Welcome Back

Batu shoved the door in to his apartment. The setting was familiar and the smell that had settled in his nostrils was also familiar; unpleasant, but familiar. Batu waded through the misaligned furniture that had been pushed around and not placed in their proper spots.

He muscled his way towards the kitchen and a new smell hit him. Was it mildew? He covered his mouth and nose at all the glasses and dishes with standing water inside all of them. Batu was horrified and reluctant to leave his bags unattended. He journeyed to living room and found a heap of blankets piled into the corner of the couch. Batu dropped his luggage on to the floor and the blanket mountain moved.

It had only taken a moment for a finger to peak out to tear at the fabric of the cocoon blanket, then a hand, then an arm. The arm retreated and the peeled back a layer and out popped a squinty eyed man in the opposite direction with the worst bed head that Batu had ever seen: Julian.

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Maturity Return Void

“Why are we here,” Tyler asked.

“It’s therapeutic, honey.”

Tyler looked around the abandoned school grounds. The wear had shown and time wasn’t kind to the decrepit building of learning. Tyler stood holding himself together, hoping not to scrape against something sharp, deadly and would cost him a very expensive trip to the emergency room.

“Would you relax,” Toni asked, breaking Tyler’s concentration.

“This is as relaxed as you’re gonna get.”

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Love Brotherly

Paul walked the streets struggling to prevent himself from shuffling his feet on the pavement, his little brother Nicky was impressionable. If Paul did it, then it would be easy for Nicky to do it. Each one of them had a backpack and Paul had a plastic bag with last minute items he was able to gather.

“Where are we going,” Nicky asked, swaying left and right. “Hey, Paul! Where are we going?” 

“Just,” Paul paused on his sentence, “keep walking. Okay?”

“Ugh… I’m so tired. Can we take a break?” 

“We only walked three blocks.”

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Finish Line

Nolan ran. The road was dark. The pavement was broken. His tank top was drenched in sweat and he was behind in his pace. HIs heart beat in his chest. The led lamp on his waist was slowly starting to dim. Nolan could barely see his feet on the pavement as he powered through his race.

The sound of crickets echoed through the night sky like a stadium cheering and jeering for their lead player. Nolan had a second to waste. He was the only human in sight. HIs breath shot out between his lips. 

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