When a mountain downpour forces Lydia and Thomas Thompson into a cavern's shadowy embrace, Lydia's touch upon ancient runic inscriptions awakens her latent power and identity. As they emerge to find the enigmatic town of Sælicbrook—a nexus of realms and magic—Lydia is transformed into her destiny as its guardian. But as the cosmic entity Nyarlathotep stirs, intent on unraveling the threads of reality, will Lydia's newfound power be enough to stand against an eldritch horror bent on devouring all? The battle for existence looms, and only the guardians of Sælicbrook can safeguard the world from the impending darkness. Will they triumph, or will everything they know be consumed by the infinite appetite of the Crawling Chaos?

CHAPTER 20
I woke in a warm fuzz, my bag snug around me and my bladder, for once, not that insistent. I slithered out of it nonetheless, and after I had done the necessary, I started a trawl through the food left ready for breakfast by the Woodruffs.

That term finally made sense to me, for Steph was now so clearly right in her skin, content as she was, and if someone who shared a bed with her had no issues, then why should I? I decided I would keep telling myself that until I was convinced.

The next day I got home before anyone else. As usual I dropped my bag in the hall and took my shoes off. I walked into the dining room and couldn’t help but notice the make up that Suzie had used last night was on the table. I stood for. A moment in silence wondering if it had been left there to taunt me following my debut as a make up model, or just a coincidence.

“C'mon. You'll look cute in them, Dave,” my girlfriend, Shelly, said.

“I'll look ridiculous,” I countered. We were in her dorm room bed and I was preparing to get up, get dressed, and head back to my dorm.

“You're just chicken.”

“I'm not afraid of your panties. They just aren't designed for my body.”

“I don't want them to be functional on you,” she said with a laugh. “I just think the red lace will look good with your dick in them.”

Monday morning was an absolute whirlwind at the Blackburn house, as Ariel found out the moment she stepped from her room. She nearly collided with a half-asleep Rylee in the hallway, at which Rylee profusely apologized and then scurried off in the direction of the bathroom. Somewhere off down the hall, a hairdryer whirred, and the kitchen yielded the sounds of sizzling meat and the clatter of dishes.

“Tori, I can’t find my eyeliner!” Rylee called from the bathroom as Ariel stumbled toward the kitchen.

What do you do when you look 7 years old, but you're actually a college student in your late teens? For Kathleen's entire life, she had fought against people treating her much younger than her actual age. Feeling obligated to grow up fast to show people she wasn't the age of her size, Kathleen never let her inner child out. Tired of fighting against the world, she explores the adult submissive world. What she finds, however, is an enjoyment of regression. Had she made a mistake? Would life be better if she just let people treat her how she looks, 7 years old?

After a lot of fun Toni really knuckles down to work. She’s been given the freedom and opportunity to really show what she can do in her job, maybe the opportunity to keep her job. However the freedom comes in extraordinarily handy when she faces her first crisis, all alone and anxious for reasons she can’t understand.

The question is whether the nascent Toni is strong enough to handle this? And whether she can even begin to handle it? What she does could determine where she goes next. Is Toni ready for what Toni? Or is the warning Big-G gave her about setbacks coming true faster than she could ever have expected?

The next email from ‘Uncle Vanya’ arrived just after the sun had set for the day. Sergei had watched the light of the day ending from the west terrace of his home.

Ice cream can be used for many things!

The idea of me having a date with Leland Frick, the team photographer, almost caused a riot. By this time, there seemed to be sixteen girls —including me, damnit!— left at the party, and all of them had one thing to discuss: my supposed date.

HOW I BECAME STEPHANIE

(MY OLD NAME AND FAMILY NAMES CHANGED TO PROTECT IDENTITIES OF THIS LIFE STORY)

CHAPTER 1

The Brooks Range, Alaska:
Stacy spots the fake blind someone had setup to conceal an area. She approaches carefully and notices that someone had gone to great lengths to hide their presence out here. The fake blind went all the way around a twenty-foot area.

Mirror Changed Chapter 11

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Courtney~

The last week had been a frustrating lesson in patience for the dangerous and well dressed Courtney. Though ultimately vindicated by the others of her small grouping, she still felt angry at herself for losing the young magus in the local mall. She swore that the other Chosen had fled into the theater, but after making a bit of a ruckus she had been forced to give up. The threat of the breeders police force didn’t really scare her off. There was little they could possibly do that would more than inconvenience her.

Toni’s weekend is over, which means it’s back to being boring old man Tony at work, right? She’s had a lot of fun from Friday to Sunday but doesn’t know if it’ll be enough to see her through to clocking out at the end of the week, when she gets to live her life again.

It really is a case of putting her head down and getting through the week, the same as it ever was, except now there’s something to look forward to at the end of that tunnel. Has Toni been changed, though? Is it possible for her to parcel away all that happened? Can man Tony simply get on with a normal five days of work when woman Toni is itching to get out? Or is Tony now more Toni than even they realise themselves?

Bridesmaid Rehearsals start and Sophie needs help!

Glancing at the minimap in the bottom corner of the screen, the situation couldn't be described as anything but dire. All of our barracks were reduced to ruins, and 'Mega-Creeps' were streaming into the base. It had been 20 minutes of what could only be described as trench warfare, during which we had dug in around our ancient, repelling attack after attack from our opponents. This analogy seemed even more fitting when you considered the tremendous number of mines Jade had placed around the base with her Techies play.

Safe Asylum
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Part 1