Darkness Until Dawn

Inspiration is a demon And it watches me. I’d rather not hear the clock. When fingers move of their own accord I fear the consequences. Check, check, recheck. I’d like to have fewer opinions Yours or mine, It makes no difference. When fingers are like machine guns… Then you have a problem. Why they move, I do not know. Yet they insist on doing so. ©️ 2025, Accountec, LLC

     This iz yor FABORITE arachnid here, Spidey! A warm shout out to di Angels ob di Nort Wing ob di castle. Serbin di fiercest since 1969! 

     Again, this is not an advice or gossip column. But I will say this: you know someone with a dissociative disorder, you don't mess with it. It's not a good idea. Playing with fire. If you have to, you keep them grounded, you don't try to save them. There is no saving someone in dissociation. You can tell from the eyes. The faraway look. Sometimes it is simply a chemical or drug reaction. For me it's not that simple.      I've seen it with other people. A man with PTSD. War vet. Faraway. The Theranos founder. Never met her. No doubt in my mind that she was dissociating. You don't do that much, go that far, have such a dark past, fool that many people, or crash that violently without disconnecting and reconnecting to reality. If she doesn't have a dissociative disorder, then I'm Donald Trump.      That said, I think I have it all mapped out. Now I'm going with numbers, to protect my privacy. Anyways, there's 8. I have the origins and the ac...

Your Presence is like a smile in my soul When darkness preys on my mind I think of you and my heart is warm.   Your voice is like a song in my heart The words are verse and the tone is the melody It makes me strong just to hear you call   Your eyes are the looking glass I hold dear Within them I see everything that we are A gallery of memories shining brightly through   Dance with me, we’ll make our own tune Laughter that echoes louder than a symphony And more sweetly then the finest chimes. It echoes forever through the sands of time. ©️ 2024, Accountec, LLC

For Ashes, life was always about the spark. The hard part was avoiding a wild fire. With the spark, everything was meaningless. But after a wildfire, there is nothing but death remaining. Ashes had seen a few wildfires in his time. In fact, that is how she found him. It had been a day like any other day, back in another lifetime, when he had used a different name and lived a completely different life. Flames of hatred came down on him daily, until they consumed him. When there was just a shell of a person left, he was thrown out of the home he had known and was to never return. So he wandered aimlessly, a broken shell looking for something that broken people can’t find: love, compassion, acceptance. He worked odd jobs and found shelter where he could. It wore on him. Always a different place, low pay, total isolation.  He found himself in a store, staring at the food on display, yet with no coin to buy any. It would be so easy just to take some. He was so very hungry and discourage...

 There was a loud impact not 30 yards off, followed by something or someone crashing through brush and over rough terrain. Then Ashes realized that there was not one, but two creatures hurtling straight towards him, obscured by thicket and trees. As his ears attuned to the chaos, he realized that one was chasing the other, though the front runner moved with agility and much greater speed. At the same time, he heard a loud bird call in the distance, which could only mean that Diamond was moving towards with all haste. For a split second Ashes’ mind went from the runners to Sarah to Jenn and back and forth until suddenly he began breathing again and clarity and context returned to his consciousness.  Eddie burst out of the brush, his tongue lolling despite himself. Jess could be heard whimpering not far behind. For a moment they just stared at each other, Eddie eying the tree line across the road and Ashes too stunned to react.  “Hey there!” a sweet voice called. Eddie and ...

 Sarah was poised, motionless, on a large tree branch near the point where the trail looped back around the perimeter towards the footbridge by the clearing. Her eyes were closed and her brow furrowed in focus as she listened. Above the rustle of the faint breeze she could hear the faint sound of the water moving down the riverbed. Birds called and the occasional squirrel darted about. This is where she belonged, out in the world, losing herself in the flow of time. Her body was like a metronome set to the rhythm of nature. She did not miss a thing. Today she was perfectly in tune. She needed to be. The gang really needed this. The sun was sifting through the trees, the air warm and calm. She smiled as she watched the birds  That’s when she heard the scream.   ©️ 2024, Accountec, LLC