Young Adult Contemporary Short Stories

A dreary winter school day, filled with the low hum of student chatter, flickering fluorescent lights, and the oppressive feeling of being watched.

A remote cabin in the dead of a Northwestern Ontario winter. The air is still and frigid, smelling of pine smoke and creeping damp. Every surface is cold to the touch, and the only light comes from a struggling fireplace and the pale moon on snow-covered glass.

A remote, snow-covered campsite in Northwestern Ontario. The light is flat and grey, fading fast. The temperature is twenty below zero. A heavy, oppressive silence hangs over the jagged spruce trees and the frozen expanse of the lake.

The sterile, fluorescent-lit halls of a high school on Valentine's Day, thick with the cheap scent of chocolate and the oppressive glow of phone screens.