Purple

He had seen her in the flower shop, and had been captivated. Immediately, his reason for being in the flower shop no longer mattered to him, nor did the vibrant flowers clutched in his hand. All he knew in that moment was that he needed to approach her.

A perfect stranger, with a slightly tilted sunhat and curly locks of brown hair. She was dressed inconspicuously, and yet had such an aura around her than people would still be compelled to look. The soft fragrance of her perfume, paired with her exquisite appearance, turned that aura incredibly sweet. So sweet, actually, that it was almost sickening. Like the dangerous allure surrounding an exotic carnivorous plant, a suffocatingly alluring purple fog. And she had captured yet another stray bug into her trap.

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Beauty and the Beast?

Adrian didn’t like middle school very much. The enormous blotchy birthmark, running down the left side of his face like some kind of blistering dark scar, certainly didn’t help his situation.

That guy. Panda. Black-eye. Beast. Though they manifested themselves in different ways, the gathered negativity of the student body always seemed to center around him. Once, on the road back home, Adrian caught a glimpse of a puddle filled with dried autumn leaves. Most were clustered together, but there was a single leaf that was caught in the whirlpool of the drain, swirling about alone, aimlessly, and without rest. Adrian felt that this basically summed up his daily school life.

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Insomniac

       Marlene wasn’t getting any sleep. She had tried therapeutic yoga positions, and when that hadn’t worked, resorted to sleeping pills. However, today was her fifth day in a row of chronic insomnia, and she was starting to become aware of the fact that she was taking many more doses than the recommended amount.

       As such, she dragged her weary body beneath the stiff hotel sheets, knowing that she wouldn’t get a wink of sleep. As Marlene stared up at the gloomy ceiling, she began wondering if it would be best to confront the problem at its source. Because, part of the problem was that whenever she closed her eyes, a vivid image of him would show up in full color, and her eyelids would snap right back open.

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One Shot

“Agent oh-four?”

“Yes, sir.”

That was his name, and so he stepped forward. But when he raised his gun to the struggling individual, for the first time, his finger hesitated above the trigger.

Things were different, this time. Instead of a straw-stuffed dummy, a real person lay in his line of fire. A real, human life. 

He couldn’t do it after all.

***

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Embers

I stare at the embers of my childhood, 
where emotions surged, where memories stood. 
The laughs of joy, the sun on my face, 
Charging down a beach for a race. 
The voices of my friends, beginning to tire, 
Huddled at night around a campfire. 
The beeps of my game, another victory, 
Yelling in triumph under the shade of a tree. 
I stare at the embers of my childhood, 
where emotions surged, where memories stood. 

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Andy C. Ng

Author/Writer

Andy Ng has published his poems and short stories in a series of writer’s magazines and has just completed his debut novel, which reached the semifinalist stage in the University of New Orleans Publishing Laboratory contest.

What does a high-schooler do when he’s not playing video games? If that said high-schooler happens to be me, then he quite enjoys the hobby of making up imaginary scenarios in his head. I often find myself thinking up fantasy-superpower characters and settings in my imagination, where I can play out elaborate scenes that make me feel like I’m in the midst of an adrenaline-filled battle.

However, whether in the form of sketching or writing, pulling those kinds of ideas out of your head takes effort, especially so when you have to create a story fully contained within itself, without that story spilling out into a saga spanning across thousands of pages. But even so, I still wanted to share at least something with the world outside my mind. That’s why I created my debut novel: The Everyday Occurrences of a Stranded God, a magical fantasy novel.

Writing this book was a pretty huge endeavor that took a lot of time and effort, whether it was during vacations, breaks, or just between homework sessions. The whole project took just over a year and a half in total, so I doubt I’ll write a large series or anything in the foreseeable future.

If we’re just talking about another one or two, though… well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Never Forget

Gnarly branches of the tree outside,
Heated air of Hong Kong.
Available arcade booths at Chuck E. Cheese,
Never-ending sunshine of California.
Broken Lego sculptures littered all over the basement,
Affability of our cousin’s Border Collie, Jack.
To cannonball into Yosemite’s ice-cold swimming pool,
Arriving at Pinnacle Plaza.
Agitated shivers when my mom comes back from parent-teacher day,
Aegislash facing off my friend’s Braixen.
At what moments do you feel most at home?

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Kindness Poem

Be nice, be kind, fill other’s buckets.
Everyone’s bucket has to be filled.

Kindness is the key,
Into everything you do, say, think.
No one should be a bucket dipper.
Dippers can’t be happy, no matter how many buckets they dip.

Well, why do we need to be kind, then?
Hey, whenever you fill a bucket …
Yours fills too.

Now, why don’t you start filling?
Opportunities rapping at your door.
That, is the key to happiness and a great life.