The inside of this tent felt like the inside of Carrie’s heart: cold, empty, a place once full of people now deserted. Outside the purple tent she could hear the excited carnival-goers, the BB guns popping balloons, bells dinging whether or not someone lost or...
I am a creature of habit. I routinely do the same thing every day, and if there’s a break in my routine, I’m very sensitive to panic. For example, if I am not having my dinner at 6:30 pm on the dot, I’m overcome with...
My early childhood was spent on my father’s farm in the middle of nowhere. Literally, in the middle of nowhere. We had no hospitals or police stations near us; everything we ate, we made from scratch. It was like being Amish or something. The farm was called Beacon...
After lunch, I go back to my living quarters and draw a triangle. Between each corner of the triangle, I write our names out. I am at the top of the triangle. On the bottom two corners, I write Rosie and Kenneth. Rosie and Kenneth hate each...
Shorty Small, a man neither short nor small, sat with his back against a wall in a dingy bar several blocks off Bourbon Street. He concentrated on the front door and sipped on a half-consumed bottle of Nola Blonde Ale. The din of Mardi Gras could...
Henri Greyson heard a mournful howl of wind when he stopped to catch his breath. After a harrowing dash through the forest, he rested his hand against an old oak’s trunk for support. Looking up, bare limbs swayed in the cold fall gusts. Moisture-laden clouds raced...
In the world of international stolen art, an individual known only as Henri, was considered the world’s most successful thief. However, friends, neighbors, and business associates, knew him as Marcel Leblanc, a polite, proper and jovial man in his late forties who owned a seemingly successful...
The procession of soldiers marched with the steady, even rhythm of blood pumping through an artery. Grim-faced and sure-footed, they were fueled by anticipation of the reward that awaited them: fresh territory laden with resources. But they felt little in the way of excitement. This...
Ghost from the Past “You know Jake...
Chapter 1 Two Hundred- and Forty-Three-Miles Above Earth Ivan Babichev sat quietly staring through the portal, his blue eyes fixed on the distant planet he called home—Earth. His communication laptop sat blinking on the small desk next to his liquid-lock drinking cup of what I imagined was...
I watch my fingers as I curl them into my palms. One by one, I force them to open and close. I see them. I feel the skin stretch under the dried blood coating my knuckles. But they don’t feel like my hands. Not anymore. A...
Chapter 1 Eli was startled by the sound of a key in the front door. He had been resting in the upstairs bedroom. He couldn’t sleep anymore and hadn’t been able to do so in weeks. He missed it. He hadn’t left the house in weeks...
Chapter One: Just an Illusion How in the hell did I get here? Oh yeah, I was with Sara Painter, my secretary and her sexy body got me here. Looks like the same ceiling in the same place we always come to. I always look up...
Last month, I started my first solo hike on the Appalachian Trail. Growing up, I’d hiked a lot with my Dad, but it was never more than a half-day before we broke off into some activity or went home. But for the last few years,...
My hands were wet and clammy as I looked through the binoculars (field glasses, my mother used to call them), making the subtly curved view of my house jump and shift as I tried to hold on. It was inside with them, watching TV in...
I’ve received copies of the recent writings and recordings of Matthew Calder. I say “copies” because the originals are still in police custody in connection with several ongoing investigations. The writing is presented as is—I literally copied and pasted from the original documents, so aside...
The night was quiet until we got the call that three men were beating a homeless person to death. Dispatch called two patrol units along with EMS, and when the first deputy got there, they phoned me as the investigator on call. I went to the...
Every group of friends has a tradition. If you hang around a specific set of people for long enough, in-jokes will sprout from next to nothing. Routines will manifest out of thin air. Sometimes they’re clever; most of the time, they’re obnoxious, pointless, and asinine. Ours was...
I used to go hiking to clear my mind. It was nothing extraordinary. No backpack, no walking stick, no geo-locator app on my phone - just casual walks through White Leaf park. It wasn’t so much a hobby for me as it was a way to...
Leonard Skye was a bit of a local celebrity in the absurdly small town where I grew up. Hunter, survivalist, general “man’s man,” Leonard was both respected and feared. You would never catch him wearing anything other than jeans, a t-shirt, and flannel. The silver ring...
