M. J. Luke
Stories (18/0)
Not Quite Time, Not Quite Space
The new subdivision was made by a madman, Emma Mota concluded when her final attempt to gain entrance to the oversized gated community happened hours after she decided it to be necessary. The new subdivision winded up and down hills and scattered itself across Humbleville in a series of broken circles, eight house cul-de-sacs, and a massive iron gate that dived and rose with the land. Emma was not sure if the decision to plant thorny bushes and rough grass outside the gate was done on purpose or not, but between the stinging cuts on her hand and the increasing rain fall the young woman’s resolve for the good in humanity waned. Emma knew the weakness in the iron gate only through a myth she heard while looking for trash behind Humbleville Hotel.
By M. J. Luke3 years ago in Fiction
Not Quite Time, Not Quite Space
Precipitation like the inhabitants of Humbleville had never seen drenched verdant earth and cast a darkened shadow over the farmland, both the dirt and paved roads, the downtown with its storefronts and bronze statue, the new subdivision, the old subdivision, the trailer park, and the lone school. All were inside and even the cats without a human home to claim rushed for cover, leaving the lonely bronze statue of Samantha John to watch over her home. Far into Humbleville, where the summer thicket gives way to unmanaged farmland, a forgotten barn from a time when Samantha John was just a child hosts the sudden reappearance of Emma Mota. The barn’s shedding scarlet paint with pinholes made by BB gun bullets from decades of target practice did nothing to speak of what was inside.
By M. J. Luke3 years ago in Fiction
Excavation of an Eight-Pocket
By the time Petunia Gomight reached the age of forty-four, she’d survived seven different wars on three different planets; Aur, Mordere, and Earth. Aur’s troubles began when solar flares from the red dwarf named Ictus burned away the surface of her home, leaving nothing but the connected subterranean complex that stretched from one part of Aur to the next. It wasn’t all so bad until the planet Mordere introduced a destabilizing agent that would further destroy Aur’s ability to grow food. Hunger spread in the places solar flares couldn’t reach, and when Aur was at her weakest, Mordere moved in and claimed the scorched planet as their own for the sole reason it would give them another seat in the Celestial Legislature. Petunia was barely an adult, but she fought alongside her scattered family, her brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, and more. Petunia, always the pragmatic one, drove herself deeper into Aur’s crust until she resurrected herself with an army only spoken of through myth.
By M. J. Luke3 years ago in Fiction
C.A.R.I
There was one body the sight of which had not left the mind of Cleo Myrth in the eighteen months after she found it. The young woman witnessed a great deal of brutality in her twenty years, so seeing a body wasn’t much to write about. Although Cleo admitted to herself every lifeless figure carried a cosmic weight in her subconscious. Maybe not now, not in the middle of The Scatter, but eventually those bodies would morph into nightmares. Still, the body that stayed with her was that of Dr. Joy Garcia; sprawled out with her white coat dirtied, her hand clutching a book, glasses tossed from her face, eyes closed, and lips held in a soft smile. No one smiled in death, and that was what bugged Cleo. Cleo knew of Dr. Joy Garcia as she had read every one of the mechanical engineer’s papers she could get her hands on. Between leaving Detroit, Michigan and traveling south to Tortuga, Peru by foot with the rest of her battalion, Cleo never passed on a library. Leveled to the ground, brick by brick pouring out as if buildings bled concrete and rebar alone, books scattered for streets before and after, and Cleo would find Dr. Joy Garcia’s collections in the rubble.
By M. J. Luke3 years ago in Fiction
Not Your Typical Florida Man Story
Rarely is a wildlife photographer fortunate enough to know their subject’s story. We might know the facts of our subject, the natural history, and if we are lucky, we might even know the individual as one we have photographed before, but still there are always facets left unknown. Unfortunately, this story is an exhausting one with an overused plot and climax replayed across nature and if there is any comfort, it would be in the theme. I like to think the theme has something to do with passion and endurance and that so long as animals exist there will be those willing to help them.
By M. J. Luke3 years ago in Photography
Touch and Know
Kernelheist Library was the only twenty-four-hour library in Bittentime County outside of university property. Between Chamber’s Natural History Museum and Kardia Art Museum, Kernelheist’s marble block walls and limestone columns collected the full moon’s light, and if Olivia Tuffin had taken a second look, she might have caught a glint of mischief coming from the old building. A pale blue and milky white glimmer with flecks of glowing dust proclaimed that this night was to turn all the other nights of Olivia Tuffin, past and future, sullen by comparison. Low steps leading up to Kernelheist Library sang out the tap of Olivia’s boots as she ascended the steps with head down and mind far lost to the late hour. A political science major, Olivia prided herself in the extra hours she put towards her education. The price she paid for dyslexia, but a grand exchange it was to be both driven and creative, to see the world’s patterns and then some. There were days when Olivia’s mystified view of her own setbacks was more rooted in enchantment and other days when she wanted nothing more but to see the world as others perceived it. Tonight, Olivia cursed what she could not help and had yet to stop the flow of hot tears running down her face.
By M. J. Luke3 years ago in Futurism