Katherine McIntyre

The jury__ still out on your level of intellect. After all, you signed up with Evil Incorporated in the first place.

The night had darkened to the murky sort where the air hung like descending clouds and the overhead branches made the liquid darkness even more impenetrable.

May as well have ox blood running through those veins,_ I added, __ou__e as stubborn as one.

Flirt with the old ladies and you__l be fine,_ I muttered, shoving my stuff into the cubby. He hung his green hoodie on the hooks right beside me. __s that how you get by?_ __oesn__ work on the old ladies for me, but the old men on the other hand?_ I paused and glanced at my nails. __eah, doesn__ work on them either.

Mom used to tell us stories of these bogeymen when we were kids, and Lizzy would crawl into my bed so she could fall asleep. Stories of the monsters who forced us underground, and when the force field faltered, would snatch us from our homes.

If you__e supposed to work with someone, I__ recommend not getting all hot and bothered with them the night before. The word of the day was __ense.

Despite the way she rallied, the haunted look in her eyes was enough to break him, as lost and lonely as an abandoned child__.

Truth be told, loneliness had seeped into her bones with the passing of time until it had become her normal way of life.

She would never forget how his soul was lonely as the moon they__ met under, and how, for several brief moments, she__ been able to chase the loneliness away.

She__ sworn she wouldn__ end up like her little brother, but loneliness didn__ arrive with flashing bulbs and a warning label. The descent was as simple and complex as a faked smile, white lies about being __kay,_ and the nod and acceptance as her own peers didn__ delve deeper, shutting the coffin lid for her.

They dabbled in dark magic like finger painters in first grade art class, and then most of them were either killed by their creations or ran the other way from the nightmares they unleashed.

He knew too well the sting of loneliness and how over time it stole you away, piece by piece, until a mere shell remained.

What bothered me the most was the hesitation in his voice when he said that_ like he was running out of time.

Harsh, bitter laughs exploded from her like shrapnel, and she didn__ care who was cut in the process.

Ice upon ice, and yet, inside, she melted and mourned all the same.

He stroked her back and kept a fierce grip on her like she__ fade away into one of the thousands of ghosts in this cemetery.

As the sky faded to night, her anger dissipated__ut not in a healing way, just dulled, like forged iron sizzling in a cold pail of water.

Because if I fell any deeper for the way his eyes crinkled with his smile or his habit of tapping on his nose to emphasize a point, my ship would be sunk.