LouisFriedman

    Anatole’s sleeves were pulled down to his wrists, nails clipped, hair pulled back, beard trimmed. Matching those murmuring around him, he gossiped, grinned, winked, and worked the glowing room, purposefully making his way to the corner where a group of forgettable old men grumbled. Glasses red with wine touched lips bearded in white. Anatole added another half-empty cup.      These men were the pretenders of the party, dressing themselves in long white robes and letting them sag like the man of the event, Thasus, matching his styles in hopes of similar profit. Anatole wanted little to do with their politics, but they were in the ri

    In the Valley of Ephemeropterus, you could hear them before catching your first glimpse. Like the amplified sound of a million buzzing locusts, the chopping of wings on air marked the destination. After the humming from over a mile away, the stench was what followed. An outer ring just on the rim of the valley where abandoned eggs, each two feet tall, lay rotten and festering marked the gateway to the valley. It was also known as the Valley of the Kingdom of the Mayfly.      Tegris stepped delicately over the putrid remains of the infant mayfly. The sheer size of the eggs were only a reminder of what she would be coming face to face with

     Standing on the stairs of the dining hall, Rodney breathed in the cool spring air that came with the beginning of camp. This was his second summer as a counselor, and many of the faces he would see would be familiar ones, both of campers and counselors.    From the corner of his eye, Rodney noticed as a white van approached from the gates of camp and stopped just short of the dining hall steps. Several counselors flooded out of the van and stretched their arms, welcoming the old memories from previous summers. One of them he recognized as Leah grinned as she bounded up the stairs to give him a hug.    “Rodney! It’s been so

    I stood silently, with Cato’s abdomen wrenched open and spilling out onto the floor in front of us. Hollis was to my right, and he looked away, sighing. He didn’t speak, but his sigh seemed to say what everyone else was thinking:      There goes our eleven years of peace.      In a single action, the killing of Cato, the Ashoans would have caused a call-to-arms reminiscent of pre-wall times. Murdering a man of the council was by itself enough to rouse not only the council guard to a state of alert, but it would militarize the entire town. Skirmishes would ensue, and lives would be lost.      But as I walked out the doors of

He tapped the chamber of the gun with his index finger and rested it against his temple. "I'm still a pawn, always a pawn. I feel used. But I like it. You ever feel used? You should; I used you."

    Wouldn’t it be great, to truly live like no one else is watching the way you give it your all just to try, trip, and fall? Just having the ability to turn off the cameras, flip off the lights, and be free. It takes courage to do this, and I wish I had enough of it to be alive like I know so many are. Give me the strength, hand me the reprieve from fear. Because I look above my screen to see:    BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. 1    And so is everyone else, George. So even when you turn the lights down.      BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. 2    But even when he’s not:      SOMEBODY IS.      So who cares? They can have all my