“Dammit!!” As Sarah looked down at her watch, she couldn’t help but express a slightly colorful expression; she was over an hour late for work, and it was only her second week.
“Not like it’s my fault! First the car, then stupid Davis and his damn rent issues…” she continued to mumble crossly to herself as she stormed out of her apartment in a rage. She’d got rear-ended the day before, so she had to walk the four and a half blocks to work.
Feeling a cold, wet plop on her face, she looked up to a grey and bulbous sky. “Awesome. It would rain on a day like this. I should just quit and use my master’s degree for a Big Mac wrapper…” she said to herself. Not that she didn’t like her job; she did a lot. It was just lately that nothing seemed to go in her favor.
Head down to avoid the wetness falling from the sky, she didn’t see the homeless man charging like a bat out of hell after her.
“MISS! PLEASE, HELP ME!” He yelled after her, about a block away. She turned around, and seeing no one else, assumed the raggedy hobo was addressing her. She decided to cross the street; she couldn’t even handle her own problems, let alone someone else’s.
“Ma’am, PLEASE! It’s life or death!!”
That phrase got her. She stopped, hesitated for just a moment before turning around and saying, “Look, I’m already late for work, and-“
“Please, it will only take a moment!” He pleaded. She looked at him; he really was a pathetic looking person. He was maybe in his early to mid twenties, needed a bath, and a good meal wouldn’t hurt any. His dirty brown hair was sticking out in tuffs under his sopping wet beanie, and his expression was one of desperation.
“Fine! What do you need?” she snapped, hands on her hips. At least she would have an excuse to be late, she thought sarcastically to herself.
“Oh, thank you! I don’t have time to explain, just please deliver this for me!” he said, almost cried, even. And before Sarah knew it, he had thrust a red envelope into her hands and had run off.
“What the…?” she said softly to herself. Standing alone on the wet and dismal walk way, she took some time to study the envelope.
Aside from being red, it was extremely ordinary. Sealed in the front, no markings of any kind except a sloppily written address jammed into the upper left hand corner. 42 East Second St-that was on her way to work.
“Well,…it wouldn’t hurt. Seemed so important to the poor guy.” She muttered. She headed off again, and a few minutes later arrived at her destination.
It was a singularly nondescript house that would be pretty easy to overlook if it wasn’t for the door the same color as the envelope: blood red.
“Now why did I think of that?” she thought. She’d never been a superstitious person before, so she shrugged off the feeling of unease that had crept up on her and walked up the sidewalk to the door.
The grass on either side of the sidewalk was extremely overgrown, and the color of corn in late fall. The overall appearance of the house was very unkempt, and she wondered how anyone could live there. The shutters were hanging off, holding on by just a hinge, and most of the paint was chipped off or so molded from the weather that it was hard to guess at its original color.
She got to the front door and knocked. No answer. She knocked again, harder this time, and the door creaked open. Looking from left to right, she slowly opened the door and went inside.
The inside reflected the outside: disheveled, unkempt, and nasty. There was even a smell to it, like death, that almost blasted her over like a brick wall.
There was no furniture in the room, save for some black plastic bags all over the place. The wall paper was yellow and peeling, and the ceiling was long gone; all that remained were the rafters showing the groundless rooms above.
Wrinkling her nose, she called out, “Hello? Anyone here?” she paused, waited with her hand on the door about to leave.
“I was given a letter to drop off, should I leave it on the floor, or..?” she perked her head, ears strained to catch the tiniest of sounds; but there were none. Sarah tossed the envelope on the floor with a shrug, and was about to leave when one of the black bags caught her attention.
It was just a simple black bag, like the kind you would use to put leaves in after raking. But there was a rip in this one, and something was sticking out. She cautiously stepped closer, eyes straining to figure out what it was. It was long and thin, the color of a peach.
“It almost looks like a…” she began to think, but never finished the thought as she realized she was right.
“Holy SHIT it’s a finger!!” she said yelled, tearing backward and falling over. She started to pick herself up, when suddenly a figure was standing over her.
“Where do you think you’re going, miss?” the large, bearded man said. She didn’t fail to notice the bloody cudgel in his hand.
She let out a blood curdling scream and half crawled, half ran towards the door, frantically. Thankfully, luckily, she had left it open.

“Do you need anything for that coffee miss?” Officer White asked.
“N-no, I’m fine.” Sarah replied, holding her mug tightly for warmth. “What was that?” she asked.
Officer White plopped a manila folder on the metal table, which echoed slightly in the tiny interrogation room with a light thud.
“Some sorta halfway point for black-market human body parts.” He said gruffly, flipping open the folder and showing her pictures of things she wished he hadn’t shown her.
“What?!”
“Not that uncommon nowadays, to be honest.” He said, giving her an uneasy look.
“And the man?” She asked.
“Name’s Richard, he’s the ‘owner’, middle man, whatever you want to call ‘im.” He said, waving a meaty hand in a nonchalant manner. “Bigger guys up than him would come, buy whatever he’d happen to get that week and then sell it in bigger cities.”
He paused for a moment. “My question is though, where’d ya find this at?” he asked suddenly, leaning across the table and pulling the red envelope out of the manila folder.
Sarah swallowed. “… I’m not sure who he was. What I thought was a  homeless guy came running up to me this morning, said it was life or death, then before I knew it….He was gone.” she said with a slight shudder. She pulled her jacket tighter around her.
“Do ya wanna read it?” he asked abruptly.
“….Do I want to?” Sarah replied. She looked at him, and he hesitated for a second before responding.
“I think ya should. That guy didn’t give you this on a whim, ya know.” With that, he slide the envelope across the table. She picked it up hesitatingly; to think something so simple could be so insidious.
With a rip, she broke the seal and pulled out a small, crumpled note that read, This is your last delivery for the week Rich, make it count.

No one remembered when it started, or why; the only people who were alive at that time were the Elders of the village, and even they had been but swaddling babes when it begun. ‘It’ referring to the unique preservation of its citizens upon deaths arrival, that is.

As parchment was both expensive and rare in this part of the world, the village at some point in time had begun the practice of making the skin of its departed into Vellum for book bindings and pages, which would then be added to the hundreds of others in the village library.

Now, as it so happened, there had been not been a death in the township for some years, so when the village doctor was found slumped over at his desk, the populous was not at all depressed; quite the opposite, due to the fact that over the last few months there had been much clamor for a copy of Holts and Tramers Guide to the Human Anatomy.

A few days after the Book Binders had come for the good doctor, his now widow was leafing through his notes, as he had always been most private concerning them. Most of them, as she had presumed, dealt simply with the everyday mumps and pox that had plagued them all at one point or another. As she stood up to walk of restlessness, though, a brown folder managed to separate itself from the remaining manila ones and fell to the floor with a light thud.

Curiosity gripped her as she picked up the unknown folder. Opening it, she saw a fresh page of notes with the heading “Sleeping Beauty Effect” Her features composed a face of confusion as she read his attempts to make what he had dubbed an ‘anesthetic’ to put ones patients to sleep, allowing for more invasive procedures. Her confusion changed to horror as she continued to read how, unable to find a willing test subject, he had chanced to try the concoction on himself only yesterday.

With a yell of pure horror, she tore from the room and out her front door, only to hear the piercing scream of a person’s skin being ripped from their still-living body echo throughout the village.

Arthur was hiking in the woods one fine summer morning. It was such a glorious day, with the clouds so white and the grass so green and the sky so blue.

So very beautiful, he thought to himself as he listened to the joyous sound of the burbling brook and the chitter-chatter of little animals in their leafy houses. It was such a glorious day.

It was a day that had been made for being out-of-doors, for romping through the wood and becoming deliciously muddy in the much of the forest.

Arthur loved the sight of the birds twitting away amongst the brilliantly swathed trees, the happy foxes and jolly rabbits frolicking to their music, not seeming the least bothered with him as he paused to bask in their happiness. He whistled to himself a merry tune, passing by a plump spider slurping away on a twitching, struggling moth that seemed to scream to Arthur for help in a teeny bug voice, its struggles slowly ceasing…

In such a merry mood, he failed to notice the darkening sky that was fast overtaking his beautiful day. Quite suddenly, the moon managed to eat the sun, and with a defeated sigh was forced to make camp.

After rolling out his bed pack and making up the fire, his stomach gave a mighty rumble. Happily he looked through his bag to see what vitals he had packed, but found none; he had forgotten them in the anticipation of the glorious day, it seemed . He grumpily settled back down around the fire to help fight off the cool bite of the night air, tummy a-rumbling.

His mood slightly lessened, he tried to think of things to cheer himself back up. Ahh, at least he was warm! Gratefully he stretched out a hand to the merrily dancing flames that offered such comfort against the chill of darkness.

So very warm, he thought. Stretching out a tad more, he jumped back with a yelp as the once mirthful flame nipped his finger, seeming to laugh at him as he put the angry- peeling flesh of his forefinger in his mouth.

Licking his burnt skin with his tongue and tasting the seared epidermis, he was surprised when his stomach chose that moment to give a loud bellow. Ignoring it, he continued sucking on his burnt finger to ease its pain.

Upon pulling it out, Arthur was alarmed to see that all that was left of his finger was bone! His stomach gave another growl, and he with little hesitation was obliged to answer this time.

He stuck another finger in the fire until it was blacker and more burnt than the first one had been, and began hungrily gnawing until not two fingers where white as snow. Still hungry, he stuck the remainder of his hand in the heat.

So very good, he thought to himself upon finishing now both hands. Despite the rather large meal he had just eaten, he still found himself with a rather impressive appetite, so he swung his right leg around to the blaze, impatient for more.

So very HUNGRY, his thoughts screamed in his mind, now being only a meaty torso with four paper-white, jangly limbs. His hunger absolutely insatiable, he rolled himself into the inferno and to him they seemed to embrace him like a friend, holding him in its warmth…

For the rest of the night, he picked the rest of his savory flesh from his bones with teeth and twiggy fingers until all that was left was a bleached skeleton with bits of himself stuck between his teeth, sitting next to the camp fire and grinning at how lovely the forest seemed that night.

angle’s’ down;

and listen.

Hear the wind freeze in the frost

filled air;

now look around you

and wonder.

See the light glint off of crystal

coated trees;

just close your eyes now,

and relax…

Let Winter’s breath refresh

your mind,

and let the remains of the day

simply freeze away.

It is time to vote for your favorite entry. Here’s how you do it.

• Read through the list of September 2010 Writing Contest Entries.
• Tell the writers what you think. Leave comments and encourage or help the writers.
• Vote for your favorites by placing a vote for up to 3 entries (yes, we now allow you to place three votes, but they must be for different entries)
• We will announce the winner the first week of October.

If you know which entries you wish to vote for go to the Voting Area

The entries are listed in the order they were entered (oldest entry first)

• The Girl
• First Love
• Stained Glass Masquerade
• Sandcastles
• Chubby Little Girl
• Not Meant to Be
• Decisions
• Diary Of A Student In Love
• It’s Already Yours
• Only Time Will Tell
• The Escape of Tanya Tee
• Life, Death, Resurrection
• The Weight of Words
• Women And Christ
• Unknown
• Tregwyddol Heddwch (Eternal Peace)
• Night Rain
• Eternal Peace
• Alone
• Through the eyes of a child
• The Ocean
• The Soldier
• Eyes
• Between a Hurricane and a Breeze
• Stay
• Bombs are bursting
• Old Thoughts
• Dream
• One Big Circus
• “Majesty in Motion”
• The Blue Tango
• A Poet’s Distraction
• The Taste Of Loneliness
• I Know
• Black and Blue
• Whenever you don’t find words for your Feelings
• Shot to the Skull.

Choose UP TO 3 Entries.

Voting closes at 23:59 on October 31, 2010.

It is time to vote for your favorite entry. Here’s how you do it.

• Read through list of the June 2010 Writing Contest Entries.
• Tell the writers what you think. Leave comments and encourage or help the writers.
• Vote for your favorites by placing a vote for up to 3 entries (yes, we now allow you to place three votes, but they must be for different entries)
• We will announce the winner the first week of August.

If you know which entries you wish to vote for go to the Voting Area

The entries are listed in the order they were entered (newest entry first)

• Master Key
• Flowers of another Time
• The Ballad of Mary Meaux
• Angel Bug
• Something For My Soul
• All That Lies Beyond
• Reality
• The power of HOPE
• Amelia
• Who knows where the path might lead
• Tuggler the Juggler
• til He comes
• Dreaming man
• Multicolored Angels
• Book
• Insurance Essay Contest
• Chrissy’s Story
• Memory
• In this Hall
• MARAH
• Excursion
• We’re Best Friends
• Mr. Primitive
• Are You Awake Yet?
• A Miracle
• Our Ride
• Day and Night
• A feeling
• Running
• A map
• Addiction
• Discovering One-Self through Another
• chances
• Memories
• Bang Bang McClaine
• Shadows on the water
• Woods.
• Ode to the Forest
• white rose
• Hope
• I Do This For You
• Drown Out The Voices
• Day For a Hero
• Destyni
• Darkness
• The Ride
• Coward
• QUESTIONS
• For Gary
• Creamed Possum with Sweet Potatoes Garnished in Coon Fat Gravy
• 2nd Addition
• Love Song
• ALEXANDER
• The Better Beauty
• Convolution
• In a Clearing of Roses
• Youth Supremacy: Saving Mother Earth for the Next Generation
• Sadly Ever After
• Every Man in Your Life
• Do you believe in destiny?
• Changing the World Through Your Talent
• Being a Sister
• Awaited Return
• Andrew
• Are You Really Happy?
• cold winter memories
• words
• A Real Man
• Real Meaning
• only to see you
• North Carolina Heartbreak
• Eclipse

Choose UP TO 3 Entries.

Voting closes at 23:59 on July 31th, 2010.

Congratulations to the latest writing contest winner. This month there were 25 entries and the voting resulted in a tie for first place. As the tie breaker, I chose - Man of Happiness written by Jeremie18. There were a lot of great entries this time. Thank you everyone for entering the contest.

We have had an excellent showing for the March 2010 Writing Contest. I will work to get the online voting active very soon. It will close on April 30, 2010 so we all have time to read through all the great entries. So, read through the entries and leave some feedback (aka comments). We have a huge mix of styles this time. Some are very unique. Let the authors know what you think.

Watch for the update – I’ll have voting turned on soon….