James Pyles's Blog, page 165
February 25, 2018
The Wraith and the Child
It must have been his surgery that caused the nightmares. He always found himself in the dark alone. No, not quite alone. There was another presence, something hiding in the shadows. The Wraith. “What do you want? Where are you?” He could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He was sweating. “Don’t come near me. […]
The Momentary Sojourner
The long neglected boards of the path moaned like a ghost in torment under his boots. This was no longer the real world or at least the one he lived in. Ahead, perched on a rock outcropping was the owl, but not quite an owl. “Who? Who? Who are you?” Its cry was only slightly […]
February 24, 2018
Doom in the Maze of Dreams
Landon kept walking down, down, down the endless, onyx spiral staircase when he stubbed his toe or should have. It didn’t hurt. “Hey. Wait a minute. I know what’s going on. I’m dreaming. I’m having a lucid dream. Cool. That means I can control everything.” Great. I think I’ll fly the rest of the way […]
Retrieval
“We’re going to have to delay exploring the base of the escarpment until Reggie and Austin repair the lander’s main engines.” I don’t want us to encounter anything out there we can’t runaway from in a hurry if we have to.” Captain John Weiss was addressing the other four crew members of the freighter “Joseph […]
The Alien Cure
“The healing powers of the thermal springs here at Karlovy Vary have been known since the Bronze Age, Vasnev.” “Oh please don’t mention the Bronze Age, Ross. I have very unpleasant memories from that era.” “I was there too, you know. However we’re not here for our health.” “I thought we were supposed to be […]
February 23, 2018
Aftermath
The Eleventh Chapter in the Undead Life of Sean Becker Jonathan Harker had boarded the Amtrak train hours ago at the station on Folsom Street. He’d never been on a train in his life besides BART and the Napa Valley Wine Train but these were part of the instructions he’d been given. He’d have rather […]
Boots
“You keep saying you’ve got something for me.” Aiming down from the observation deck of the tower, Charles slowly pulled the trigger of the Remington and the first student dropped on the quad. He was surprised that all of the other people down there didn’t panic and run. Maybe if he killed enough people the […]
February 22, 2018
The Accidental Traveler
He’d been surprised by the snow when he woke up this morning. It wasn’t in last night’s weather prediction, but as Marty McFly says every time someone watches “Back to the Future,” “Since when can weathermen predict the weather, let alone the future?” Then he chuckled to himself as he remembered why. Last night he’d […]
Immersion
Darya stood on the edge of Stanley Peninsula facing west toward Long Island. It was all part of the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge and late on a Thursday afternoon in February, there was no one else in sight. Silently, she watched the Sun through a heavily cloud-dappled sky as it sank toward the horizon. The […]
February 21, 2018
Metzger’s World
“…6:00 in the morning yawning and laying down next to you…” “Come here, Kiara. About time you got home…wait. What’s wrong?” Travis Bridges pulled his wife close to him in their bed. It was six in the morning ship’s time but she’d just come off of her duty shift planetside at the Metzger colony. Kiara […]
