HCE received a lot of high-quality submissions for the Toys & Games Issue – sadly, too many to fit inside the magazine! So we offered some of our shortlisted contributors the chance to be published on our website. Below are just a few of the pieces we loved. Keep an eye on our website for more great writing like this, in the run up to the release date of Toys & Games…
Combat
Kara Dennison
“What do you think happens to us when we die?” he asked.
She shrugged, her head bobbing. “Surprisingly little.”
“That’s awfully defeatist.”
“Well, how do you expect me to be? We see it every day. Both of us. It’s commonplace. What am I supposed to think? That it’s some strange, mystical gateway to something else? It’s old hat at this point.”
He wiped his nose on the back of his hand. “Not every day. There was a respite of about two weeks, remember?”
“Oh, yeah. Two weeks. But it always starts again. Just when we think it’s over, the old mess has been abandoned, it all starts up again. Bang bang click, there we are on the front line again.”
“It’s not fun to you?”
“Fun?” She leaned back. “You have a strange definition of ‘fun.’”
“I don’t think so. There’s something exhilarating about it. Freeing, almost. You let loose.”
She smirked. “And then you die.”
“Well, the plan is not to.”
“Right, and things don’t go according to plan, do they? Someone has to die. It’s the way of things. Some live, some die. The ones who live go on to fight another day. Die another day.”
“Wasn’t that a movie?” he mused.
“I’m not the movie-watching type, I’m afraid.”
They fell silent. Staring at each other. Waiting. Watching.
“Do you think they forgot?” he asked.
“We’re secondary to them.” She rolled her head, loosening her neck. “You know them. Probably getting drinks or having a chat or something. Sending us to our deaths is an afterthought.”
“Hmm.”
“You want to talk about ‘fun’? That’s what this is to them. Fun.”
He grins. “I do believe that’s the whole point.” And he drew his fists up to his face defensively.
“Time?”
“So it would seem.”
She stood straighter, balancing on one foot. “Best of luck.”
“And you.”
ROUND ONE
HEAVEN OR HELL
FIGHT!
Kara Dennison is a writer, editor, illustrator, and presenter from Newport News, Virginia. She works as community manager for Onezumi Events, where she interviews celebrity guests and performs outreach for fans and attendees. Her work can be seen in “Associates of Sherlock Holmes” from Titan Books, various “Doctor Who” spinoffs from “Obverse Books,” and the light novel series “Owl’s Flower,” which she co-created with illustrator Ginger Hoesly. She works from a converted NASA lab, which she shares with four guinea pigs and a bass guitar.