Soup "I don't think single poems are really going to take off, especially when they're the depressing crap you write." "I don't write crap, I do social satire," I correct acidly.

1 Charlie "We're very sorry," from the doctor, finally. "He's gone." He's gone? She reeled. How could that be it? Two sentences and a tissue. A discharge form in the doctor's gloved hand. There had to be more than this. A mother loses her son.

3 The amazing Doll and her disappearing act The dark, the aches, and his sticky fingers. Being carried to the toilet. Eating microwave dinners. Spit on her face. Being plunged into water. This was her life now. A young girl is kidnapped.

1Lelaina This is the story of a self absorbed, negative sort of person who isn't sensible enough to be delusional about life. Her life may get rudely interrupted by someone who doesn't agree with everything she thinks. Or maybe not. Read what happens. Or not.

2 The vicious avenger and the pathetic bad "What happened?" I don't threaten now. I gently tug at the threads of feeling until he comes undone, and tells me everything. Finds it cathartic. Likes reliving the experience. I don't care. I just want to know what happened. Interrogating child rapist

3 Mirror on the wall Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the grimmest of them all?

1 Pretty shadows She felt as if she'd lost herself She lived so far below Between the ashes where the roses grow the blackest shade of blue Open to suggestions, especially about the last few lines, had trouble with the ending. Thanks.

1 Clarissa's account This was homework for my reading, writing and creative criticism class. A fictional or true story about something awkward happening in your creative writing class.

1 Nate She finishes packing and gives me a long, appraising look. "I thought I could fix you. But I couldn't. I was given an impossible task." Just like that she damns me.

3 The unquiet death of Danika Rose The stripper, she calls herself Danika, is bleeding all over me. I tell her, I can call her an ambulance.