by Hyakunichisou 13 (百日草 十三) No one had bothered to tell Gil that there was a fucking twenty-four-hour coffee shop in the fucking hospital lobby. He found out when, on the way back through the ecru-and-putty maze to his father’s room after a long-delayed bathroom break, he encountered a guy his own age in the […]

by Hyakunichisou 13 (百日草 十三) After the hotel door closed, Brooks wafted himself over to where Peter’s pocket telephone sat tethered to the wall like a horse on a picket. His travelling companions were on their way to dinner, and Peter had been peeved to have to leave the little device behind, but it was […]

by Hyakunichisou 13 (百日草 十三) another round of Everyone goes through the door, Imagine travelling so far, and Logging in old Algonquin Duncan swung his legs over the edge of the bed and froze, giving his back time to decide whether he was going to be spending the morning lying flat and staring at the […]

by Hyakunichisou 13 (百日草 十三) “Oh my god, what is that smell?” Peter demanded through the hands cupped futilely over his nose and mouth. “Fresh country air?” The edge of Duncan’s mouth quirked as Peter gave him a look. “Manure spreader.” Peter’s gaze followed Duncan’s gesture to a field up ahead. “You’re joking.” “What makes […]

by Hyakunichisou 13 (百日草 十三) It wasn’t until he had time to sit and stare into the dying fire long past the early winter sunset that Fen realized how alone he was. He could feel the emptiness of the smaller room upstairs as if it were chaff weighing down a sack. His breathing was louder […]

by Hyakunichisou 13 (百日草 十三) Being a zombie didn’t hurt as much as Jeremy had expected it would. He was pretty sure getting bitten had, though even that was drowned in the memory of scalding fear and searing panic and the sight of a couple of people he barely knew going down under a wave […]

by Hyakunichisou 13 (百日草 十三) Read this piece’s entry on the Shousetsu Bang*Bang wiki.   So I know it’s been a while Keith looked down at the screen, frowning. His phone wasn’t attempting a guess at the unknown sender, not even providing an initial in the generic silhouette in front of the number. Not a […]

See this piece’s entry on the Shousetsu Bang*Bang wiki. by Hyakunichisou 13 (百日草 十三) Being clean was such a blessing that Aiken almost welcomed the tingle of frigid air on his freshly scrubbed skin. Well, for a few seconds, anyway. He folded his goose-bumped arms over his chest and regarded the unpleasant crumple of his […]

by Hyakunichisou 13 (百日草 十三) “You’re in a good mood today,” Lew said from his couch, as Russell hummed at the kitchen pass-through counter, bopping in place a little as he stirred his coffee. “Yeah, I guess I am.” Russell rinsed his spoon and set it in the drainboard. “I went out last night. It […]

by Hyakunichisou 13 (百日草 十三) See this piece’s entry on the Shousetsu Bang*Bang wiki. “Have you seen that bullshit?” Moira demanded, appearing around Russell’s cubicle wall like a highly caffeinated Valkyrie swooping in, venti coffee cup in hand, to bless or condemn the living. Russell surfaced from his project planning spreadsheet as if from under […]

by Hyakunichisou 13 (百日草 十三) See this piece’s entry on the Shousetsu Bang*Bang wiki. Peter shut the front door behind the furnace guy and let his forehead rest briefly against the wooden panel. Then he pushed himself upright to shiver over to the couch and dive again into the warm refuge under the duvet. He […]

by Hyakunichisou 13 (百日草 十三) See this piece’s entry on the Shousetsu Bang*Bang wiki. On the morning of his twenty-seventh birthday, Owen’s alarm woke him, as per usual, with the “Ride of the Valkyries” at three-thirty a.m. Owen struggled out of a dream of being in someone’s hold–an embrace or a threat, he wasn’t sure, […]

by Hyakunichisou 13 (百日草 十三) Read this piece’s entry on the Shousetsu Bang*Bang wiki. Ned was standing at the lunchroom counter trying to decide what would be worse, drinking a cup of tea with not enough soymilk in it or the hassle of going out in the cold to get more, when someone came into […]

by Hyakunichisou 13 (百日草 十三) We’re gonna pop some cherries tonight The way Greg would tell the story in later years, the moment he saw Tim Curry in a corset and torn stockings was the moment everything became clear. At the time, though, it felt like everything had just gotten way more complicated. Because, okay, […]

by Hyakunichisou 13 (百日草 十三) If it weren’t for work, Duncan would have been parked somewhere quiet on a night like this, tucked into his sleeping bag with a book and a mug of tea. The rain mottled the windshield between swipes of the wipers, and the glare of the van’s headlights made the downpour […]