Troy
Brotherly Love by Jill Samuel, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The doors to the emergency room burst open, letting through a herd of doctors and nurses pushing a half-conscious girl into surgery. She
remembered her fear when the "accident" occurred. She remembered the eerie glow in his eyes, like some dark hellish demon was taking
over his soul, keeping it as his own. They shined bright with anger, not knowing the great power and strength they actually had. She remem-
bers looking up at the suspended light fixture as his hands squeezed harder against her throat. Then as she sank to the floor he continued
to choke and beat her.
Now she knew she wasn't going to make it. She knew that nowhere in the universe was there greater pain than what she felt that day. She
knew the difference between life and death. She knew that if she died she could never be brought back. She also knew that if she lived, she
would never touch her brother's skateboard again.
Puss Blisters by Thayne Tuason, Leavenworth, Washington.
It was visible in the eyes, the nose and the mouth of the creature, in the way its bloody knotted claws and tentacles pulsated towards my
throat, the way it slowly slithered but gained. It wanted death. The wind carried its stench, frothy rancid stagnation attacking my senses.
The fiend came closer yet and I could see the huge puss blisters and sores on its back and writhing limbs. I began to sweat. I didn't know
what to do...
Its eyes...
staring at me...
They were cold and dark, bloodshot and filled with a hate only cowards know...
Then I saw a dim figure in its pupils. No, perhaps I had just imagined it. But then I say the vision more defined. A person. It was me in the
beast's eyes. I turned away, pushed off on my skateboard and switchstance ollied the six stairs I had been so intimidated by. The monster
disappeared. I had conquered fear once again.
A Day In Hell by Christi Leibrecht. Katy, Texas.
Black burning coals bounce off our bare feet as we walk out of the pit.
"Wow, what a rough day of torture." Brian says as he wipes the sweat from his forehead.
"I know man, I sure do wish they'd turn the fire down, living above the pit you get used to the fire burning in the 120's, but 200 is just
hell, I add.
"I've been trying my damn near hardest to stay on good behavior, so that I don't get moved back down in the pit." Brian said as perspira-
tion dripped from his rounded face.
"I never did get sentenced to the pit, but I dated a girl who lived down there. One time I took her out. I nearly melted waiting for her out-
side the dome," I explained.
"Oh man, you're doomed. You're never supposed to date chicks sentenced to the dome. You hear weird things happening in there. It's
something they eat."
"What do you mean it's something they eat, are they poisoned?" I ask.
"I don't know man, but I hear the food gives them some disease which turns their blood blue."
"Blue? How could I get the disease?"
"Easy. We're in hell and sex is only supposed to happen in heaven. Sex is the only way you could get the blue blood."
"But how can you be sure she has the blue blood?" (continued on page 85
46 T
Gershon