Dread Naught but Time

Introduction You don’t have time to read this intro. You’re guaranteed nothing during your stay on Earth. You have twenty-six stories ahead of you. And yet here you are, growing older reading an introduction. Writings to Stem Your Existential Dread was Scribes Divided’s maiden publication, featuring fifty-three flash fiction stories. Short, sweet, to the point. For Dread Naught but Time, we expanded the word limit, allowing each character’s saga to unfurl more intricately, fracturing your mind with utmost stealth. Somewhere in the distance, a metronome is ticking. Music doesn’t need words to convey an enduring message. But without pacing, tempo, and measure, music becomes a discordant mess. By weaving music and time, we create a universal language and reveal a life unwinding and threading back together. Our shared experience resides among the beats of each melody; hides amid the notes, beneath the subtext, of each phrase. And so it is with fiction: staccato percussion and lyrical prose thrum a rhythm between our ears as we read. The Rolling Stones claimed time is on our side. Talking Heads insisted time isn’t after us. Lies. As with Volume 1, the authors—some new, some returning—were guided by prompts. Dread Naught but Time is inspired by songs and connected by the broad theme of time. The most memorable tunes stick with us through the ages. We hear the first notes on the radio and for the next four minutes, we’re transported to childhood, to the back seats of cars, to first road trips and birthdays and breakups. We recall, in vivid detail, the people we spent those moments with, and during the length of a few verses, our lives flash before our eyes. Twilight is settling. You’ll never get these moments back. Short stories and pop songs are fleeting, but the most enduring characters wreathe through our hearts and take up residence there, never letting us go. Within these pages you’ll find such characters in the form of dancing dwarves, sensual African gods, moonlight-cursed werewolves, angels of Death, and everyday humans sleepwalking through nightmares. Turn to any page to immerse yourself in the unique worlds created by our authors. It’s disturbing how time flies. Jennifer Worrell September 2018 A Broken Heart at Dawn