Pre- Chapter Note - This is a prologue chapter. The full story begins in Chapter 02. So, this and Chapter 01 are the setup for the story.

Dressed in my feminine finery, I stepped out on the deck. The cool days of autumn making it almost pleasant here in the desert southwest. My family and I live here, a few miles south of Phoenix, near the mountains that frame the valley.

After flubbing a powerful incantation, meant to give newly coronated Demon Queens the wisdom of their ancestors, Devilla Satanne awakens to memories of her past life as Jacob Divington, a human from Earth. Having gained a new perspective on life, she quickly comes to a rather horrifying conclusion: she's been a complete and utter brat! No wonder everyone hates her!

And then there's the fact that she's apparently been reincarnated as the villainess of Tower Conquest, a lesbian porn game with a surprisingly intricate plot. One in which the Heroine conquers Dimona Tower, turning Devilla's people against her in the process. In victory, the Heroine brings about a glorious age of peace between demons and humans for the first time in millennia. ...Which actually sounds pretty good for her people, come to think of it. Devilla knows her terrible behavior is beyond forgiveness, but maybe she can still make up for her past mistakes? She just needs to make sure the events of the game unfold correctly. Though there is one little detail she'd like to change - the part where Devilla herself is killed or enslaved!

The series cover was commissioned from https://twitter.com/HaizeUqei

Indelible
A Vignette
By Maryanne Peters

My head hurt, my eyes felt that they were hanging out in the air and my mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton. I blinked several times, the image before me was still blurry and I realized I had no idea where I had ended up last night. I was in someone elses bed, I don’t think it is mine since it seemed much softer. It also smelled better, almost like flowers.

Chapter 6

It was sheer bedlam in the casino, a group had booked the whole casino and hotel for seven days straight, we are talking major money here. No info on the group was shared down at our level yet, but it was rumored they were major high rollers. The problem was quite a few employees were on vacation, something the casino allowed, in fact encouraged, right after the Christmas holiday. So the powers to be were down interviewing everybody to see who could work extra shifts to fill in the gaps.

Chapter 4

We arrived at what looked like a mansion in Kensington. A valet helped me out of the car and drove it away to be parked after giving Walter a token. Walter took me by the arm, and we went inside. It had been totally rebuilt inside, with a proper cloakroom where I checked my fur, and he checked his overcoat. We went through a set of doors on one side of sweeping stairs, to a large dining room and were shown to our table.

Sorry for the short chapter.

Charlotte was getting frustrated with every attempt she made with trying to patch things up between her parents. Her mother slapped her in public when she ambushed her mother at the beauty salon her mother liked going to. She was trying very hard to keep the promise she made to her grandmother, but it seemed that this was one promise she wouldn’t be able to keep.

The New Girl at Uskweirs Manor

a pastoral romance by Miriam Robern

To Bridewell

Monmouthshire, November 1812

Chapter One.

Undercovers
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Chapter 3

Walter drove us back to the agency in the bigger car, with me in the front and the others in the back. Before I got out, he gave me his business card and I told him my mobile number, which he entered into his own phone, ‘so we can coordinate the shoot details’. I stood on the pavement, and we watched him drive away. Janice laughed.

“I wonder if there are more like that at home?”

After witnessing a murder. Young Robbie Dunkirk sees his family also murdered. He calls his mothers estranged twin sister. She comes up with a plan to hide Robbie. He becomes his twin sister Sarah.

Max never truly believed that his dream of becoming a magical girl could become a reality - but he never even imagined that becoming the villainess of the magical girls was a possibility! 

***

Ever since the first Magical Girls appeared, to fight against the Violet Ooze threat, Max has dreamed of joining their ranks. Not that he’s particularly interested in the girl part - no way! - but the magical bit? The being a hero bit? That’s everything he’s ever wanted in life! So when a Magical Crystal offers him an out from the mundanity of college life, he agrees without a second thought! 

Unfortunately, the Magical Crystal gets attacked by Violet Ooze during the formation of their contract! Instead of a purehearted magical girl, ready to face the forces of evil, Max ends up as the Violet Queen - the new leader of those very same monsters!

Of course, the problems don’t end there! She's got magical girls aiming for her head, powers that are fueled by people lusting after her, and - worst of all - a ‘corrupted’ crystal that insists the true threat to the world is actually the (unwitting) magical girls themselves!

Cover by my lovely friend Lulla.

A group of people wake up in a video game world and are forced to work together to survive and find out how to escape.

Alone.

Chapter 26 recap

Panic grips me, sharper than the cold ever was. My heart races as I snap my head around, searching the shadows.

And then I see him.

Standing over me.

His massive sword is in his hand, its edge glinting faintly in the firelight.

 
XXVII: Back at the damn ball

Bulbs flashed everywhere like tasteless arc welders fucking epileptic fireflies. “Countess Devaris!” A tabloid wraith blocked her path. “Does Lady Elaine’s absence signal fractures in Phoenix Rising’s founding triad?”