Lost in Transmission
- - - A faint light approached Charlie as he neared the exit to his secret passageway. The mousehole was behind a bookcase in the dimly lit office of Donald Merry, the head of the financial department. Charlie waved up to the horse seated behind his...
Clearance
- - - It was forty minutes into Edmund's shift when he felt the nightly creep of desolation. _A new record,_ he thought. _Maybe Carey was right. Maybe I'm getting used to it._ But after all this time? Maybe solitude was playing games again. Carey. He...
Anonymous Tip
- - - We turned onto a cramped street named _Crestley Lane._ "Thirty-five seventy-eight is down at the end, Lars," I said. His phone's GPS had been droning directions the whole goddamned trip. "How long you gonna be in there? I'm hungry." "Don't...
Starvation Diet (Pt. 2)
- - -Continued- - - \* \* \* Lena sat against a corner of her plastic prison, eyes shut with the salt of dried tears. She didn't know how long it had been since she was dumped in there, as her watch came to mind only recently; both it and the...
Starvation Diet (Pt.1)
- - - "Well, shit..." Lena slammed the hood of her truck and hopped in for the dozenth failed attempt at the ignition. With a huff, she sat back and closed her eyes. The breeze and fading afternoon light urged her to give in to slumber, but were...
Black Tea (Pt. 1)
- - - Unimaginably long ago, before the conception of recorded history itself, Nyaesira had preserved the balance of the cycle of life. It was the deity's chief responsibility to ensure that no species would set in motion a chain of events that could...
The Round Trip
- - - He had little will to live much longer: they wanted to make the chemicals stronger. They'd take him in their giant paws, hook him to machines, staunch with gauze. Weeks and weeks since he'd been taken, since the day he found the will to...
Jinxed
- - - "You're gonna love it here, D'Arcie," Marco assured as they treaded through the leaf-bedded crosswalk. "It's not the biggest city in the country, but we have some awesome parks here that my parents would always take me to. Hey- maybe you and...
A Little Loss Prevention
- - - "Charlotte, dear, I'd been thinking about the rabbit's paw you'd worn the other day..." Gatson strained to observe the casino's traffic through cigar puffs and his one-way window. "Would it still bring luck if the rabbit himself was so...
99 Chaos Bolts
- - - The decayed Undead shuffled through chipped wooden doors into the tobacco-filled air of the tavern, band music blaring louder in his ears upon entry. Several patrons stopped mid-chug to glance over their shoulders at the unliving visitor,...
Breaking Eggs
- - - "You're staying late, by the way, and the beets better be stocked by morning," Blanche squawked. "Yes Mr. Blanche," Franklin said. He finished counting the register's money and nicked his pad wrestling its drawer shut. "And don't you dare...