“Choose your company with care,” he said. “In life, careful casting is essential. Be sure to find someone who knows the full measure of your stupidity. They will keep you anchored amid a torrent of praise. They will remember you when everyone else turns away — just as this person said they would. It is then when you lift yourself out of whatever gutter you’re floating in and try to prove them wrong. You would do well to remember that illusions are cheap. Honesty is rare.” AdviceHonestyStupidityFlattery Book:The Doom of Balar Source: The Doom of Balar
“Monsters on the roof kept me occupied for some time. Dragons and drakes. Werewolves and hags. Stories of love and blood — the kind of stories mother used to read to us. Stories full of dark mysteries and horrid creatures. Oh, how I miss them.” ImaginationMonstersBoredom Book:The Curse of Balar Source: The Curse of Balar
“A place of learning felt dead in the hours of darkness. Full of departed pupils and ended conversations. Their abandoned slates still held the ghosts of words and figures of lessons forgotten. Chairs, like rows of scarred and battered soldiers, stood loyally behind their assigned tables, as was the school master’s orders. Not a thing was amiss.” School Book:The Doom of Balar Source: The Doom of Balar
“Within these walls, That keep us in; We muffle calls, We don’t begin. Here dancing is fighting, And serpents speak truth, Forever denying, A voice of youth. And so, we’re trapped in silence, Never to kick free from the viscous prison, Awaiting the talons of the next tyrant, Never to recall heroes once risen. Never to speak, Never to see.” PoetryFightingSilencePoemRebellionSecrets Book:The Silent Symphony Source: The Silent Symphony
“He saw the hiding people, their whispers sounded like the turning of a thousand pages – pages filled with stories he yearned to read.” StoriesSilenceSecretsRefugeesVoiceless Book:The Silent Symphony Source: The Silent Symphony
“Neon signs flashed the word “NEWS” in ironic yellow.” SilenceMediaNewsFake NewsYellow Journalism Book:The Silent Symphony Source: The Silent Symphony
“Superstitions are just the stories we tell ourselves to help us sleep. This is not god. God is kindness. It is that simple, boy. Every worthwhile sage will tell you the same thing.” GodKindnessSuperstition Book:The Curse of Balar Source: The Curse of Balar
“Irini nodded again as she gazed off into the trees. “Strange times,” she said. “Times of change.” “Good or bad?” he asked. “Change is neither good nor bad, my champion.” She smiled her wolfish smile. “It is a matter of who takes advantage of the chaos. Idle hunters starve, as you know.” OpportunityChangeHuntersCarpe Diem Book:The Curse of Balar Source: The Curse of Balar
“The pre-meal ritual involved flashing the plate with your rectangle. It is not entirely clear why this is done. At first, I assumed that they flashed everything they were unsure about. In this case, having your meal prepared entirely by a neighboring tribe can have its risks. My working theory is that, by chronicling his every meal, a tribesman can identify what exactly did him in – should illness arise.” FoodSatireHumorous QuotesInstagram Book:The Bright Report Source: The Bright Report
“...Dah I look like I ‘ave all day?” Honestly, the man looked as if he was between cardiac arrests, so he probably did not have all hour.” HumorHumourHealthAnger Management Book:The Bright Report Source: The Bright Report
“His hands stopped shaking once she placed them on the piano keys. His fingers moved, finding the right places, starting the melody. The tears stopped and the senseless mumble was replaced by a low, droning hum. His eyes focused on something right above the piano — a focus they did not have a moment before. She watched him as he found the music again.” MusicOld AgePiano Book:The Curse of Balar Source: The Curse of Balar
“Solitude is a thing that creeps in under the cover of night. One does not pay enough attention as time strips away people and things. Some part believes that it will all restore itself one day, only a matter of time.” RegretSolitude Book:The Doom of Balar Source: The Doom of Balar
“Once upon a time, in the strange town of Balar, there were two handsome brothers, Pierre and Mathéo.” DarkHorrorFairytaleFairytale RetellingBeginningsFairy Tales For Adults Book:The Curse of Balar Source: The Curse of Balar
“This was the sound of strength. The sound of men shaping the land and cutting down pagan idols. Soon the trees would be gone, and the bare hills would be crawling with civilization. Avram was the sharp point of that progress. The blade that felled. The arm that moved.” CapitalismMasculinityDeforestation Book:The Doom of Balar Source: The Doom of Balar
“Just outside the walls of the City, trouble was brewing. They came in boats from a land far across the sea. Many boats crammed with many hopefuls washed up on the shores in the shadow of the great cliffs. Like driftwood. These flotsam people were dazed, broken – perhaps at an extreme – optimistic. Surely there would be salvation within the thick city walls? They appeared in a whisper – like the hissing of the surf. No citizen came to welcome them. No delegates. No photo-ops for ambitious politicians. Instead, only the City’s military – soldiers and officers with faces as hard and blank as the cliff the City teetered upon – were waiting. They were herded in silence. Those without papers were left on the stony beach. There would be tents, bunks, and prefab houses in time. The lucky ones were escorted up the great lifts and transported along the subway system – out of sight. A Downtown station would process them. See this crowd of Driftwood people, Eva. See them huddle together in the dark, the glint of hope in their eyes. The color of their skin, how the women covered their hair, and how the men wore their beards – these were the superficial differences that would mark them so starkly here. The label of ‘other’ already hung around their necks without them even knowing.” RefugeesOthernessOthering Book:The Silent Symphony Source: The Silent Symphony
“..., I understood that this island – Hearin Island – was home to a tribe of people who communicated solely via pre-recorded messages. Their customary greeting – which chilled the blood of even the most fearsome islander – went something like “Sorry for the voice note”.” HumorFunnyVoiceMessagesSocial MediaWhatsapp Book:The Bright Report Source: The Bright Report
“I managed to get her to sip two spoonfuls. I think that is more than enough, don’t you, Mother? Poor Primrose is already sick, she does not have to suffer through soup. Particularly this concoction of grey wateriness Miss Brook is so proud of. It looks like old laundry water and smells like socks. Besides, Primrose keeps dozing off. What was I supposed to do? Drown her in it?” IllnessSoup Book:The Doom of Balar Source: The Doom of Balar
“Zaqar Publishing House, a beast of red brick and chipped plaster, protruded from the surrounding buildings like a broken branch in swamp muck. You could hear the whirring of the massive printing presses from the street. Soot and smoke coated the walls, making it look like a smudge. This was, of course, in the days before the paper’s façade had to yellow for it to survive.” MediaFree SpeechPressYellow Journalism Book:The Silent Symphony Source: The Silent Symphony
“In the realm of supercars, the moment of turning the ignition ignites a passion in even the most frigid petrol head. Words like ‘purr’ or ‘roar’ are often placed upon the sound of the engine spinning into life. With the Lethe, words like ‘splutter’ or ‘cough’ over did it – it was more like Bessy’s final breath before she was loaded into the abattoir van.” HumorFunnyMotorCars Book:The Bright Report Source: The Bright Report
“Another cloud bank drew across the moon. In the darkness, she ate. She ate as the ravenous hunger spurred her on. She stripped flesh from bone and savoured the metallic warmth of blood on her tongue. She kept eating and ripping and chewing. Soon she would be full. Soon. Almost.” DarknessHorrorEatingMonster Book:The Curse of Balar Source: The Curse of Balar
“Strange how his entire life could fit on a table, for he was that most despicable of creatures, a serial novelist. A battlefield of failures in the form of crumpled paper littered the ground around the chair. He stared at them forlornly. It was not that they were empty, just that they were full of poison. Ink in the shape of ghosts and curses. Beauty corrupted by darkness.” WritingDarknessHorrorWriter S Block Book:The Curse of Balar Source: The Curse of Balar
“The brighter the light, the sharper the shadows.” WisdomLightDark Book:The Curse of Balar Source: The Curse of Balar