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Wherein all your questions are answered. Happy Halloween, everyone!

Continuing the tradition I started last year of posting a horror story for Hallowe'en.

The Master of Cuts

by

Rodford Edmiston

Pollygeist
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

It is a strange story, but like many such stories, its effects changed lives. There are two essential characters in this story. I will call one of them Kevin, and one of them Polly. The third character in this story is 456 Masefield Road, one of those grand old homes in the small but once wealthy town of Hambleton, sadly well beyond an easy commute to the city.

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?

"Thanks for all the stuff," he interrupted gruffly. "I guess that's everything — and this is goodbye."

"Goodbye?" I exclaimed. "Why does it have to be goodbye?"

He gestured helplessly. "I don't know! What else could it be?"

CHAPTER 65
We ended up borrowing the class minibus for the trip up to Shrewsbury, our housemates pulling out various excuses for coming back to college early. We stayed Thursday night in a Holiday Inn on the edge of the town so that we could get a decent pitch the next morning, and settled down in our rooms after a rather limited choice of evening meal.

The breakfast was adequate, and not long afterwards Jordan was steering us aimlessly through the town centre. It was only when I spotted a particular pub that I remembered the way to the site, despite all the big signs we had been passing. Some navigator I was!

[Late Summer, Puerto Soller, Mallorca]

‘The Chameleon’s’ email pinged.

Albino
A Vignette
By Maryanne Peters

People stare. You just have to get used to it. My mother told me that there was albinism in our family. Others had learned to live with. In particular, the women in our family seemed to have it easy. Blond hair and pale almost hairless skin – they could paint on their eyebrows and darken their eyelashes to look normal. As a boy that was never an option for me.

Friday night at Lads Night In was explosive, in a variety of ways, with Tony discovering the Toni part of himself, or more now herself, along with two new, female friends, Jess and Sally. The day after was an emotional roller-coaster, where people actually smile at the new Toni—no-one ever smiled at boy Toni—and she discovered a wonderland bar where everything ended in tears. But tears for Sally, not Toni! Before Big-G took Toni home to be held and simply rest.

With Toni’s life finally filled with joy and fun, NO BORING!!! is it all going to stop when the big man, Big-G, says it’s time to take things seriously? Or is Big-G correct and will treating things properly as the new Toni be as fun, fun, fun as the partying and drinks? And will Toni end up back in Light Avenue?

"I called Anson — or I thought I was calling Anson —
and I asked him the age-old question: Who was that lady I saw you with?
and he replied, That was no lady — that was Anson Charpont!"
Ross followed his narration with a throaty chuckle.

He was a quiet, yet very proficient financial investigator and his only problem is that he got too close to people who rationalized themselves to be serving humanity but were absolutely ruthless. They did research in Medicine, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics. One of their goals was to make Cyborgs.

In his younger years Geisinger would’ve thrown the book across the room without a second thought. He got angry very easily back in those days. Whenever he ran into something hard or tedious, his frustration would take over and he’d lash out. College was a very stressful time for him, more so than for most.

Of course, a lot of that anger and stress was because of…

He quickly reached his right hand up to his left arm, feeling the cold metal fitted tightly around his skin. He let out a quiet sigh in relief.

There is this stereotypical idea that comes up when somebody mentions the concept of a 'Teen Sleepover.' Generally, this idea revolves around a small room filled with all sorts of pastel-colored mattresses, pillows, blankets, and maybe even some fluffy plushies. Add to this fantasy some personal touches you might have yourself, and you get a pretty clear picture of what this scene looks like.

CHAPTER 18
I was on another trip out to Bethesda around two years later when I got a serious surprise. The way time was flying was more than enough of a shock to start with, but then I was getting used to that as both Enfys and little Davvy seemed to change markedly on a weekly basis.

Kul and his boy were unavailable that weekend, so it was just me who loaded the bike for the run up to the bunkhouse. The forecast wasn’t the greatest, but I didn’t care. Sheffield was fine in its own ways, and the climbing was perfect for a thug like me, but I had always been a sucker for the call of real mountains.

Sometimes, losing isn’t as important as how you lose.

Sunset Beach
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

From a personal perspective, the conference was a disaster. They had listened to her but from the podium she could see that wave of realization start to take hold in the audience. Although she could not hear, she could see the lips and guess what they were saying. “That’s a guy.”

CHAPTER 17
I rode back in a state of hyper-awareness, my mind locked on memories of a miserable ginger bastard high on the Slabs.