Knowing it would be better to let his anger go and move on, Nick still found it hard not to dwell on elaborate revenge plots involving medieval torture devices.

On her last day Irene watched her bridges burn with unconcealed glee.

We found the ship scuttled just off the coast and while there were was no one aboard it appeared that a great violence had occurred within.

Reason and analysis had been replaced by makeup and teleprompters.  

In the intervening years since the revolution the buildings had been repaired but not the bad blood.

Forgetting for a moment that he represented an entire nation he let loose with a fart that shook the rafters and shocked the other dignitaries.

There was an undeniable pull emanating from the site that drew them ever onward.

The ancient songs told of the return not of a king, but a fool who would lead them all to their destinies.

The rabbits pranced and pawed each other as if they were long lost friends, and perhaps they were.

The lilies had already died away leaving the valley desolate once again.

Through the window the ancient stone barn sat like a squat shepherd tending a flock of brambles and broken machinery.

She visited in dreams.

The sound of the approaching bomb filled my sun-filled kitchen as I sat drinking my morning tea.

Bradford felt that if he had a deeper understanding of himself it would destroy him utterly.

"Don't worry lad, it's only God cryin' for the Irish," the old doorman slurred as the wind whipped the rain around us.

She was like a half-remembered tune that incessantly pestered my thoughts.

He should have known better by the tattoo on her shoulder of a bullet-ridden heart.

That year it felt like everything, from your choice of ice cream to what TV station you preferred, became a political statement.

He acted as if that night had never happened and Sophie sometimes wondered if it was all in her head.

What was initially believed to be a fight breaking out during the political rally turned out to be a dance-off.

Ike didn't know the difference between a meme and a website theme, but he still managed to become an Internet sensation when a video featuring him drunkenly singing Freebird in his underwear went viral.

He was a number, not a name.

The sun slanted into the room revealing the deep decrepitude that had overtaken her home.

"I made myself a promise the day I left town that the next time I returned would be to burn this burg to the ground," Sam told his son with a mirthless chuckle as they filled the jugs at the gas station. 

The promises of a bright shining future were stymied time and again by our brute animal natures.

The hangover and the hazy memories of her audacious behavior the night before kept Priscilla in bed that day.

The darkness was overwhelming.

I realized with a sudden shock that I was no longer able to clearly conjure her face in my mind.

We waited in vain for a savior, instead finding only a succession of swindlers, narcissists, and wing nuts.

The cabal broke up after the members found their machinations were only making the world a better place.

He felt as if the earth had suddenly begun spinning backwards and his fellow humans were devolving at breakneck speed.