William King

Relaying sensory impulses – homeostasis. It’s all about maintaining balance. “I think he had sex with me,” Joel felt like talking. He thought that was the only possible way to know. To know if it was real. “Yeah, I know.” Grif told him. “How the fuck can you know?” “Because...” Grif half thought Joel might react violently. “Because I was there watching your face pressed against the glass.” “You was there?” “I was there.” “Why didn’t you say anything... bef

Sex is a drug. It was always the same, he couldn't understand the rush to get here. Whenever you got an appointment somewhere official, you waited. You waited months to get a date in the first place, then you waited when you arrived on the actual day. This was, he supposed, a little different. This time they had been called, at short notice. His mum was panicking. "Get your brother, get your brother!" She was almost shouting, and repeating everything twice. "I heard you the

Contamination - making or being made impure by polluting or poisoning. It never really gets light, time passes in darkness, beneath shades of grey. And it is always wet, constantly raining. Joel knew it hadn’t always been like this. No, actually, he didn’t remember anything different, but then he didn’t remember anything. He had this image of Charlie, but he was not sure who Charlie was. The picture in his head was of a young boy watching pod casts. Only it wasn’t exactly a pict

@Talo Segura thanks, next chapter coming up. @drsawzall the story has been published before, now tidied up a bit. @VBlew hope I don't disappoint, a little m/m action in the next chapter.

Contamination - making or being made impure by polluting or poisoning. Neon light glowed in the darkness, electric colours reverberated off the sidewalk. He hugged the tall glass buildings. They gave no protection from the incessant rain streaking in cords from an unseen sky. The red and blue electric billboard was so far up towards the invisible sky, it towered over the street. “Join us for a new dawn...” announced the smiling face, ten times larger than reality. “Watch it!” The l

In a future where it never ceases to rain, Joel finds himself alone on the streets after curfew. How he got there is not clear, his memory is fragmented. Is it being rescued to find yourself in a sex club? Past, present, and future are interwoven, somehow there must be an answer? Perhaps, he is the answer? And what about the other boys? What about the planet? Is there a future?

I'm pleased you liked the book, but there will not be any sequel. I doubt I could write a refugee's perspective of life in my own country, let alone in Canada, a country I've never been to and know very little about (although I did know a Canadian girl when I was sixteen...lol).

I agree with BHooper. If it's a mature story you've got your warning. You are also free to stop reading at anytime the story takes you towards somewhere you don't want to go. I doubt you open a book that starts with a graphic rape scene or violent murder, but I could be wrong. In any event I regard 'mature' as an adult library, for adults. You can easily wait for a book to be finished, read the comments and reviews, before embarking on the story. If you choose to post chapter warnings, that's up to the author, but personally I think they are in the wrong place. Who wants to get halfway through a book to find a chapter they can't read. If the book is violent etc. tell the reader in the summary using the description of the story or adding a specific warning if you like.

Chapter Fifteen and the epilogue are posted.

I don't think we have fundementally different ideas, we are looking at things from a different angle, that's all. "We simply ended up 'lucky' enough to have our dice rolled." I'm not picking you up on phraseology, but that does kind of beg the question - who rolled the dice! But I get what you are saying, it's random chance that we are here. However, there is one big question, do you have an immortal soul?

There are only three categories of books on GA, suitable for everyone, teen, and mature. That is reasonably clear. Thus any books with descriptions of graphic sex, violence, drug abuse, rape, fall into the label mature. Meaning, for adults 18 years or over. There is no need for trigger warnings on chapters. There are no warnings whatsoever on published books and I see no reason to change things. Any warnings such as 'Some of the content of this book is graphic and includes....' should if required be at the beginning of the book and such warnings should be compiled by the website owners, whose responsibiity it is for the material published on their site. So if required a choice of warnings, or a warning, to be checked on the new story publication process. This really is up to the website to decide it's policy. I think it would be difficult to introduce given the hundreds of books already published, so there really is no debate. If you think you might be adversely affected by something you read, do not read the category 'mature.' I did a quick search of books by rating and it is roughly 50:50 split between mature, teen and everyone, so there is plenty of choice for every type and age of reader.

No it isn't, I disagree. There is chance and luck and all sorts of twists and turns in life, but it is not meaningless. You have this life to live, but that is not all there is. Life is a journey from the cradle to the grave and one where it is encombrant upon you to make the best of it that you can, to not be selfish and to try to be good in all things. 'Do the right thing,' is not a few words to be taken lightly. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. William Shakespeare - Hamlet. We are all seekers of the light, and that includes everyone whether you realise it or not.

I could never tell you how it would end, although I tried to hint that it would not be all bad and there would be hope. I think there is always hope for things to get better.

@JeffreyL Thank you for you comments. It was written to be real, so I guess if it provoked an emotional reaction, it succeeded. It was emotional to write, and I should be pleased that this came across, although I never set out with this in mind, only to tell their story and do it justice.

Chapter Thirty-One - Goodbyes. It's sometimes odd how things work out, fall into place, in a way you could never imagine. Something is said, something happens, one thing leads to another. The ripple effect. A tiny drop in the ocean spreads out in all directions, touching different people in different ways. They were all four there to meet Jeff and Alec off the plane. It was kind of weird, like a family event. Only Jordan and Amelie were not old enough to be the parents, but Jeff and Al

Chapter Thirty - Voices Off. They went to collect Firas from the camp and Amelie made a rendezvous with Bazyli’s friend who had the apartment. Nikaia was a long walk from the port and to find streets, even when you have the address, is difficult. The Greek alphabet is nothing like English, so street names become almost impossible. Amelie had directions, which should help, and the guy's phone number if they got completely lost. If you looked at the city from the air, you would see w

This really is an American thing (problem?). EXAMPLE a survey shows 35% of Americans read Bible verse at least once a week, one third of the country! Compare that to 6% British who read the Bible, attend church, and whom you might define as practicing Christians. In summary: most Europeans don't pay any attention to the Bible and are not concerned by what it says or doesn't say. Whereas a very large number of Americans might be viewed from this side of the Atlantic as religious fanatics that pursue a life style influenced excessively by Christianity, something difficult to relate to in the 21st Century.

Chapter Twenty-Nine - We are the Bearers of Light. Things became hectic over the weekend. Amelie phoned Bazyli who gave her the number of a friend with a cheap apartment he was leaving. They needed to contact him soon to go and look at it, because if it was okay for them, that would solve the accommodation problem. Doctor Jukas called and arranged for them to come and see Samir at the hospital. She thought it would be a good idea if they spent the afternoon together as a group, and if

Chapter Twenty-Eight - A Greek Tragedy. It was a clear blue sky, you could feel the heat even though it was still early, it would without doubt be another scorching hot day. In any other circumstances this would be a wonderful start to a new dawn, but the task in hand was to seal the end a what could only be described as a tragedy. If something good would happen and allow the future to once again hold promise, then first this deadly twist of fate must be expunged. Amelie led the wa

There is hope, keep reading and you will see.

Chapter Twenty-Seven – Police, Psychology, and Welfare. Captain Alexio Constantinou, Alex, was surprisingly young to be a captain, that at least was Amelie's opinion. To her it seemed a little odd that someone who was around twenty five would hold a high rank and would be in charge of a murder investigation. However, it soon became apparent that Alex was the latest in a family line of police captain’s, and as for being placed in charge of the murder enquiry, that was a case of nothing actua

It's nice to see some stats. Probably a large majority of stories are labelled with romance and drama, don't most stories have a romantic interest and are dramatic? Whilst the prompts stories inclusion is interesting, it's not a genre, the same could be argued for free verse. If you were going to play around with the figures some more, I would be interested in only including in romance and drama those stories which have no other tag. Commenting on the numbers, I find it odd that Sci-fi is so low, comedy so high, and historical is perhaps skewed because you don't have Arthur's Drummer Boy series, which was a huge success, although it's now been taken down and published commercially. Thanks to AJ for the stats. and to you for making them available.

@JeffreyL it is a tragedy and what happened is hard and difficult, but even though this story has such terrible sadness it is not without hope. @Trevin Behrens I know it is very difficult when a person loses their life, but Amar's death was a sacrifice and a redemption, it was not in vain. Sometimes we would like to go back, to change things, to take a different path, but destiny steps in. The story is written, what has happened has happened and there is no going back, we can only try to move forward.

Chapter Twenty-Six - Time's Glory. “Time's glory is to calm contending kings, To unmask falsehood and bring truth to light, To stamp the seal of time in aged things, To wake the morn and sentinel the night, To wrong the wronger till he render right, To ruinate proud buildings with thy hours, And smear with dust their glittering golden towers; To fill with worm-holes stately monuments, To feed oblivion with decay of things, To blot old books and alter their contents, To pluck the quills from

Not too long to wait. There will be two more chapters this week.