Synesthesia is the ability of one feeling to activate another. For instance, a taste with a sound or a color brings up a smell. When I thought about killing, it made all my senses buzz louder than a fire alarm. It felt bright as the sun, tasty like Shanaya’s burger, and sounded like birds singing ...

We were designed to feed for survival. What began as simple sustenance, a bulwark against decay, evolved with time into pleasure—and then, in sin, transgression. Killing others had been the same—just another necessity, now forbidden. But prohibitions meant nothing to someone like me, long severed from faith or its comforts. Holiness never tempted me—not even ...

My first reading of “Little Red Riding Hood” left me pondering the wolf’s ability to impersonate the grandmother, leading to the girl’s demise. Years later, it’s clear it was not about the girl being too naïve but about the beast’s commitment to his goal, and I truly related to it. Years passed, and my father’s ...

Moths use the moonlight to navigate and understand the right direction to keep rising in the night sky. That’s why sometimes they also get attracted to other sources of brightness. When drawn by fire, they will not feel the danger until their wings burn, but they won’t stop or pull back. They will keep sinking ...

Morality is something questionable, built upon a multitude of variables. I learned from a very early age that those who shout louder about their holiness are the ones hiding the ugliest sins. If even Adonis drowned in his vanity, how would a mere mortal fight against temptation? That parent-teacher meeting had two big effects. After ...

People ask parents what they would do for their kids. Most of them will answer that they would die for them. Sacrificing yourself is easy because life ends in the natural border of the human limit. I would kill for mine. More than once. Soon after those fortunate events, the school hired Richard Steele and ...

When big felines see their prey, they wait as long as they need to make the first move and finish their hunt successfully. And that was my time in college. In my early years, Shanaya gave me a promotion and I became a hostess upon entering college. Now, her restaurant was a success and was ...

The life I left behind was the beginning of a world anew, filled with excitement and possibilities, far from any violence not born within me. After hours of riding at night, I arrived in the big city in the morning. Everything looked like it came out of a movie: lots of stores, fancy cars, and ...

The flow of memories brought me back to my childhood. We lived in a small town near the state’s capital, and our community was like all other small ones in our country: embrace tradition, go to church, and avoid sin. My mother, Susan, was a beautiful, fair-skinned blond woman. She was suspicious about me being ...

“Ugh…” My ears buzzed, louder and louder. A headache joined it and amplified the pain tingling through my body. My neck, arms, back, and legs all ached. Pain pulsed through me. That was good, though. Pain brought me closer to reality. I tried to move, but that made everything hurt more. I growled with discomfort, ...