Often it was the smallest things, a microbe or a byte, that brought the world to its knees.

I felt as if I'd permanently grounded myself and was unwilling to listen to any reasonable argument as to why I should be reprieved.

Billy believed he was going to hit it big playing scratch-offs and finally be able to blow his tiny town. 

If not for the dog, Doug would be dead.

Like a beast in the night, our past was always present waiting for a chance to pounce.

In dreams, she still provides him solace.

It was a bright November morning when we all returned from hell.

Drifting off, Chris always had genius-level thoughts that by morning were replaced with imbecilic impulses. 

It was at that moment she realized her life had become like a piece of toast left too long in the toaster—perfection quickly slipping into a smoky, acrid mess requiring thorough scraping.

Nick's need to know it all left time for little else.

The azure sky was unmarred, but inside their house, the storm clouds were gathering.

The barbed wire glinted ominously in the sun as we were herded inside the enclosure.

"Lord have mercy, but isn't that so cute, that lil' popgun you brought," he said with a chuckle, raising his Kalashnikov.

Darling oh darling, how will it end?

Before Bill's sudden demise he enjoyed poking bears and rattling rattlers, talking smack to smugglers and teasing muggers.

She lived (and died) for parties.

Headlines required deadlines without which Dave would end up on breadlines.

Half the town thought he was a savant while the rest felt the word idiot should proceed the appellation.

Sheila wanted to write about beauty but couldn't get past the world's ugliness.

I caught her slipping through my window and wondered if she's come to chill or to kill.

Nature was bound to turn against us after all we'd done to her.

The sun-soaked hill was both a refuge and a grave.

The joke soon took on a life of its own, becoming more real than the lives it subsumed.

Her life had become a country-music cliche.

It was the uncertainty that was killing us.

The wildest dog was still domesticated.

The scratching in the wall echoed the clawing thoughts in William's brain.

He was a cheater by both birth and force of habit.

Time was just effluvia to Aaron who flushed it away and never questioned where it ended up.

Karen believed she'd either grow up to be president or an assassin; instead, she became a writer (a little bit of both).