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.

Tammy flips and does another lap. She thinks about how her mother reacted when she told her about what happened to her. Her father had been confused about how she went from being a normal human to a legendary creature of legend. Once they got used to the fact that she had been changed.

She sprung the next surprise on them with her being pregnant. She made sure Leland was there when she sprung that on her parents. She had given him a look that said she wasn’t ready to be a mother.

Dear John
A Short Letter for John
By Maryanne Peters

Dear John,

When I first sat down to write this letter, I wanted to accuse you. I can always go back and make changes, and I have, but I wanted you to know how much you have confused and upset me. I mean that you have turned my life upside down.

Did you ever give any thought to my feelings?

I could have had a normal life. I could have a been a man. I could have had a family. Now I never can. Now I am just yours. Something for your amusement.

Chapter 3

They finally chose one of the male orderlies to take me out for a meal to get me through the initial fright of being out as a woman. I think that I must have done well as I was looked at with a few admiring eyes and the waiter pulled out my chair and fussed around me as if I was royalty.

To Return Home

Thanks to Malady for his help editing and for ideas.

Cover image from Unsplash

Chapter 3.5

The dryad had made its way back into the woods, out of sight. There weren’t many sounds, except the crying of Rachel as her world was turned upside down once again.

Daddy and John seemed to have put the loss of Ralph behind them, or at least realized that dwelling on it wouldn’t get us through this mess we were in. It seemed as though they were talking to the pixie. I wasn’t sure what they hoped to get from her, but I quietly joined them.

Confronting
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

The story that I am telling is set in the year 2001 which is the year that my mother died, but it really starts much earlier than that, in the year 1969, which was the year before I was born. Earlier that year my mother had a miscarriage. My sister never lasted too much beyond conception, but my mother mourned her until the day she died.

CHAPTER 18
What could I do but hold her? Eventually, she slipped off, well before I did, which was probably because I was so worried. I managed some sleep, Alys warm beside me, and it wasn’t until I saw and felt the warmth of sunlight through the tent that I realised I had actually slept for more than a few minutes. It was indeed sunny, the rain having ceased in the night, and it was surprisingly warm; when I struggled out for an urgent toilet run, some of the tents around us were actually steaming as they dried.

Chapter 2

He checked my chart and signed it before he left, leaving me to ponder my fate. Well, someone had been through my knapsack! As I continued to think, I realised that I was unlikely to be in a prison hospital because this countries’ police would have just finished me off with a brick to the head before announcing that I had been dead on arrival; and then splitting my haul and my savings between them. This made it more curious but left the question of why was I here?

Angel A
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I saw it in him almost immediately. Maybe it takes a sissy to know a sissy? Even if the poor child had no idea herself. Here was a boy who acted like a boy, but his inner voice was screaming: "I am a girl!" It seemed that I was the only one who heard it. Not even he himself.

Breathless
A Short Story suggested by Veronica
By Maryanne Peters

Carly looks at the books in her new office. She couldn’t believe that for the past five months all the business ventures she had invested in has started paying off. The detailed business brought in business every other day. The food truck was making a profit, and the vehicles she fixed and sold brought in a decent profit as well.

Link: Curse of the Werewoman Title Page and Description

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Chapter 5 - Holiday Surprises

The shopping trip Sunday evening wasn't nearly as bad as John thought it would be. He'd had difficulty at first, thinking at any minute people would start pointing and laughing at him, shouting 'dude looks like a lady' or things like that, but his transformation was flawless once he'd stopped fighting it and just went with the flow.

Light And Shadow (Part 7 of 8)

by Erisian

Chapter 32 - Plan

Boston police were waiting for them at the gate when they landed. There had been an awkward stand-off while Diego called the DPA to confirm that the detectives were actually on assignment as opposed to being there due to possible unseen influence from mind-controlling angels.

Assurances were received and soon Isaiah and the wizard were delivered to a brick police precinct sitting alongside a narrow Boston street. Being Californian all Isaiah could think of as they were ushered past the windowed doors facing the rear parking lot was that a single earthquake could level the entire structure. Given the number of brick buildings they’d passed on the drive there, the entire city had better hope against such seismic events.

Or, say, powerful geo-magic.

Chapter 13 –It’s the Blade, Boss, the Blade!!

Melehan stepped to one side, leaving me in line of sight of his snipers and muttered “Shoot the bitch” into his cufflink. Several seconds passed and nothing happened so he tried again.

Driven from Normal .

Simon McKenzie started his week normal enough, but after a series of events he now finds himself standing in a bar wearing a cocktail dress. Chapter 16.