1st Sentences

by Xochitl M. Perales

“The Void! The Void!,” Kevin screamed in a tone of agony.

A severed ring finger lay glinting mildly on top of a mulberry bush, a diamond engagement ring still attached, for some strange reason.

In the beginning, Demons ruled over the planet Nardor.

Analisa sat down ignoring our conversation, immersed in a book written by Sister Souljah, which she claims was assigned reading for one of her classes – yeah, right.

She had never had road rage before, but there’s always a first time for everything.

Would that I could walk on two feet like the rest of Earth’s inhabitants, but, alas, this is no longer a possibility for someone such as me, a former Guatemalan who had the misfortune to cross paths with a leg-eating werewolf.

I never asked to be born with three eyes, but I did at least appreciate having more than perfect vision.

Beware of the reptilian shapeshifters impersonating government officials, my mother always told me.

The sun cast blue-green rays across the valley in undulating waves, a mirage in conjunction with the dust clouds scattering the air in blurry patches.

“Your husband is dead,” said the stranger in the dark green suit.

Love is a song I stopped singing a long time ago, the moment it became apparent to me that the world was headed straight to hell in a pile of dirty diapers.

Across weather-beaten trails her bruised feet proceeded, blue as the peacock’s shimmering feathers rising antenna-like atop its head.

Monsoon season marks the time when Marisa’s husband likes to start fights and pick up loose women at the local bar.

He was the gayest homophobe I had ever met in my life, and I do not claim this lightly.

I cried endlessly as they lowered my lover’s coffin into the ground.

When in doubt, always consult a journeyman carpenter for the best way to seal up a room containing your worst enemy, while still allowing for enough air to breathe and a way to get food and supplies in and out.

My morning began with a cup of coffee, and a bloody corpse lying on my living room floor.

Fuck that!

I was embarrassed to be seen in public with a self-proclaimed alien abductee, especially one making every attempt imaginable to get taken again, regardless of the consequences.

I heard the sound of thunder, like war drums pounding in sturdy patterns down the contours of my spine, a terrifying experience, stark and ominous, and yet filled with a beauty too immense to even be whispered about in the dark.

“I’m going to kill that bastard!”

The little girl could not possibly understand the effect of her brilliant purple smile on the members of the congregation, who had moments earlier been praying for a sign that what they were doing would be sanctioned by God.

As the Cheetah took the Caribou down, it performed a dance so gentle and precise, and my eyes filled with tears to see the Cheetah first embrace its prey in a seemingly loving fashion, then bend over slowly to bite the Caribou’s neck, like a vampire’s kiss, in a beautiful death blow.

Where is that nasty bitch who ruined my life!?

The baby roach meandered its way uncertainly across the bathroom floor, a speck of brown-colored candy corn in motion.