My head hurt when I woke up.

It wasn't the throbbing, amplifying pain of a hangover. It didn't bring pain with every sound and make light unbearable. It wasn't the piercing, immobilizing pain of a migraine--like I used to get when I was a kid. It was just a regular sort of headache.

Still hurt like a bitch, though.

I groaned and tried to move. Everything ached, so I stopped immediately. My eyes were closed, but I knew I was lying on something flat and firm that filed itself instantly away in my head as a bed, but not my bed. That wasn't worrying; I haven't had my own bed in months. I'd been living motel-to-motel, bus-depot-bench-to-motel-again for long enough that waking up someplace weird wasn't an issue anymore. I opened my eyes, expecting to see the dull interior of one more rented room.

I instead saw plain white walls and ceiling. A light blue linoleum floor with a white checker pattern. Two green,…

Jury sequestration is the practice of isolating ("sequestering") a jury in order to prevent members of the jury from being accidentally or deliberately influenced by media coverage, rumors, and public opinion surrounding a trial or court case. Jury sequestration is exceedingly rare, but in cases where a media circus arises and harsh, misleading, or highly speculative media coverage is rampant, the judge may order that the jury be sequestered to maintain impartiality. In these cases, the jury is…

The air hung
damp and silent
between the megaliths,
echoes of
past footprints
on the walkway,
cracked with age,
cloaked in shadow, only
a column of light reaching
from above,
given motion
by passing mist

A god
forgotten,
carved…