Category Archives: Ozymandias

What’s reality? It’s what most people say it is. But what if most people are wrong?

In the coming months, I plan to begin an entirely new story entitled Ozymandias about how our world cohabits with all that’s been forgotten, …

The setting of Ozymandias … an alternative Los Angeles, as it might exist in the collective imagination. Here’s an old map of Los Angeles.

 More old Los Angeles maps:

http://www.pinterest.com/baronbrady/los-angeles-maps/

 …

And so it begins …

“No one gives a shit,” said Tyler Hackett. It wasn’t a sentiment he chose to share very often, but he forgot how easy it was to inadvertently verbalize his interior monologue; although, given the …

Tyler wasn’t expecting a call from his mother, Lillian. It had been two years since she’d called him. She always preferred her privacy.

“Tyler?” she asked.

“Mom?”

“It is you. And you’re fine?”

He couldn’t remember her being so …

It was the first time Tyler saw the man, sprawled inelegantly on the sidewalk. And yet, the man seemed familiar.

The man’s face was in shadow, a soiled Dodger’s cap angled low, but the direction of his gaze was …

“You’re not the first guy walking up these steps looking for someone,” said Dr. Harrington, seated on the sofa since Tyler asked to sit in the armchair. It was his subtle attempt at role reversal, to put people …

Although Laurel never requested it of him, Tyler decided it might be a good idea to surrender his meds. He later changed his mind, concluding there was no harm to them, before changing his mind yet again, deciding he …

“Where do you live?” asked Tyler, his back to a hedge, his legs crossed so as not to impede any foot traffic. He still expected someone to tell him to move along. He was clean-cut and neatly attired, yet …

Magus and Tyler appeared at the open door. It was at the back of a darkened room, people seated at tables, their faces obscured. If there were windows, they couldn’t be seen.

From all appearances, it looked like a …

It felt like rain, but the sky couldn’t have been clearer. Tyler wiped his face. It appeared a mist was rolling in.

Lula’s unrelenting pace reminded him of Faye. Where was everyone going?

“Are we following her?” Tyler asked …

“’Suppose you’re the King of the Tramps?” asked Lula of the man with the cigarette.

“We got no kings here. But your enemies got to know you got organization … hierarchy; that you can defend yourselves. No, there’s …

The limousine was idling outside. Morning light reflected off the shiny surfaces. It was a vintage car, grey with black trim, but well cared for.

There was a knock at the door. It was Lula.

“The car’s here,” she …

Rex was dwarfed by his desk, his elbows resting uncomfortably on the mahogany top.

“Now I want the truth,” he said as Tyler was ushered into the room and offered a seat.

“What do you want here?” continued Rex.…

For the first time, Tyler suspected he was dead. How else could he explain seeing his dead grandmother?

She looked younger than he remembered, and couldn’t have been any older than he was; perhaps even younger. His grandmother reminded …

When Tyler awoke, he expected to find himself in his bedroom. But it was someone else’s room, a girl’s room with a floral pink bedspread, magazine photos of rock stars from the early 1960s encircling a framed photo of …

Tyler awoke again, disoriented by the daylight. Vi’s face was next to his. “Come with me,” she whispered. “Quietly.”

As Grandma Vi tiptoed to the door, Tyler turned to find Carmen, her breasts in full view. He felt embarrassed …

It was Tyler’s first glimpse of Old City during the day, all manner of vintage cars, from Model Ts to 1960s sport coupes, wedged between lumbering trolley cars, wires humming overhead and holes on either side of the road …

Tyler wasn’t expected so many oil derricks, the immediate surroundings a sea of metal pyramids stretching north and south. They’d been hidden behind all the counterfeit storefronts.

He wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t climbed one, sitting next to Mad …

Russell Murdoch wore a neckerchief around his neck, graying hair belying the youthful blush to his freshly shaven face. Tyler could feel the bristles on his neck and face, suspecting he was beginning to look scruffy like Magus, his alter …

Tyler awoke to a drumming inside his head, skin stretched painfully tight over a pocket of blood on his scalp.

He was no longer inside the house, broad trees and tall grass suggesting a more distant location. Sitting up, he …

Tyler wasn’t expecting Faye’s laughter. It was a knowing laugh, as if the time loop came with a punch line.

But time was both prison warden and liberator. One had only to look beyond the inexorable now to the immutable …

It was night when Tyler awoke, Laurel naked in his arms, her breath warm on his cheek. It was a bedroom, a queen-sized bed presiding over a meticulously decorated room decorated with an antique dresser and night stand, a statue …

Tyler couldn’t remember how long he’d been awake. He’d been gazing toward the ocean, a blue smear enclosing the flatlands below; and he’d been imagining what lay beyond that satisfied sea that had no cares.

This was more than a …

While Laurel and Bandini kept pace with Mad Dog, Tyler lagged behind, distracted by the possibility of being shadowed by Murdoch. He was afraid of turning his back in any single direction for more than a few seconds.

Laurel …

Lula grinned as she approached Tyler. “Well, I’ll be,” she exclaimed, a hand to his arm.

“I found her,” answered Tyler, surprised that Lula would be pleased to see him.

Lula turned to Laurel.

“Well isn’t that swell. Seems your …