The stage is set. The ballerina poised. It all comes down to timing. [Noelle's end of the year/New Year oneshot contest] [#222 - Short Story] 20.05.2016- Featured

Ariel Fontansia is ten pounds away from total relapse. Since the previous summer, she has been stuck in a vicious cycle of calories, pounds, and inches. Redemption, Maine, isn't another escape -- it's a dead end. With no one to keep her disorder in check and hallucinations of a dead cousin driving her insane, she falls into an isolation that could prove detrimental. Standing in her way is a black-eyed boy with an anger complex: Price Olsen, who wants her to see more than the bad side of his grief. With an absentee father and a mute little sister, he recognizes the signs of someone on the edge. He wants to save Ariel, but up until this point, he's had a nasty penchant for ruining relationships. When her best friend overdoses, Ariel is forced to face the deterioration of her own mind and body. Price, frustrated by his inability to help her, fights the anger that threatens to take an ugly twist. As their fragile friendship teeters, another bruised, broken teenager chasing reconciliation stumbles through their lives. Yet she isn't just another damsel; this girl has a history in Redemption that involves the death of Ariel's cousin. Peaceful lives unraveling, all three discover that Redemption is harboring a secret with dangerous consequences. Now, they will be forced to face their past - and their present - to determine the course of their future. But how far are they willing to go for redemption?

Reece smirked, "Trust me Chloe, the good girl always falls for the bad boy." Chloe Armel is a good girl. She never gets in trouble, gets excellent grades and is loved by everyone. Enter Reece. Wild, badass and has an ego that honestly couldn't get any bigger. He gets into fights, breaks every single rule and couldn't care less about the consequences that come with it. When Chloe's parents leave to treat sick children in Cambodia for two weeks, she is forced to stay at her neighbour's house. Her neighbour has a son, and it's Reece Carter. Sneaking out. Parties. Drinks. Hash Brownies. Flirting. Breaking the law...and road trips. Add a few shots of Cupid's arrows and what have we got? No clue. All we know is, it'll be unforgettable.

"Anna dislikes being stuck three-quarters of the way down a chimney. She really does. Not to mention, she's still going round North America, and there's, like, three continents still to get through in about as many hours."

In Tokyo, where the System siphons thought, emotions & memories, a literature student meets a strange psychic girl and they embark on an escape from mindless agents, dream worlds and reality itself, in a soul-searching journey for love, for identity and what it means to be human. But all that remains is a peculiar coffee shop order. The novel examines the human condition, perception, socio-political systems, capitalism and consumer culture, incorporating paranoiac conspiracy theories, surreal cosmic visions, circular symbolism and shifting parallel worlds, with profound discussions of coffee, art, literature and music. [Dystopia, Magical Realism, Philosophy, Literary] #1 Sci-Fi, Spiritual; #Wattys2014 Award Winner; Featured on Wattpad, IndieReader, @DIGonUSA "Struck me to the very core of my being." "Very interesting concept of reality... Thought provoking.." "I have been turned to a whole new way of thinking because of you." "Like a seven course meal full of spice and illumination... One does not listen to a classical piece to get to its ending. No. It is the ride, the moment by moment...a genuine Masamune among stories." "It was both personable and philosophical. A rare breed of good story and thought provoking ideas... A virtual standing ovation would not be enough to encapsulate the absolute awe I have of you." "It's not a regular thing to find a piece of work that oozes sophistication and embodies literature and art." "The world Takatsu has created opens to the deeper awareness of another, the draw of another." - Mary L Tabor, Wattpad author, essayist, professor "Offers acute, almost painful observations of the minutiae of life, if life took place in a Murakami snow-globe." - IndieReader Insiders "Vapoury style that seems to hover off world at times...haunting and strange (which is good)...You're on to something different, striking." - B.W. Powe, York University English Professor, award-winning author, poet, philosopher http://EspressoLove.tk