Carrie Gessner

KW Taylor

Kara S

Dawn Rasmussen

Sunny Anomaly

Sam Becker

Alice's life changes on a Tuesday morning. The coffee shop she works at, close to campus, is crowded with professors and students getting their caffeine fix before class. So when the bell above the door chimes yet again, she barely looks up. When she does, she sees the beautiful

golden light of morning sunshine falling on what can only be described as an ogre: bright green, gap-toothed, and snaggled-haired, it resembles a human but is anything but. “Alice,” comes a gruff voice, “you have to save the kingdom.” Alice blinks and looks around the coffeeshop.

The ogre, no longer there, was very real to Alice. People ordered drinks and continued their conversations around the coffee shop. Was she hallucinating? She looked in her cup, for what she wasn’t sure. Then from where the sun fell on the ogre she saw it. Above the espresso

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hovered a jellyfish that had millions of stingers sunk within everyone in the coffee shop. A dozen had sunk into her, manipulating what she saw. The ogre flickered into an elf, a dwarf, a normal human, and back into an ogre again. Alice shuddered and the jellyfish disappeared.

With her vision properly restored, she downed the last of her lukewarm coffee in one giant swallow, picked up her sledgehammer, and chased the ogre out of the coffee shop, roaring mightily. The cowardly hipsters cheered her on but stayed safely inside with their scones & lattes.

Little did they know that an ogre’s only weakness is an angry mob. The ogre would be back with friends, and thanks to the failure of the hipsters to act, this would ultimately be their last day of freedom and coffee.

Alice and the Ogre

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Johanna M

Sade Andre

I took my sharpie and I wrote all over his car. I couldn’t believe that

he would bring my sister into our bed and expect me not to find out. That jerk!! I sharpied little obscenities all over his stupid car, along with some rather crude and immature drawings of certain body parts. In big, bold letters, I wrote the words “CHEATERS NEVER PROSPER.”

I stood there, sharpie in hand, and admired my graffiti on his car. Some rubbing alcohol and a cloth and he’d probably be back on the prowl. I’d still be here with the pain of knowing he cheated on me with my sister. Just above dad’s toolbox I saw

the baseball bat he used in his minor league career. That, I thought, would REALLY do some damage. I took it down from its place of honor and hefted it in my hands. Back at the car, I went for the side mirrors first, which broke with a satisfying smash. My grin felt unnatural as

snow on a hot day. Each swing felt better than the last, leaving a hunger i couldn’t feed. As a circled around the car taking pride in the damage i had done the feeling of remorse never appeared. it was almost like

any feeling heart I had before was pulverized within the car wreck and was replaced with pure adrenaline. Evil and good no longer existed for me as I tilted back my head and howled with bloodthirst gnawing through my veins. This was not enough. The eternal hunt for more began.

Carrie G
@carriegessner

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Carrie G@carriegessner

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