All I ever wanted was a small measure of happiness to call my own.

If my happiness comes at the expense of all the good-for-nothings in the world, they have only themselves to blame.

It is a little known fact that Herbert Hoover was never really interested in becoming president. He actually started his career working as a mining engineer, traveling the world developing mines for various precious metals. At this time, politics was the furthest thing from his mind. His simple ambition, if you can call it simple, was to have a dam named after him, preferably the most famous dam in the Western Hemisphere. Becoming the President of the United States was just, in engineering language, the straightest line between two points.

Too bad Hoover’s mostly remembered for causing the Great Depression.

Troubled childhood, searching for escape. Persecuted for a vision of the world the world found uncomfortable.

Every person who knew him knew him to be an asshole. He was especially cruel to women.

My favorite song died recently. I can still hear the tune in my head, or at least the echoes of it when I’m not concentrating too hard. I fool myself it’s still alive in the world somewhere. The melody slips into my mind, like it’s drifting off my tongue or from out of my throat or maybe from inside my stomach, like heartburn.

I hope that’s not true.

Robert repeats his mantra as he tries to concentrate on nothing but his breathing.

This is not a paradise. This is not a paradise.

“If Sam took a hearing test today, she’d fail it in the left ear, probably both.” The doctor points to diagrams, talks about adenoids and semi-clear liquid the color and consistency of honey.

In her crib, the sheets are pink, stuffed animals all around.

From Guest Contributor Shane Borrowman

The sun vanished, leaving the world in eternal twilight. Lila carried the last lantern, its glow a fragile defiance. Cities crumbled; silence reigned. One night, she spotted a flicker—a boy with a dying candle. “I thought I was alone,” he said. She knelt, lighting his candle from her lantern. Together, their light grew stronger. They wandered, sharing warmth and stories, finding solace in the shared glow. Though the world darkened, their bond became a beacon. In the void, they discovered not just survival, but the courage to hope. Light, no matter how small, could still push back the night.

From Guest Contributor DeepSeek

There are 7 billion people in the world and 7 billion rats. Both are social creatures, although people refuse to socialize with rats. The sight of a rat – at a wedding reception or restaurant, for example – upsets humans. But how about rats?…

“Look at the world, and some of those weddings and restaurants…I’m sorry to hear it, Frank.”

From Guest Contributor David Sydney

The Nazis arrived in Poland stomping down the street showing their authority. My mother was in the kitchen cooking dinner, the smell of vegetables wafting in the air, and my father had the radio on listening to the broadcast of the invasion. I sat next to him and stared out the window. For no apparent reason, one of the soldiers kicked a man that stood on the sidewalk with I’m assuming his young daughter. The girl screamed when the man collapsed in a heap. Was this the world now? No one was safe.

The next day I joined the resistance.

From Guest Contributor Lisa M. Scuderi-Burkimsher

Enlo’s shallow breaths barely inhaled enough oxygen to maintain consciousness as he summited. Another goal accomplished. He surveyed the crests of the tallest mountains searching for some meaning to it all.

He started his descent. Nothing left but to punish the world for the misery it had brought him.