John Werner

“Protocol” by John Werner

Submitted to Contest #247

The instruments are supposed to help me understand what I’m seeing, but they fail tremendously in this regard. I learned very quickly, yet quite a bit too late, that their data collection was not in service to me but to those back home. The instruments produce calculations and extrapolate theoretical what-ifs to translate to scientists millions of miles away. They then transmit it away, as if I’m not even here. The reality of the situation is that I’ve been training my whole life for this. Ever since I was small. I would look up into the sky...

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“The Eternal Light of the Ten Song Lantern” by John Werner

Submitted to Contest #232

Darkness lay like a blanket over the peaks and valleys of the Spires of Hildefund. The pale moonlight bounced off the ribbon of the snow-crusted pass, Gelvira’s crunching footprints the only blemish upon the pristine meandering track. It was rare that the Sisterhood of the Ten Song Lantern sent its priestesses above ground. Rarer still was it that they were sent without the accompaniment of a Swordsinger, those brave and noble warriors who were sworn to protect them.Gelvira’s boots were warm, crafted in ...

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“Oasis” by John Werner

Submitted to Contest #220

The wind stirred the crystalline grains into a swarm of stinging shards that bit his heels in the dead of the starlit night. It eddied and flowed in grand sweeping currents like a great churning sea beneath the soles of his cracked and bloodied feet. They embedded themselves in those jagged red canyons, breaching the surface of his flesh and driving deep into his core, searching relentlessly for bone.It had been days since he had felt anything other than pain. The blisters that swelled and burst beneath the mop of his on...

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“Spirits ” by John Werner

The dim morning light crept over the horizon to the accompaniment of gulls calling out across the waves. There was the rush and slither of the tide rolling ashore and retreating hastily to join the sea. Puffy white clouds drifted lazily across the sky, meandering contentedly from one end of existence to the other.“Good morning!” I heard an unfamiliar voice call. There was a bit of gravel in it that hinted at bravado even where none was intended.Sitting in my low beach chair, my feet consumed by the drif...

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“News 41” by John Werner

Submitted to Contest #210

The door swung open as Bobby greeted me, the same way he did every Tuesday. Taco Tuesday happy hour was something I absolutely refused to miss. It ran from open until 5 PM and on days off there was no better place to spend my time and money. I was the first to enter and so had my pick of seats but took my usual spot at the bar across from the tv screen. The bottles stacked upon their risers all glittered in the noonday sun and the air conditioner was pumping to keep the humidity at bay.This little place was an anomaly. T...

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“The Light of Absecon” by John Werner

Submitted to Contest #207

“You did it!” Loretta exclaimed, patting him on the back. The cigarette’s column of ash, dangling by the filter from her bottom lip, quivered and fell on the carpet. She brushed its remains from the lapel of her jacket and the spine of the book she carried under her arm before she ground them into the outdated pattern of the musty, faded carpet with a scuffed stiletto.Darren Holme was exhausted. It had been a long time since a magician had been offered a residency of this size in Atlantic City. Let’s face it, Vegas was m...

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“The Door” by John Werner

Submitted to Contest #206

The door, a grand double entryway made of rich deep wood. What kind of wood? Who knows? I’m not a wood guy. Why is it practical that I should even know that? Why is this doorway practical at all anyway? What pretentious person would pay all this money just for a doorway? It’s nice, but it’s dark. Almost black, but kind of red at the same time. How much money does a not-quite-black but kind of red door cost? It seems like the kind of thing someone with way too much money has made so that people are forced to stop and...

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“The Suite” by John Werner

Submitted to Contest #205

My watch vibrates an alert that I know full well is coming. I know I’m late. I know that’s a problem. My luggage had gotten lost at the airport and unfortunately, leaving it behind was not an option. Without it, all of this was for naught. I’m not sure how many parties are in line ahead of me. Maybe six? There are so many more people than I anticipated. I didn’t think this was the kind of thing to which you’d bring a plus one, or three for that matter. It seemed like there were whole families on line ahead of me.The lobb...

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“It Had Always Been Thus” by John Werner

Submitted to Contest #204

It had always been thus. The old sign hung upon the mortician’s door had been placed there so long ago that its weathered edges were rounded entirely and the lettering on its front needed constant darkening with soot and ash to keep it legible. The wind whipped through Graydon’s Gorge at an almost relentless pace and the townsfolk were happier for its protection. Tales around these p...

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“Fallin' Apart at the Seams” by John Werner

Submitted to Contest #203

Walking through the halls of West Wherever High School was never one of my favorite things. I was big enough to not get bullied, most of the time. I was brash enough for people to be wary of, most of the time. I was solitary enough for people to wonder why.While most people walked through the halls to meet up with friends and share a two-minute laugh between classes, I raced through them to avoid those encounters. I’d enter a classroom, find my seat early, open my books, appear ready for class, and hope that those effort...

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“Alterum Dimidium: A Mirrorline Story” by John Werner

Submitted to Contest #202

“Syag le-khokhmah shtikah” The words scrawled upon the transom, raining white dust upon the floor.“Syag le-khokhmah shtikah” Identical words scrawled down the astragal on the left, the white dust collecting at its base. “Syag le-khokhmah shtikah” The process duplicated a third and final time down the astragal to the right.Gilead Coine exhaled a captive breath and regarded the three leavings of chalkdust. He knelt...

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“Tiny Daggers” by John Werner

Tiny DaggersPerformed By INXSLyrics byAndrew Farriss and Michael HutchenceEver stop to wonderShould I questionMove a stone look underShould I judgeThere was a time my friend and I stood as equals. We walked a long and arduous r...

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“Mirrorline” by John Werner

Submitted to Contest #200

A click and a spark.They say things come in threes. Special Agent Darius French considered the fact that just maybe the cigarette lighter has some inherent design flaw so that it can only light his cigarette after three attempts. He inhales deeply, the burning edge coming alive with angry red heat and a satisfying crackle as he takes in the surroundings and his lungs fill with smoke.An empty motel room. No one to be found. Walking softly across the Berber carpet he kneels down to assess the trail of cut...

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“Spiritsong: A Legacy of Chaos Story” by John Werner

Submitted to Contest #199

Spiritsong “Do you have the coin?” The question hung in the air, sweetly asked but cruelly intended. “I have it,” Tomi replied. This was the game. The Black Tigers had not risen to the height of the Laertian underworld by allowing even the littlest fish to escape the net. Tomi was under no illusions, he was indeed the littlest fish and to survive he ...

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“Something New” by John Werner

Submitted to Contest #198

Something NewI was not enthusiastic about the day I had ahead of me. It had been six months since I had officially retired from teaching and in that time I had grown accustomed to not doing very much of anything. I was retired, after all. And, retirement was a time when all you had was time and no pressing matters to occupy it. At least not pressing work matters, and I had always found that other concerns were not really all that concerning.Near the end, I had found the whol...

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