"Don't tell no one," she said. "Especially not Miss Lil." Samson whiped the sweat weighing down his thick eyebrows, unsure of why his best friend would think he'd tell Miss Lil anything.

They say it gets easier over time. It had been six months without relief. Sometimes, a week or two went by and Eve didn't have the dream. She learned that this was a source of false hope. When it returned,

She could barely stand, but somehow she grabbed the car keys and ran. Jen even managed to leap over the wooden fence that lined the side of the road and run down the hill of tall marsh grass, towards a

It didn't matter that she could hear them howling, God had called her. Lizzy left her big and collapsing house and felt the frozen straws of grass crunch beneath her bare feet. She crossed over the circle

It’s not easy to see you in the daytime, but the birds know where to find you. The other day I saw an osprey perched on the bridge railing, picking apart a strip of your flesh. Factories crowd the south

The wake was on a Thursday. Art class was Will's last period and it was a lecture day. He suspected that Mr. Filo wasn't supposed to be talking about the subjects he chose for lectures. On that Thursday,

Today wasn't supposed to be a day for the dark room. It wasn't supposed to be a day for a lot of stuff that happened, but the dark room was the worst of it. That's not what they were supposed to call it.

He had to stifle a snicker to keep people from thinking he'd lost it. Hell, with the kind of folks who'd showed up here, there was half a chance someone might try to escort Olivia away… “Until Daddy is

He started shoveling a shallow grave. Jim Blake had mouths to feed, after all. They were ungrateful mouths, his demanding and entitled wife included, but they belonged to him. Sometimes you find yourself

At first it all felt very right, which should've been a sure sign that things were about to go wrong. The music was loud and truly awful, but it felt good to Eric and everyone around him looked like they

Everyone needs a strange person in their life. The strange people are our protectors, and when they’re gone the world becomes a dangerous place to live. For Sid that person was his grandmother. She’d died

Things had been quiet until Christmas passed, but the year's approaching end promised more trouble. New Year's Eve is not a children's holiday. So far Sid was passing it in the kitchen of his friend Josh's

All children, even happy ones, are alone. Sid figured that out when he saw what his father had done. Before that, however, there was the box. He and his brother Will were sitting on the back of the garage

It was a real sucker's lottery, and Will wasn't going to be a sucker. He was making money and trying not to die or wind up in prison before he had a chance to spend it. On that cold morning he woke up

It would've been better if he'd just told her she had no goddam excuse. She would've felt less alone. Now it was getting worse, because Jacqui could see the expression on his face change in response to

Sid wasn’t sure what to make of the stranger living in the closet. It’s not like he could ask Mom and Dad what was going on. They were busy screaming at each other and Sid didn’t think they’d have answers

“There are no words…” Yet the words kept coming anyway. It was fine. She wasn't listening. Alice had been having more and more of these moments lately, when it seemed that the world had collapsed into

There will come a moment when you conclude that you can’t trust anyone, and that you can trust yourself least of all. Maybe that feeling will pass with maturity. Maybe it will haunt you for the rest of

The streets were quiet as he limped home, holding his teeth in with a glove and dripping red beads on a frosting of dirty slush. The neighborhood was a warren of narrow streets lined with chain link fences

Everyone's got their limits. Some people never find out what happens when they reach the edge. However most people wouldn't be surprised that Mike's story ended like this. He leaned against the enormous