Week 34

© laura makabresku

While idly doodling stars on my notebook to ease the boredom of Calculus, my little brother threw me a note:

Stars were not made for wishes but for directions.

- Sean, captain

I turned around and shouted "Aye, captain!" My brother smiled and went back to fighting pirates in his bedroom.

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Stars by KASH

Week 33

© 賴樂高

A soft wind blew secrets across the field, spreading the fragrance of the sea of flowers eagerly bowing towards the guy standing a few meters away from where I sat. He stood there, absorbed by his thoughts, and I stared at him as I do every Friday afternoon.

His shape shifted every time I strummed my guitar but he was still the same guy with disheveled brown hair wearing faded jeans, black-rimmed glasses and his favorite gray The Beatles shirt. His back was facing me but I knew he still bore that same old cheap humor and dopey smile of his. He didn't speak but his mere presence was enough.

After a few more strums his arms slowly faded away and I noticed he had already lost a leg. On the last few notes of our song he drifted back to my feeble dreams and I was alone again.

It was already dusk when my eyes couldn't cry anymore. My eyes stung but no matter how much I blinked he didn't come back.

Not even a silhouette.

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Untitled by KASH

Week 32

© Jonathan Pearson

A ghost of a woman with a painted veil walking down the aisle is engraved in my memory. The tears that flowed from her night-black eyes haunted me but I kept my eyes open for if I blink, her world will collapse and I couldn't bear to lose her frightening beauty. Red rose petals stained the long white trail she wore like blood and everyone turned around to see her approach the altar where her groom was supposed to be in a tux, rejoicing that he was to marry the girl who gave sense to the world. She stood in front and venom came out from her trembling lips.

"Raymond's not coming. So sorry for wasting your time."

The broken bride then lifted the skirt of her gown and rushed towards the gate of the church. Once she was outside she pulled out her veil and threw it away screaming. She locked herself inside the limousine where more tears poured, smudging her make-up. Inside the church the guests exchanged guesses as to why the groom was nowhere in sight, and the bride's father threatened the groom's parents. The bride's mother coaxed her daughter to open the car's door, but the stubborn bride sank at the back of the limousine and wept at the loss of a great love.

I stood a few steps from the church and wept as well for causing the woman I love so much pain. But it was better this way, I told myself. Someday she'll meet another man and she'll fall in love again. They'd get married and have a family, and then she'd be happy. Something she won't be if she marries me.

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Bride by KASH

Week 31

© settling ghosts~

There was once a girl who fancied skeleton keys as much as a smoker fancied a pack of cigarettes.

At a young age of 19, Nicole possessed over a hundred skeleton keys, most of which she acquired through her countless visits on various antique shops and black markets while some she inherited from her father. Every morning after breakfast, she would wear white rubber gloves, slowly pull out the topmost drawer of her study table and carefully pick up each skeleton key, placing them in a row on top of her mahogany-colored desk for inspection. In other times she would just marvel at her growing collection, thinking of how proud her father would've been.

"A skeleton key could open all doors, Nicole. That's why every household has one," her father told her one hot July afternoon, the fateful day that marked the beginning of her uncontrollable obsession that locked her away from anything else.

There was only one key she's after though. The key that will make her mother read her bedtime stories though she's too old for them. The key that will make her mother hug and kiss her before leaving the house. The key that will convince her mother that she was worthy of her affection.

She had spent many years looking for that key, but her mother's heart is locked still.

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Skeleton Keys by KASH