She threw out the pillowcase stained with blood and clown makeup.

Angel stared into the mirror in horror as her flesh began to ripple like the sea and her features shifted into something she did not recognize.

Leo walked up the stairs towards the opened front door of the decrepit house at the end of the block, drawn by what sounded like whispering coming from within.

A shadow moved across the yellow light that seeped from under the door.

The creature slid across the floor towards her, a black slime in its wake, a sound like a rabbit being killed emanating from its toothless maw.

Gaudi had gotten fat and sluggish during his jail time, but his eyes, once sunken and tired-looking, were now burning embers that seemed to glow with hatred, while his sallow complexion had gone from a jaundiced yellow to a dead white that only intensified the darkness in his gaze.

The flickering of the televisions' light against the windows was the only sign of life in the town.

The Turner family had been on the dole for three generations, so when Smithy woke up one day and decided to seek honest employment there was an uproar that could be heard throughout the neighborhood.

"Your mother's as inscrutable as the danged Sphinx," Daryl told his son as they sat on the curb waiting for her.

Standing in the pouring rain outside of the house Nolan heard the clink of glasses and laughter that turned to a soft murmuring and saw two outlines that seemed to blend into one.

As a small child she would often trace the creases in her grandfather's face, her small fingers following these road maps of experience.

A murder of crows passed low over the field that had yellowed with summer's passing.

A knock at his office door stole the sense of security Brad had been feeling as he stared out of his office window at the tiny world below.

Rachel held down several jobs, all phone service related, and sometimes, after a long night of partying, would forget whether she was working the psychic phone line or the sex line, often scaring the callers when wrong.

The brick burst through the glass, a foretaste of the coming storm that would change all their lives.

The roustabouts and clowns never got along, so when Shorty stepped on Flippy's giant shoe, scuffing the red leather, it didn't take long before an all-out riot ensued.

In the midst of trying to save the world J.T. let his own collapse in on itself.

The phone kept up its prattling ring while Tina sat on the couch paralyzed with fear.

"Burn it all," said the Lieutenant, a cold smile creeping across his face, "burn the whole damn place."

Pierre had no idea he had created a sensation with his newest painting until the president of the Academy took off his glove and slapped him across the face.

The late afternoon sun filtered through the arbor creating a chiaroscuro-like effect and giving the scene an air of both beauty and dark mystery.

When the man spoke there was a hint of affectation as if he were trying to hide an accent that belied his aristocratic tendencies.

They broke through the bank's wall, but unfortunately hit the water line, making for a soggy heist.

"I finally realized my relatives were in the mob when I was at a family reunion and everyone's middle names was 'the,'" Bobby chuckled.

Her last letter left no doubt.

The rock star's attempt at regaining some sort of anonymity—the beard, the weight gain, the newly demure sense of style—only intensified the spotlight on his life, making him realize that more radical measures would be necessary.

The world continued on without pause outside the window of Julia's bedroom.

She sniffed out gossip like a truffle-hunting pig.

It only took Sal a few seconds to realize whose tire was bouncing down the highway next to his Datsun.

The shoppers were gone, the sign torn from the facade and the parking lot now belonged to the seagulls.

The sky that night seemed ripped straight out of a Ryder painting, the pale yellow moon flattening the clouds into abstraction against the blue-black sky.