Lonely
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

The cabin had been a place full of people when he was a boy. It had always been a place of joy. She never saw it that way, but she went with him because he loved the place so much. Now that she was gone it seemed that it was just empty.

Orphans
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

My grandmother loved us as if we were her own children. That is how I explain it. It was as if she believed that we were her own children.

Synopsis: When Martin enters Gypsy Rosa Lyn’s caravan, parked in a South London pedestrian precinct, he little realises that she is anything other than a sham. After all, there’s no such thing as magic, is there? But when he gives up smoking, loses weight and starts exercising, is it really his will-power alone? One can only say, beware gypsies bearing potions.

Author’s Note: There’s no explicit sex in this story, although there are several references to sex and there are a few words commonly used in English society which some readers may find offensive. I have given this story a Magical Transformation flag even though, as I explain in the story, I don’t believe that is what it is.

Sam went to Hertford police station on the way home from the hospital. He made his statement and learned Fiona was being held at HMP Bronzefield. With Suzi's statement and Sam's along with the evidence they were likely to charge her with attempted murder. He had fractured her jaw when he hit her, but as this was done in self self defense it was unlikely he would be charged.

Dakota looks at herself in the full-length mirror in her and Terry’s bedroom. She tried one of those blue pills Rebecca took and couldn’t believe what it did to her body. It didn’t change how she looked, except increasing her breast size up one cup size, her hair was fuller and made her hips and buttocks look bigger.

“Helmet?” I said. “Which one is the helmet?”

Lucy
A Short Story based on Historical Fact
By Maryanne Peters

My Mammy always said that I was more stubborn than a mule, so I always stayed away from mules. I won’t buy a fight if I don’t need it. But my folks knew soon enough that there was no winning an argument with their girl Lucy. Sure, I was born with something that did not belong, and without something that did, but nobody was going to tell me that I was a boy.

Billy’s and Sara’s Apartment, Santa Monica, California:
Sara was working at her workbench developing a new electric dart that keeps a charge but delivered 2,000 volts to a person when it is fired at them. She’s been working on the design for a while now and has miniaturized them down to the size she wanted.

Link: Lost Faith Title Page and Description

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Faith heard a faint knock on the door. "Come in, April." she said dismissively, thinking that she had decided to keep an eye on her through the night after all. Walking back into her bathroom, she called back over her shoulder. "I'll be out in a few, alright?"

Jack’s House:
Haylee turns her alarm clock off, so she doesn’t wake her little sister. She and Catori had slept in Gina’s old bedroom. She puts on a pair of coveralls and her work boots. She walks across the hallway and knocks on her mother’s old bedroom door, before entering.

“Chayton, are you up?” Peeks into the room to see if her big brother was awake.

“I’m up, Haylee.” Chayton was putting his belt on. He notices Roxy and Waffle as they stick their heads into the room.

To Return Home

Thanks to Malady for his help editing and for ideas.

Cover image from Unsplash

Chapter 3.6

We weren’t quite certain what the effect of Marc being present would have, so both he and Paula were asked to remain out of sight.

We started our trip down the wall of the pit. On our way down, my husband, ever the engineer, examined the walls. “These were molten once. It's like they were super-heated, then cooled into an alloy.”

“Do you think Kari did it?” Daddy asked.

Link: Lost Faith Title Page and Description

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Following her cousin down the stairs, Erica reached the bottom and looked out into the living room to see her aunt talking with April; Cook and Franchesca listening from the couch while Fredrick stood by the dining room entryway impassively. She smiled at the sight of April and her aunt, the two talking freely and seeming to enjoy each other's company.

Aunt Katherine
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

My mother’s aunt Katherine had always hated men. She had never married, and that had served her well. She thought that her sister had married badly – to a man of course. The wealth that they had inherited was frittered away by my grandparents, where she had kept hers and multiplied it many times.

“No man will ever get his hands on my money,” she would say. And she meant it.

Chapter 4

Of course, you don’t invent a new and legal business as easily as pulling a rabbit out of a top hat. No, there has to be a lot of thought and not a few meetings. We first talked through what we did do as a family and, once you took away the prostitution, money laundering, stand-over tactics, and smuggling there wasn’t a lot that we could turn out hand to and still keep our self-respect.

Damsel in This Dress
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I was one of those people who believed that I could handle everything, until one day I discovered that I could not handle anything at all.

It started with headaches. Initially they were the kind that you could pop a pill to put them aside, but then I got those head-splitting things that they call migraine attacks that force you to sit in a still, darkened room, to get any peace. It seemed as if it could not get worse, but it did.

Link: Lost Faith Title Page and Description

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Reaching the stairs and ascending, Erica recalled the first time she'd done so, scared and alone. Now as she went up them, she felt only the fear, this time that Faith was beyond reach. That of all the people she'd helped over the years, the one who needed it the most would be the one who she could help the least. Slowly walking down the all too familiar hallway, she reached the door to their once shared room. Knocking gently, she waited.

Light And Shadow (Part 8 of 8)

by Erisian

Chapter 37 - Citadel

Krux led me through hospital corridors full of a mix of demons, devils, and souls - some were patients, some staff, and all very organized. Other than the eclectic collection of body-types, skin tones, and random number of limbs, the place had that same frenetic-yet-focused feel of most busy hospitals I’d been in. Bureaucracy blended with function all mixed together as white lab coats, suits and ties, and professional skirts.

I stood out like a sore thumb or an outcast from one of those medieval historical re-enactment groups as I pushed past them all. The armored breastplate and feathered kilt felt all the more primitive as compared to the security stationed at the glass doors which exited to a landing platform. They stood there complete with modern body armor and elegant-yet-nasty rifle-sized blasters packing a punch orders of magnitude higher than the agent’s pistol. While the demons among them only had five to six souls suffering at their cores, their equipment likely made up for the lack of raw potential and then some.

Montana General Hospital Parking Lot:
Jack walks out to the rental car he got when he flew in. He spots Cecil leaning against the car. She was still dressed as a nurse.
“What do you want, Cecil?” He stops a few feet from her.

“I left you a present in the trunk. It seems whoever wants your daughter dead, sent a person to try to kill her again. I spotted them sneaking around at one of the nurse's stations.” Cecil has memorized every nurse, doctor, and janitorial staff member in the hospital.

I had been putting off trimming the hedge out the front for weeks, I thought I may have gotten away with another week when I saw the slightly overcast sky out of the bedroom window. Sadly Lisa, my wife, had already beaten me outside to get the news paper, and informed me it would be “a perfect day to get that bloody hedge done” It’s not that hedge trimming is hard work, but I really enjoyed having a lie-in on Sunday mornings and now that I worked Saturday’s it was the only chance I got.