Accessing Patricia
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Part 1

He was a nobody. A laboratory assistant in the testing area at the back of the Padonox complex – a rat wrangler – a tissue slicer. He was unimportant, and he was working in an area where nobody would have known, even if he had been of any interest at all. But he wanted to get ahead. When he had the chance to be important, he decided to take that chance.

Chapter 16: First Day of School

The rest of the summer had been a whirlwind of self-discovery for Yuqi. Between exploring the books and scrolls in her mother’s chest, adjusting to her transformed body, and reconnecting with her family, she’d hardly had time to think about the impending school year. But now, as the first day of sophomore year dawned, the nerves that she’d pushed aside all summer hit her like a freight train, leaving her with a lingering sense of self-doubt.

Everything's bigger in Texas.

Chapter 4: Running with Sis

No one knows exactly when the aliens came and began slowly infiltrating the human race. Twenty years ago, when I was twenty-nine, the news began reporting incidents of strange behavior from people around the world. I was just starting my neurosurgery practice at the time. The medical community believed this was a new strain of virus that was spreading at epidemic proportions. Initially it was thought to be a variant of the Vika virus as it seemed to affect the brain first.

Hope's Light

Chapter 35 & Epilogue

by Erisian

Book 6

Chapter Thirty-Five - Doors

The transit was taking forever.

Hope's Light

Chapter 33

by Erisian

Book 6

Chapter Thirty-Three - Prayer

As I wasn’t needed to help Nathanael and the Grigori guide the accelerated evolutions swiftly covering the new planet, I slipped away. And not back to the Citadel.

Without fanfare I sneaked back into the Spires, finding a healed Twitch in the kitchens experimenting with a new soup recipe. Whatever he saw across my face needed no words, and he put down a spice container to swiftly enfold me in his arms, which of course caused tears to flow anew.

Dangit.

The Thirteenth Witch
Chapter 7
by Raine Monday

Lydia found herself immersed in a whirlwind of activity as she ushered movers through their new home, a symphony of boxes and furniture swirling around her. The previous day's shopping spree in the quaint town square had transformed into a tangible reality, as piece by piece, their house began to take shape.

The Thirteenth Witch
Chapter Six
Raine Monday

Been awhile since I've posted on this. Might want to read back from the beginning!
RM

The next morning, Agatha and several other witches came to collect the couple after breakfast. The changes in Lydia had continued their progression; her right foot now matched her left, and the aging had spread up her arms, nearly to her elbows.

Hope's Light

Chapter 30

by Erisian

Book 6

Chapter Thirty - Diplomacy

With everyone watching, I stepped to the table, filled a goblet, and downed it in one go.

Ugh. Whatever vintage Horatio had brought out this time, it wasn’t Asmodian. Nor I’d bet of the wines Vance had spoken highly about a long time ago, those crafted by the elves of Nidavellir. I’d forgotten how bitter were most of the offerings in Hell - heck, I’d even have preferred that Chardonnay from the dragon soiree I’d attended with Isaiah.

Dangit. Isaiah.

What was I going to tell my friend? That his greater spirit would eventually decide whether I should be allowed to exist? And if decided against, Azrael would be forced to destroy me.

Would that mean Isaiah would have to try to kill me too?

There are always consequences.

Chapter 1

Scrunched up legs of a well worn pair of jeans, a lab coat and a short boyish haircut of chestnut brown curls was all that one saw of Lisa from the back and there was not much more from the front except a round slightly freckled face with red cheeks and a perennial smile. Scruffy Converse and a long unkempt fringe completed her ensemble.

Hope's Light

Chapter 29

by Erisian

Book 6

Chapter Twenty-Nine - Need

“You good?”

Ignoring the immediate prostration of the giant and reptile-skinned elephant (who this time had forgotten to first bang the gong), I steadied Camael as he attempted to stand. The sudden shift had certainly unsettled him, but at least he hadn’t thrown up.

Though maybe that was because he hadn’t eaten in a ridiculously long time.

Hope's Light

Chapter 28

by Erisian

Book 6

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Questions

There, hovering before what only pretended to be the blackest of clouds, lurked a sinister metallic sphere. How, one might ask, does a smoothly specular ball floating within an emptiness pressing against the true Void of Voids earn such a moody description?

The answer is simple: it emanates a hum of resonance filled beyond the brim with barely restrained violence, like a coiled spring which required industrial machinery to press into place and then held back only by a worn and rusted clasp on the brink of snapping. The tension so mighty that, if unleashed, the sphere would launch itself across a cosmos and plow through any stellar object foolish enough to happen to be in the way.

Rules of physics literally be damned.