Counted On A Harness

He gestured at the window, through which the evening sky could be seen.

"Thanks to the gravitational detection system we now know there are 8,981,370 black holes in our galaxy. With your generous funding, and the hard work of my team, we can now harness the power that is involved in these massive phenomenon. The tech is complicated, but a simple demonstration is simple."

He flipped the switch, and a pinprick hole in reality formed in the chamber below them, inside much expensive equipment. But the cascade then took over, and it expanded, rapidly, unstoppable, uncaring.

8,981,371 black holes now.

High Stakes

There were a dozen of us who had taken refuge in this castle we thought was abandoned.

I was the last one left.

I stood at the top of one of the staircases, a torch in one hand, a paving stone in the other.

I guess this was one of the vampires that could turn into mist or teleport, as they suddenly appeared behind me, knocking away the torch, and dodging the stone. I looked for a way out, even as they bit into me.

Turns out if you truly believe in yourself, you can be poisonous to a vampire.

Just One Person

I finished my speech and posed, and the crowd cheered.

Except one.

In a sea of movement, they stood out by not moving an inch, just staring, coldly.

I should have just ignored them. One person is unlikely to change anything, but then I was one person, and look at all I had done.

So I demanded my guards to find them, to find out who they were.

Turned out, they were just a woman tired from a long shift in the factory.

But the martyr she became because of how my guards treated her was much more than that.

Surprise Party

I opened the door, pausing at the lights being off. I sighed, expecting to hear a whole bunch of people shouting 'Surprise!' when I turned it on.

I got it partly right, as that word was shouted, but by just one person, my beloved.

I raised an eyebrow as I approached the table, upon which sat a small cake, a couple boxes that were gift-wrapped.

"You and me? Alone?"

The hope in my voice made her expression blanche, and she made a waving motion.

I sighed, turned around, expecting everyone.

There was no one. She laughed. Eventually I joined her.

Improvements

The ship that left for the nearest Earthlike planet had only darklight thrusters and cryopods. Those that volunteered knew they'd leave behind all they knew and loved.

Once they arrived, the first few months got regular darklight transmissions, messages and datasets that had travelled after them at the same rate.

Then came the nearlight receiver schematics, and then messages came twice as quickly.

A few months later came the pastlight receiver details, and the colony looked forward to near-instantaneous communications with Earth.

They'd agreed to leave it all behind, but hadn't counted on hearing it all die in near realtime.

Class Act

I was stationed at the airport, waiting for the target to reach the luggage carousel.

"Gavin? Gavin McCoy?"

I lowered my head, hoping whoever it was would go away. But they strode over to me and planted themselves in front of me.

"Gavin? St. Gibbons High, you were always playing that damn Nintendo!"

I recognized him, of course, but decided denial would be quicker, although it did take me a few minutes of insistence before they moved on, and I missed the target.

A few years later when we stopped the syndicate, of course he was a part of it.

Lost In Translation

She entered my tent quickly, furtively putting an eye to the gap to look behind her.

"You're the translator, right?"

I slipped the scroll I was reading back into the bag of containment.

"Yes, that's me. What do you need translated?"

She glanced around the tent before pulling out a letter.

"I found this in my mother's effects, the signature matches the one I saw of my father's, but the text is Angelic. Am I... Am I half-angel?"

I took the letter and read it slowly.

"Well, kind of. More accurately, you're half Former Angel, Half-Demon is the technical term..."