Unclearity

Frank placed the comic book down and stood up. He stretched to work out the kinks in his body before he walked over to the food dispenser. He slid a bill into a slot and pushed a button. Frank watched as the turkey sandwich was shoved forward and dropped into a little slot. His stomach grumbled a bit in anticipation of food.

Frank didn't know where the food came from nor did he care. The vendors magically restocked each and every morning. He went over to the coffee machine and pressed the double-cream double-sugar button and a styrofoam cup with a happy face appeared and the liquid poured out. He waited until the last drip before he took the coffee.

"Pretty neat huh?" Angst said. "All this stuff being here for us. As if someone was looking out for us."

Angst had stepped from the subway car and wandered over to the newspaper dispenser; she slipped a coin into the slot and picked out the paper. Today it was the USA Today magazine, yesterday it was Little Feat Chronicle, the day before that the LA Post. Like everything else at 5:59am they renewed.

"Well, at least this coffee is better," Frank said after taking a sip. The coffee was indeed one of the better brands he had tasted in the morning. "That's a bonus."

Angst chuckled a little, though she felt like she was trapped. As if they were on display, like a snow globe on a desk.

"You ever wonder why we stopped here?" Angst asked. She knew the question was a moot point but she wanted conversation. "It's got to be a while now, sitting around and waiting for something to happen. Waiting for an exit to open so we can move on with our merry lives."

"It's day 68 now," Frank said. "We've been caught between shifts like a missing sock in our dryer. But, according to the newspaper it's always the same day over and over again."

Trouble with CCGs

Something about the sun was wrong. He just didn't know what it was but there was something there, itching at the back of his mind that there was something amiss. He didn't have a clue what it was yet, but he hoped to find out soon enough. He closed the curtain to his office and then sat down at his desk, about to go through some of the official school business.

"Mr. Donnelly," his secretary chimed in. "Your ten o'clock is here."

"The Petersons?" he inquired.  It was a good day to start off a morning by explaining to some parents why their son was being  suspended for three weeks.

"Yes sir."

"Just give me two minutes to finish up in here and send them in." Donnelly began to scan through the reports on his desk and to tidy up. Suddenly a card fell out of some papers. He had confiscated Randy Allens' cards earlier that morning since they were playing a game when he should have been learning. Donnelly picked up the one card and looked at it: Max Cube - Interdimensional Being the back of the card stated. He was trying to remember that name, though he chalked it up to what he had overheard.

His eyes widened in shock as he flipped the card over to see a priest standing there holding a gun in one hand and a bible in the other. 

The face of the priest looked like him.

The caption was Father Fury. Kicking Ass For The Holy Trio.

Under a Gaelic Moon

Underneath the starry sky Mayganne lay, her hands behind her head looking up at the distant twinkle of other suns. She always liked this time of the night, just so that it was dark and the city itself wasn't sleeping, just quiet at the moment. It was springtime in the city and the night was still cool; she lay on the roof of her apartment and had her digital audio player playing some podcast songs.

The past several days felt strange and weird; it was like seeing something through your eyes but from a distance. It was hard for her to explain it to her mother, brother, or Mr. Donnelly. She had a burst of anxiety the other day at school when she thought she saw a huge black dog patrolling around the school. A sense of dread filled her, she figured it was a Hound Of Ill Omen. Mr. Donnelly rushed out and scared it away as he called animal control from his cellphone. 
 
Things are becoming weird.

Too weird. Still, here at night on the rooftop she cleansed her mind of the past few days' events and looked absently at the stars, remembering weird vague dreams. And she was getting to that final level of the video game that she had usurped from her brother. It was cool and she was glad that she had stumbled upon it. She liked Maus. Somehow she identified with that pixelated character and the storyline as it unfolded.

I'm becoming a gamer.

She sat bolt upright as she heard the howl of a wolf...