Try as he might, Sebastian Mondo couldn't focus on his work. He was numb and disconnected. Content needed to be written, messages needed to be sent, but there was something blocking him, a numbness that couldn't be overcome. All he could do was sit and stare at his computer, sinking deeper into his desk chair.…Read more The Red Cliffs of Golgamon
Fiction
How One Leaves Orhan
What had she been doing? Flames cracked and popped within the ornate fireplace, casting a gold and orange glow through the small study. Amabel sat reclining in a high-backed chair, her thin legs extending toward the blaze. Yawning, she stretched her arms, brushing past the heavy wood and velvety cushion that composed the chair's back.…Read more How One Leaves Orhan
All Aboard to Cravenmoor
Jerome knew that life didn’t often appear this way, at least outside his dreams. Lush forests demarcated by raging waterfalls, dusty mountains punctuated by valleys of swampy marshland and sunlit meadows covered in iridescent flowers – such natural grandeur wasn’t abnormal. He’d even experienced some of it before. Instead, it was the town at the…Read more All Aboard to Cravenmoor
Toward the Stars, Toward Home
There was nothing aside from blackness - divorced from time and space. Then a light appeared, a pin-prick that gradually opened like a film iris. A giant eye stared at him. It was distorted and fragmented, a reflection of an eye rather than the real McCoy. His cheek felt cool and smooth, and he recognized…Read more Toward the Stars, Toward Home
The Skiff
She never listened to me, which was half the problem, but I knew that she was right about my family. My father had enlisted at 18, and like so many of his generation, had served his country and then never talked about it again. He swallowed his pain, buried his anger and in doing so…Read more The Skiff
The Complex – Epilogue
In the days ahead, he tried to forget about the interview, tried to shrug off what he had hoped it would mean. He threw himself into his work, took on extra shifts at the literary center and connected with old friends. A week after the interview, he walked out of his apartment on the west…Read more The Complex – Epilogue
The Complex: Chapter XIII – Final Interview
The light rail train pulled into Government Plaza station, smooth exterior coated in icy shards, windows thick with fog. With great reluctance, he pulled his thin coat more tightly to his chest. This garb was completely inappropriate for the weather. Slim and worn, the jacket was barely suitable for a crisp fall day much less…Read more The Complex: Chapter XIII – Final Interview
The Complex: Chapter XII – Into the Woods
He left the complex behind. Driving sluggishly down the street, he was shocked at the amount of snow that had been unceremoniously dumped across the Minnesotan landscape. Roads had disappeared. Parking lots were closed off. Snow sat on building roofs like decadent helpings of vanilla icing. Making an ungainly right turn, he unsteadily began moving…Read more The Complex: Chapter XII – Into the Woods
The Complex: Chapter XI – A New Day
He had made it through the night, the darkness and the storm. But now he was drifting in a new form of blackness - one more impenetrable than any night. Inside of this velvety, unfathomably-dense void, he was lost in more ways than one. There was no trace, no vestige of himself. His body was, of…Read more The Complex: Chapter XI – A New Day
The Complex: Chapter X – Letting it Be
The shower was warm and comforting, a steady stream that relaxed and invigorated her. Standing under the shower head, Sarah felt ensconced, safe, as if she had entered her own private, protective cocoon. She wanted to remain there forever. Although the snow and the wind had tapered off through the night, the temperature was still…Read more The Complex: Chapter X – Letting it Be
Adam Mohrbacher 