Rehne

Sometimes, when the window pops on the right hand side of the screen to shoot the ducks and win a free iPod, I do it even though it's a scam. I aim for them, even against my better judgement. I do a lot of things even though it's all one big scam. A hoax. A fraud. Sometimes my life feels that way. I'm being shot at, like the ducks, and no matter where I fly or how fast I can get out of the way in that one moment, I always get blown to smitherines in the next. I guess sometimes avoiding the issue isn't the way to solve a problem; dodging a bullet isn't going to make it go away. Instead, you have to take the gun into your own hands and fire b

It was blazing outside.  Waves of heat washed over us. Urine, vomit, and fetid meat swirling in the air.  The anonymous fart still lingered in the air like a bad joke. There wasn't enough of a breeze to carry it away, or to cut the thick tension of our impending death. A group of us too focused, too exhausted to care about unpleasant bodily functions, sat in the dirt, waiting. Low on ammo, low on food, and low on moral. And still, I couldn't tear my mind away from the thought. Maybe it was because I had Caz's guts in my lap and I was trying to hold them inside as he choked on his own blood. It spurt out of his mouth in a burgundy geyser past

I know a relapse is coming when it's cloudy outside. When it looks like it's about to rain on my parade, I know that when I walk home from school, Mama and her booze will be hand-in-hand. And yet in spite of all of the arguing, all of the name-calling, and all of the bruises that we pass around, I can still find time and I can still find passion and hunger to write. Even now, sitting here in class, worries encircle my mind like a hungry lion. Is my house burning down right now because of a forgotten cigarette? Every siren leaves me breathless. Is my dog outside wandering around aimlessly because of a front door carelessly left open? Every str

Prologue: Of Gods and Animals and Men A man. Until recently, I was never just a man. I was a monster, too. One that was created to do the dirty work. No emotion. No humanity. I wasn't even empty. I was just there. In space. In time. Conscious thought, imagination, gods and animals and men; all of it irrelevant. All that mattered was my next target. A year ago today, I had no identity. Just dirty hands without a conscience to wash away the blood. I had no soul to trap. I don't remember anything before waking up with my skull split open on the cold steel of an operating table. Masked faces were digging around inside my spinal column with pok

Ren and Cazwell are just your average young couple living in the city. They have jobs, they have a cat, they pay the bills and like everyone else, they have secrets. But unlike most couples, they aren't really dating. They aren't really from the settler colonies in rural Colorado, they don't have family get-togethers, and they aren't human. From the start, Ren and Caz have had it rough. And now that they have made it to their destination, EDEN, their problems are finally over. No more running, no more hiding, and certainly no more sleeping in shifts. Until Caz is kidnapped. Now, Ren and Cazwell have to find each other again before their pas