Intercepts

by T.J. Payne

But even blackness, when there’s nothing to contrast it against, is it truly black? Or is it just… nothing?

But once he actually started working, he realized that everything was held together by duct tape and twine, not for lack of technological know-how, but because duct tape and twine were cheaper and easier than dealing with the crippling bureaucracy.

However, the light coming from the cell at the end of the hall was dimmer. It had a red tint, as if the sun had set in that room and that room only. It was the color of light reflecting off liters and liters of blood.

She sometimes marveled at the infrastructure in this country, how each of these poles was essentially a tree that had experienced decades of life, only to be cut down, soaked in some sort of resin, and then jammed in the ground to hold up maybe a hundred feet of cable. It was a lot of work to bring power and roads to everyone. Why doesn’t this country build big, ambitious shit like that anymore? she wondered.

“Noted.” “Is it? Because I will do a fucking sock-puppet show if that’s what’s needed to get the point across. She just killed a man.”

They couldn’t be real. Monsters like that are never real.

“Physical pain is fleeting. The mind closes it off, as best it can. But some pain runs deeper. Some pain lingers. It sticks to you in the darkness, and the mind cannot push it away. Pain such as the pain of watching your family suffer. And the pain of knowing they suffered because of you. That pain will never leave,” the voices said in unison. “Consider it not a punishment, but a gift. The pain will be your foundation as you swim in the black. It will be your light. Use it to find your way, Joe Gerhard.”