Things As They Seem

By Sara Bushway

Sometimes the truth becomes wedged between the darkness of the unknown and the reality we create for ourselves. It's messy and complicated. Sometimes fiction provides fertile soil for a pleasant rose to sprout and bloom beyond the threshold of darkness, truth, and the unknown to bring beauty back into the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sara Bushway
• Release date: Jul 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393573944

Sara Bushway

Sara Bushway is an author from Bethalto, Illinois who writes fantasy, science fiction, and poetry. Sara's debut novel Honey Beaumont was released in June 2021 and a 2nd edition released in 2022. She has also authored a game review in the Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds and continues to write fiction of an unorthodox nature in the form of short stories, novellas, and novels. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram @SaraBushwayAuthor and on Twitter @SaraBushway for updates about future releases and more.

Book preview

Shards of Glass

The darkened room, the slow-turning fan

The bed by my wall, and me on the bed

The mirror adjacent, the piece that fell out

The piece shaped like q, I caught in my hand...

The piece in my hand, the chain on the fan

The sound that it made, the sound that did click

Over and over...

The glass in my hand, the glass that I dropped

The shards on the floor, those Shards of Glass

The mess on the floor, the floor I should clean...

My feet on the bed, now over the side

The side of the bed, just over the glass

The glass on the floor, the Shards of Glass

The glass that now pointed, pointed straight up...

The glass I can't see, the glass on the floor

The floor by my bed, I put my feet down

The glass on the floor, the glass pointing up

Now stuck in my feet, I fall to my knees...

The pain in my feet, it shot up my legs

The pain in my legs, I cannot move

I can't move forward, I can't get up

The glass that now holds me, holds me down

And keeps me from the door...

Just Hell for Short

Satan sat in his big , onyx chair, swirling the wine in his chalice.

What to do, what to do , he thought with a heavy sigh, gently nudging his platinum crown. It was still coated in the black carbon set on by the fires in which it was forged.  There is so much to be done when nothing exists. I don't even know where to begin. 

He rose to his feet and paced the main hall. Ever since Satan had fallen through The Rift, things had been pretty dull, not to mention lonely. Lilith opted to remain in Heaven with Lucifer, even after their little rendezvous in the forest, and Beelzebub, though still very alive in Satan’s mind, was long gone. The new angels, it seemed, weren’t coming along as well as the ancients had. They knew nothing, not even their own names.

Well, isn’t this lovely , Satan scowled  It’s like a whole plane full of idiots. Michael would get along great with these infantile beings.

It had taken eons for him to completely rebuild his tower on the new plane. In this realm, the energy that composed the angels and gave them special abilities was minimal. One had to build from the raw materials that They, those from the outer planes, had indirectly supplied.

Satan swallowed the last sip of wine in his chalice and walked over to the large window overlooking his garden. His pale-white skin glowed in the sunlight, just like all of the other angels, but it wasn't noticeable until the new breed came into being. These beings were dark, like the moist, nutritious dirt they had risen from. Though he had never made contact, Satan watched these people wonder around in his garden every day, trying to understand the world around them and their place in it.

He scoffed as he watched a young girl wander into his garden and sit under his apple tree. She looked puzzled, more puzzled than the others, more thoughtful and curious. Most of the beings who found their way to his corner of the realm only stayed long enough to see that there was nobody there and nothing of interest. Or, occasionally, they stood still long enough for an apple to fall on or near them, sending them running back the way they came, grunting and gesturing about the horrors that had befallen them beyond the gate of Satan's garden. This girl, however, seemed different.

That’s odd,  Satan thought. He placed his chalice on a nearby table and quickly descended the spiral staircase that pierced the center of the tower and entered his garden. The girl was still there. She turned and smiled. She was naked, as was everyone but Satan himself, and had long, black hair. He wondered if she understood that she was naked and how those who were clothed felt about those without. They who remained above insisted on clothes, even if it meant only being scantily clad, as a means of propriety. He wondered if the clothed looked unfavorably on the unclothed out of pure envy. The freedom that nudity represented wasn't lost on Satan, but the dangers of walking around with naught for coverings, with the whole world able to touch all of you, were more than he could bring himself to accept.

But I suppose that, when you're unaware of the dangers around you, you act as though you are impenetrable, Satan thought.  I'm not sure if that's the best plan any warlord has ever had or a crutch for the feeble-minded to stand on.

Satan smiled back at naked girl. She stood up and reached for an apple, like an infant begging for her pilfered toy. He looked up at the apples and then down at her.

Those are not for you, dear, he said soothingly, Run along now. She looked at him with sad, penetrating eyes and stood to leave. He watched her clumsily walk toward the gate and shook his head.

If you knew the horrible things that have happened and all of the evils of the world, you would wish you could be stupid again,  thought Satan, but he couldn’t get those horrible, saddened eyes out of his mind. He wondered if she knew what it was she had wanted. Perhaps she was just hungry for the crisp, sweet fruit of the tree, completely unaware of the other effects of the apples. He, the great creator who remained above with They, thought that this was the best way to give the new realm all of the knowledge they would need without the terrible plight of giving it all at the same time, before the new angels were ready. Satan often pondered if His reasoning was sound or if this was His way of side-stepping the whole thing. Placing the tree in Satan's garden was cruel to the new angels who feared Satan's gate, and not telling anyone, including Satan himself, when they would be ready was worse. What was he to