My head of security, Gavin, thought I had lost my mind. “Ethan, you can’t be serious,” he’d hissed, his voice a low growl.…
“Welcome home!” Mom called out, her voice a little too sharp, a little too bright. She was standing on the porch, wiping her…
The silence that fell was not a lack of sound. It was a presence. It was a heavy, weighted blanket that smothered the…
The ambulance ride to Stanford Medical was a blur of red lights painting the rain-soaked streets and the high, thin beep… beep… beep…
I walked through the front door, and the smell of roast chicken and slightly-too-sweet air freshener hit me. It was the smell of…
We didn’t run. We didn’t yell. Running is for chaos; yelling is for weakness. We simply walked. The back door of the VFW…
The dispatcher’s voice was a robotic calm against the panic clawing up my throat. “Ma’am, a unit is on its way. Please stay…
The wedding was a blur of ao dais, clicking cameras, and the smell of jasmine and roasted duck. It was a small, lavish…
The booth felt enormous after they were gone, and the silence that rushed in to fill the space was different. It wasn’t the…
The pact was one thing. The reality was something else entirely. When the adrenaline faded, a new kind of terror set in. I…