1 Shad Hankins pushed the tavern’s shutters open, and stepped through, leaving them swinging behind, as he stopped just inside. His dirty off-white canvas riding coat hung nearly to the floor, dripping rainwater from the cold wet storm he’d been riding in. While his eyes adjusted...
1 “Dump the fuckin’ tiles out on the table, boy.” Billy John Cader said gruffly to his son of only fourteen years old who sat shaking in the chair with fear. Billy Jay had just celebrated, if that’s what it could be called, his birthday only two...
1 Olive woke up suddenly from her usual restless sleep. At nearly 65, she was now accustomed to never sleeping very soundly. After all, she knew they were out there—all slimy with stinking skin drowning in their own warts. Warts that would easily pass on to...
Chapter 1 The Gift On my eighth birthday, in 1968, I got an odd birthday gift. I was certain everything it represented was true, and I was quick to ask it questions as I awaited the triangular answer to appear in its purplish-blue form underneath its black...
Chapter 1 I pulled up my shirt to study my back in the mirror. It stung. I couldn’t believe Wade could do this to me. If I’d held questions if this was only a game or real—I now knew as the pain and fear ripped through...
Chapter 1 The thumping inside my chest pounded in a rapid cadence, not skipping a beat. I swear it felt harder and deeper with every slide of my knee drug across the rough and aging concrete encasement. Both sides of the ledge were separated by the...
Prologue Joie slowly opened her eyes, tingles of numbing sensations prickled throughout her body. Not being able to focus on any one thought, she attempted to squint through the foggy blurred vision at what she could make out. The color green was predominant along with hues...
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...
Part 1 A single white rose quietly fell from her slim young fingers. I looked down and saw it had landed on the dark walnut top of the casket. The beautiful wooden box somehow seemed out of place in the cold contoured hole in the soil....
Suitcase in hand, you head to the station. There is no way in hell that you are going to forgive that lying, cheating bastard ever again. He can’t be trusted anymore, and you know it. You know his lies about working late nights. The smell of...
Chapter 1 I pulled the door open and stepped inside Dutch’s Tavern, it seemed familiar, but I paused at the entry until carefully glancing over the bar’s interior. My eyes scoured the inside from the left side of the door completely around to the right of...
Chapter 1 I grew up being a bit of an explorer at heart. It hadn’t exactly come naturally, but instead through my family’s forced moves from army base to army base. I turned ten this year and I was on at least my eighth adventure to...
The Act The large metal plate was secured with long threaded bolts into the enclosure. These were applied and tightened down by two skimpily clad, dark-haired assistants, or vassals as they were called, and appeared to also be identical twins. The cage looked to be impenetrable...
Chapter One Tanner Lee Palper, or Tilper as people had called him even before he could remember, sat on the old rustic bench he’d put by the pond years ago. His pole sat leaning against the limb that jutted towards him from the water. It was...
Chapter 1: Man’s Best Friend The sound of Duane’s Dodge diesel pounded a steady thump with a deep cadence as it idled up the dirt drive to the barn. The sun was setting but it still hung just above the ridge that rose above their farmhouse....
Chapter 1: Blake and Dani’s Dark Tourism Welcome to Helltown, Ohio. The dripping letters and numbers appeared to have been spray-painted over the original town’s name and stats. Population: 3,000,000+ Elevation: -6666. A nice place to visit. A better place to live. I laughed out loud at...
Chapter 1 She sat in the window seat of the Allegiant direct flight from Springfield, Missouri to Tampa, Florida. Cruising at 42,000 feet above the earth, Elsie was dressed to kill, wearing a crimson red halter top and black yoga shorts so tight they appeared to...
Chapter 1 Vernon Hasker sat on the porch swing which had hung on the front porch of his old and now decaying farmhouse for many years. He’d spent many an evening looking at the tree that had started as a small volunteer sapling all those years...
Chapter 1 Tommy ruled. He was the commanding pilot you could count on when the shit went down. And believe me, it was always going down lately. We’d had more skirmishes in the last week and suffered more losses than I can remember. The weekends seem...
