Inflate123

Gabby’s Gadget
By Inflate123

“Discrete packaging my ass.”

Staring at the contents of her mailbox, Gabby frowned. She expected a brown box, plain, non-descript -- boring. Instead, she got a brown box with the words PERSONNEL INFLATOR on the outside. Very descriptive, albeit misspelled; this package was adorned with Chinese characters and clearly not printed by a company that was all that fluent in the English language. Still -- good lord, what must the mail carrier think?   

ALL IN
By Inflate123

"Shuffle up and deal!"

The voice boomed over unseen loudspeakers. Sara couldn't see a crowd through the darkness -- all she could see was the table in front of her, the disembodied, metallic arms of the dealer, and the blonde sitting across from her -- but she had to assume there was a silent audience. As cards sailed across the table, the harsh reality hit Sara: She had to win. 

“You crazy bitch.”

His head hurt. His vision was blurry. But as soon as he heard the machinery’s hum, Connor realized where he was, and he found his voice.

“Welcome back, Connor.” Of course she was here.

He started to make out the familiar shapes of the objects in the lab – tables, computers, tanks, fluorescent lights, Rhona’s workstation. As his vision returned, he also realized he couldn’t move his arms; he was taped to his desk chair.

“I was afraid I’d given you too much…and today of all days, that would be anticlimactic.”

Kent Ashland had never appeared before the Happyland board before, but then again, he’d never created things like the stuff he’d just submitted. He was actually proud of taking risks this time, really working from his personal passions. He actually thought they were calling him up to give him a raise. But now that he saw them…well, they didn’t look happy.