Tag Archive for: Coby Rosser

Sparks

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by Sean MacKendrick

Drifting flickers of lights greeted the campers as dusk settled over them. The tiny fireflies pulsed and danced through the air like sparks from the small campfire. Or like the twinkling stars above.

A thousand additional lights flared into existence, in one giant bloom. Another ten thousand joined those. Laughter and conversation became concerned murmuring; then murmurs grew into screams as the glowing pinpoints swarmed. Screams turned into gagged silence as campers choked on fistfuls of light.

Afterward it was quiet and dark once again, only the occasional popping ember to light the moonless night. Soon those faded as well.

Sean MacKendrick

Sean MacKendrick splits his time between Colorado and Texas. He works as a data engineer.

A Forest Lich

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by Coby Rosser

Sounds emanate from just beyond the thicket of trees enveloping the clearing on which your campsite rests. You hear those noises. Twigs snapping. Ululations of nocturnal creatures. Wind rustling leaves. But you just roll over, snug in your sleeping bag, content in the safety of your warm firelight. Fire is your luminous shield against tenebrous nightmares, why you heartily stoked the flames before turning in, but there is no sight beyond the immediacy of a campfire. Night collapses in, an ocean of darkness full of unknown things.

I am soundless as you snore—as I snuff out your precious light.

Coby Rosser

Coby Rosser is a weathered computer analyst that lives in an extraordinarily old house in the middle of the woods somewhere in the southeastern US. Time permitting, he writes speculatively, shoots bows and arrows, and plays classical guitar.

YEAR FIVE

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