wessendorfcollective

 It's morning. By most standards it's still night, but Abe's not the type to split hairs and he can see the sky just beginning to light up despite the cloud cover. There are birds starting to sing. He's tired; exhausted, really, and he's seeing everything through a haze of residual alcohol that hasn't worked its way through his system. He's shivering while he smokes, but he sure as hell ain't gonna go inside. There's another smoker outside, but she's on the fire escape, sitting on the metal grating three stories over a dumpster. Her legs are dangling in the cold air and she keeps an arm wrapped around herself for warmth. Her name is Jennife

He: "If I love I would know that you love me, But, falling, fate's never so kind. For loving you trust me and falling you trust me, But never the twain should combine." She: "I know I can love you, I wish I could fall, But it's not in my nature of mind. So love me surefootedly, love me with care, and your heart will desire not mine." He: "I kiss you with love and I love you with heart, and I fear it may now be too late. For we love with our lips and our hearts and our hands: and for this all but sealed is my fate." She: "I'm sorry for messages written on skin I'm sorry I made you believe; sorry that you feel for me, sorr

 I've always liked the fog. Everything looks softer when wrapped about in a silent grey gown so dense it even manages to blur halogen lights. From a distance through heavy fog, headlights look like dim twin stars and the running lights on freighters in the harbor hover distant and diffuse over the water in an eerie, motionless way. It's a nightmare to drive in, of course, and Alana knew that better than anyone. There are some roads you just don't take when the fog rolls in, the same way there are some sections of town you just don't wander at night. So when it's thick to the point that you can barely see the clump of pines where the road tu

The first sign something was wrong was a faint shimmer of pink in the east, hours too early for dawn. Only we could see it, from a window that overlooked a thousand blocks of midnight Minneapolis, but we knew what it meant. We held each other and hoped we were wrong. The second sign came with a thrumming in the air that was neither the lights nor the dishwasher. Only we could hear it, and it rang through the air like a single struck chord. We spoke angrily to each other, trying to think who had betrayed us. The third sign was a sudden smell of honey and wine, though we kept neither in the kitchen. We did not know where it came from, so swif

I've got wires in my hair and scars every place, there's resistors in my head, circuits running down my face. There's a man sitting 'cross from me, his hat's hung low, And he says he's got a job, and he says I wanna know. But I'm not sure, ever since those years, all the lines are blurred and the ink's all smeared. There's a worry, there's a fear, there's a paralyzing fear, that slips from my bones at the sound of his voice, and the indecision flows like a drug from a needle, cold sweat writhes out and my hands become moist. There are things in my past that he'd better not find, like the man when I was twelve, or the dope that's

LEONIDAS: Old fools... Weak fools... Sometimes I wonder why I ever listen. Sick fools... Base fools... Sometimes I wonder why they need me at all! Thermopylae lies in a narrow mountain pass. THE EPHORS: A narrow mountain pass? THE SPARTANS: A narrow mountain pass! LEONIDAS: And the narrow mountain pass goes down from the peaks by the seaside. And the army of the king treads somewhere along by the roadside. And when the army stops they halt and they're ready for genocide. XERXES: Greek lordling... Greek lordling... Sometimes I wonder why I'm even trying... Greek lordling... Greek lordling... Sometimes I wonder why I need y

        Once upon a time, in a forgotten land beneath a brilliant sun, there was a kingdom of banners red and white. And this land was ruled by a King, whose wife both tall and fair was the Queen. And one day in this kingdom of banners red and white, the bells rang out high in the summer breeze, and flags were hung out from the castle walls, for it was discovered that the Queen was with child.        But the queen had a handmaiden, a girl who had seen less than fifteen winters. And though her father was well known to most in her village, her mother had had no name that any could recall, and had been taught in old and secret ways, the ways o

        Lyn called Ben after taking some time to regain a modicum of composure. She had nowhere else to turn, cornered by Jess and not wanting to face Melody. So Ben's cell phone rang, and played a song by Moxy Früvous. He picked it up, expecting a torrent of insults until he checked the ID and saw it was Lyn.        "Hey there," he said.        Lyn's voice was shaking. "Ben, you... uh... you... you talked to Jess lately?"        Ben frowned, not noticing how she was speaking. "Yeah, earlier. Why?"        Lindsey bit her lip. "I'm... not sure. Um, at all. Like, she... she called me a bitch." Here she took a breath. "Just a few mi

        Melody's pain melted beneath her anger. Pain was there first, and would be there after, but at this point rage was keeping her feet quick and her gestures taut and rapid. She walked in circles, around block after block in the cold of post-christmas December, trudging through the snow. There were lights, strung like tiny pricks of color around the houses, which were tall and bent as ancient trees. She had nothing to say to Cameron any more, no more words for the sting and the bitterness his silence had left in her gut.         And she spoke to herself in h

        A newspaper lay on the floor of the coffee shop, headlines of Osama Bin Laden's capture blaring on the front page. It was on the minds and lips of the handful of customers sitting on the corner, watching the traffic lights change. "What will they do next?" they asked, "since the war on terror's over, and we won?"        There were two people, a man and a woman, both young and fair. He was paler, hair short, blonde with maybe a hint of red, eyes dark. She had pale eyes, bright and shining, and deep red hair that hung over her shoulders. They moved and spoke with familiarity, and each drank from the tall glass mugs before them in turn