready for bed but

even though you know

there’s nothing there,

the shadows still seem

to whisper your name

and cling to you

in the night.

- A. Yenzer

I scream “SCREW YOU”

To the lies I tell myself

Insecurity runs rampant

In a head full of the voices of others

Hatred and jealousy spawn venomous words

And insults that burn

Like acid in the blood

And shred self confidence

So combat fire with fire

Until hate has no more fuel to burn

And the words of others

No longer sting

Spit venom at that hateful voice

Until the infection of their jealous words

Is burned out by the fever of self-love and spite

- A. Yenzer

The knight’s armor clacked softly against the stone floor of the cave, shock and realization dawning in his expression and draining his adrenaline, his limbs collapsing as his fight left him. His brow furrowed as he thought hard, trying to remember how the kingdom’s war against the dragon had started. He quickly found that he couldn’t, the kingdom’s people had been aware of the dragon for centuries. They hadn’t had any problems for so long, the attacks were completely unexpected… or so they’d been told.

Outskirts villages burned, livestock slaughtered, gold stolen… the palace had blamed the dragon. Stirring up fear and contempt, raving about centuries of peace broken, calling for soldiers and volunteers willing to make the trek to slay the dragon and save the kingdom.

But there had never actually been any proof… no dragon sightings, no scales or talons left behind, not even claw marks, only the declarations of their kings.

As the knight has his crisis over the dragon’s revelation, the dragon had released him, moving off of him and backing away. The knight made it to his knees before hanging his head, pulling a rosary from a small pouch on his belt and began to pray.

“Oh Lord, forgive us. We’ve made a terrible mistake.”

“You pray not only for yourself?” The shock in the dragon’s booming voice was palpable as it resonated off of the cave walls. It was enough to jar the knight from his prayers, looking up at the dragon with a face full of regret.

“Our kings have lied to us. I cannot take back the pain you have suffered at our hands but I can apologize for my people, being so quick to judge despite centuries of peace and no evidence. Teaching generations to hate you out of spite.”The knight had made it to his feet over the course of his speech, resolve steeling his shoulders. “If you don’t mind, I’ll be heading back to the kingdom.” He gave the dragon a quick bow before turning on his heel back to his camp, armour clanging against itself and the stone floor.

“What will you do?”

The knight gave a last glance back over his shoulder, before answering the dragon’s curiosity, calling out as he continued on, “I have a king’s head to remove.”

"GO AWAY!" bellowed the dragon to the man currently pinned beneath one of their paws. "I've done NOTHING WRONG!" "You lie! You've slain dozens of noble knights over the centuries-" "In self-defense, because YOU ALL KEEP TRYING TO KILL ME!!!"