Nine Months Earlier A computer programmer working at Simitrek, a software development company, typed at his office computer. He looked at the stack of forms on his desk, then looked back at his computer screen. Suddenly, his stomach let out a gurgling noise. He rubbed it...
Chapter 1 “First of all, Ms. Fitzhugh, I want to thank you for doing this interview for my ‘Between the Covers’ podcast.” “Please call me Vivian, dear. Ms. Fitzhugh sounds so stuffy!” Randall laughed and took a sip of his tea, “Of course. Vivian it is. And if...
Even so close to midnight, the unseasonable heat and humidity clings to the night air with a ferocious grip. Though only one week until Christmas, the temperature feels like mid-September. Regina Parker groans. Enduring one summer per year in Arkansas is enough. The second she...
“Ye needn’t think the only folks is the folks hereabouts.” — H.P. Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror “Even in this world, more things exist without our knowledge than that with. And the order in creation which you see is that which you have put there.” — Judge Holden, Blood...
The sun hangs low in the western sky, painting the jungle in shades of pink and lavender. A cacophony of howls rise lending a primeval aura to the trees. The sounds speak to me. Some deep ache mixing with a fervent longing whispers at the...
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...
A tall, well-built man stood in a lavishly decorated Victorian-style living room, staring into a full-length mirror with an ornate golden frame. There was nothing reflected, no image in the glass looking back at him, nothing but the shimmer that the overhead light cast upon...
Chapter 1 Kevin’s stomach rumbled loudly as he sat staring at the bank of black and white monitors in front of him. “Dude… You hungry?” He slowly turned to his coworker and replied. “Yes, Lucas. I am hungry. What could have possibly given you the clue?” Lucas lit up...
Wednesday Autumn was Thor's favorite season; the world changed around him in an amazing cornucopia of scents. The color of the leaves meant nothing to him, but the aromas did. Fungi bloomed as quadrillions of spores feasted on decaying matter. So much of the woods around...
Dallas skipped a stone as he sat on the bank of a tributary of the Elk River. His aluminum, two-man canoe gently bobbed in the lazy current. His gear already loaded, he waited for his partner. He yawned, stretched his lanky frame, and scratched an...
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...
It ended in 2047. It was the flu or some evolution of it anyway, and when it took the world, it took it fast. Everyone forgot all about Covid. It was a distant memory, a cold in comparison to the new disease. It was in...
I met her on the Internet. Same way so many people do these days. Sitting at the computer in my dad’s one-bedroom on a Friday night. He was snoring away in the other room, so I knew he’d taken his pills. He slept like a...
Takoda lifted his gaze from the burning embers of the campfire toward the sky. Tonight, the stars were brilliant in a cloudless sky. Tree limbs, heavy with unfallen leaves, barely moved. This natural stillness, normally produced a calm within him. A calmness his people expected...
“Fine day for a trek through the mountains,” Richard said as his fixed stare burned a hole through the mountains that lay ahead. He and his men had just broke camp and were venturing into the unknown. They were following a crude handwritten map from...
We met as we always did when Dr. Victor Monier returned from one of his grand adventures. Our congregation was small yet fulfilling. He called them sabbaticals or short excursions. He never failed to bring back something tangible along with the most unbelievable stories. But...
Rosa lived alone. Rosa had always lived alone. Rosa had become late middle-aged; she never had a cat, though by looking at her, one would think that she had many cats. She loved plants and gardening. Rosa was not only an outside gardener; she prided...
What awaits, is waiting for us all along. There’s no changing that. The dug bore well had been on the property for 200 years, they said. It had been dry for over half of that, but folks would come by, toss a coin in and make...
We sat stoned out of our minds. Dewey was seeing the ghosts of ancestors. He wasn’t sure if they were actually his ancestors or not, but he was wild-eyed and making cooing sounds like a dove. He was no dove, but he was tall and...
I am as accurate as a bullet without discrimination. I always have been. I am the unpretentious sort with calculated intent. I use big words, little words, sometimes no words at all. I am not the type who likes a face-to-face chin wag. Working the...
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