https://youtu.be/pmjkG5i8Rtc Beneath the theater stage, sealed by concrete, machines of cartilage and alloy stood still. Sonne, a small droid labeled S-027, pulsed once. His visor lit up, illuminating the drifting dust in the hermetic atmosphere. A flare moved through his chest, reaching the cracked ceramic of his voicebox. It trembled. Then, static. Then— The sound was a C#. His chest seams glowed soft orange, casting light across the cables and […]

The heavy summer rain flooded the countryside. The communal house, where waterlogged tables no longer creaked, was a refuge for all inhabitants. The heat pressed sour sweat from every pore. The old ones exuded an acid odor. Human emanations fogged the atmosphere. Nothing green, nothing fresh, nothing dry. Just sticky and oiled skins, trying not to get stung by the mosquitoes—and the other human souls who were there, trapped under […]

Jared stood in front of his childhood apartment building. His hand sweated, holding the detonator. It was the last hour before darkness—the time when the city was tinted with a golden tone, while the evening sun set above the horizon. But also, it was when he decided to take a last look at the only building that still stood upright. Once he activated the detonators buried in each wall and […]

Darius Kaelen gasped sharply, panting and strained. In the dim cockpit of his elegant diplomatic vessel, the oxygen gauge level was dropping down, an undeniable reminder of an imminent death. The constant alarm piped up in his ears, mingling with the bitter flavor of desperation. The viewscreen quivered. Before him, things seemed to be far too difficult to resolve. The oppressive emptiness of dark space was there, and this—a solitary […]

I’d always thought that chasing, killing, and preparing myself all my life to be an assassin had put me on the sidewalk of the condemned, long before dying and getting right with God.Indeed, I don’t remember the first time I killed. I don’t remember the technique I used, nor the victim's characteristics, color, weight, or odor. By the end of the day, I recognized that all my accounts seemed the […]