Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

Ray’s son Phillip descended on our little world three days later. I say descended because his first port of call was the coffee shop where he said loudly,

Forged in Battle
A Vignette
By Maryanne Peters

“Sometimes I can’t believe that I put up with this bullshit,” said Bo, feeling as mad as all hell. “So, you saved my life. But that does not mean that you take advantage. Even a lifesaver can be a stubborn dickhead sometimes, deserving of a good tongue lashing.” Bo’s tongue shot out.

Shame and Desire is finally back! I am so sorry it took so long for this chapter but what I can say is that new chapters will start coming more quickly. Goal is 200K words of this story written before November. Let's hope I can do it. The story will be close to the end by then.

Day Of Departure:
“Whose idea was it for us to be here at four in the morning?” Cassady had ridden in with her cousin.

“Don’t complain too loudly, Cassady.” Juni was unloading her bags from the back of her boyfriend’s pickup truck.

“Where are our driver and roadie?” Jessie was looking around for the two guys that were traveling with them.

Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

The next morning, Ruth came to Rachel's dorm to oversee Maddie and Hattie pack their things. The twins would be sent to Pretty And Pink's Virginia building, which happened to be the company's first establishment. The whole time Maddie and Hattie were packing, they cast dirty looks in Rachel's direction.

"I hope you're happy, bitch," Maddie said to Rachel. "Now we're getting yanked out of our lives here."

"Yeah, well, I didn't want to get yanked out of my old life, either," Rachel said coldly.

"Where did you live, in another orphanage?" Hattie asked.

[two days later]
“Any luck?” asked Sylvia.

I had been calling around all the local hospitals in the hope of finding where Ray had been taken.

“With the way Dad is being, I can’t move back in any time soon. Would it be okay if I came over sometime after you get off work and before Dad comes home, and get a few things out of my room? Or could I ask you to pack up a few things and bring them to the Ramseys’ house, or bring them to work and let me come by to get them when Meredith or Sophia are giving me a ride home from school?”

Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

For the next few days, Rachel kept going to school and working with Jesse as her lab partner. It felt weird, since she knew him so well and he didn't know her (or so he thought), but their interactions were mostly good. There was one incident where Rachel felt like she'd slightly annoyed Jesse, but he seemed to have gotten over it by the end of class.

The next week, however, things were different. When Rachel got to her Science class, the teacher Mrs. McLain had an announcement. "Okay, everyone," she said, "Today's the first day of our Sex Ed unit. And you know what that means."

Suspicions
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I am a possessive person. I admit it. I thought that Lauren loved me, and I thought that I loved her. I just felt that we were meant to be together. I thought that our arguments and lack of sex were issues that we could address, but that our relationship would be lasting.

I have to admit that sex was an issue for me, and I never really understood why at the time. Now I realize what the problem was. It seems so stupid that I did not recognize my own nature. I must be the biggest self-deceiver on the planet.

I returned her intense look and felt a wave of relief washing over me. I noticed a tiny smile on her face that was getting bigger by the second.

I tried to pull her up slowly. A few seconds later, Mary was up and let herself fall into my arms. We hugged intently for a while. Two sisters against the world. Nobody and nothing could shake us.

During this intense hug we were both crying. We held each other close a little bit longer and then finally let go.

“I am so sorry, Riley. I think that I was way too harsh.”