Shakedown
by Ellie Dauber (c) 2003

The Ace-High Lounge was in its early evening lull, between the “I’ll just stop off for a quick drink on the way home” crowd and the “Let’s go out tonight and have a few drinks” crowd. A few people were scattered here and there through the room, trying to decide which group they wanted to be in.

A beefy man, about forty, in a police uniform, walked in and headed quietly over to the bar. “Your boss around?” he asked the bartender.

“In the office,” the bartender said. “You want I should get him?”

[at a Student House in South Leeds]

"Fuck shit and double fuck," exclaimed the attractive young woman as she stormed into the sitting room of her house.

"What's up dude?" asked another of the occupants who was clearly 'high' after consuming his third joint of the day.

"Yeah, why the swearing Luce?" asked the third member of their household who was pouring over a laptop computer.

"I called home to wish my Mother a happy birthday only to find out that my frigging father is throwing a huge party in the summer for his fucking fiftieth birthday. It's going to happen during 'Cowes Week'."

A wolf was hunted by other wolves. Knowing there is no way out, the wolf dressed like a sheep, started to eat grass and decided to hide inside a flock of sheep. In the end, the wolf got killed by a sheep who had no idea who she killed (ancient saying).

Light's Promise (Part 1 of 6)

by Erisian

Chapter 1 - Brotherhood

A cool breeze hinted at Autumn’s approach being only weeks away, although the direct sun had yet to relinquish its warm grip on Summer. The campus had been busy with the rush of vans and cars signaling the arrival of students both new and returning in a frenetic dance of luggage, computers, personal accessories, and even some fancy stereo systems. Almost all attendees had moved into their respective cottages and gone through the required orientations for the upcoming school year. I say ‘almost’ because we were missing one very important student.

My niece, Danielle, had yet to arrive.

By the rivers of Babylon

Chapter 1

When She Stops Saying She Loves You

Into The Light (Part 6 of 6)

by Erisian

Chapter Twenty-Two - Power

Saturday and Sunday were a blur. True to her word, Jenna escorted me to each meal plus all the exams they kept throwing at me. In addition to the ones on Friday, they assigned World History, U.S. History (yeah, they made them separate tests), Chemistry (ugh), Biology (double ugh), Physics, Theology, and even Computer Science. Yes, they added a few to the original list Rabbi Kirov had previously rattled off.

By the time I finished the last one I was readily convinced I was an ignorant idiot. Whoever was organizing these damn things was expecting college graduate level knowledge as far as I could tell. And theology, really? Why bother giving me that one? Other than general knowledge from reading the Bible in high school and whatever myths I had enjoyed in my role-playing game years (alright, so at least I had some passing familiarities with a few pantheons), I was fairly lost when it came to the finer questions regarding various sects and their unique interpretations of whatever scriptures their groups had declared to be holy. My exam booklet was entirely blank across vast sections other than a comment I wedged in the middle of a question about Sodom and Gomorrah where I wrote, ‘Angels are real. I met one. She was nice’.

Let’s see them grade that, ha!

I've been a bit busy the past couple of days - including dealing with a plumber - so this is a bit short. I just hope it's readable.

The Angel of Chicago

Part Six: Collisions

by

Rodford Edmiston

Melody and Arielle didn't have much time to catch up.

"Unfortunately, Dad wants to see you as soon as you are unpacked."

"Give me five minutes," said Melody, even as she turned and hurried towards the bedroom.

"Five minutes?" said Arielle, laughing. "How unladylike!"

Into The Light (Part 5 of 6)

by Erisian

Chapter Nineteen - Manifestation

Impenetrable fog surrounds everything, deafening all sound, all sensation; walking yet going nowhere, for within the clouds there is no path.

A distant voice’s call; a response choking upon the barrier of thickening mist threatening to suffocate all…

Into The Light (Part 4 of 6)

by Erisian

Chapter Sixteen - Patterns

A nurse lent me a spare t-shirt she kept on hand ‘for emergencies’. The wreckage of my outfit qualified, and as I really didn’t want to streak across campus I quickly took it and thanked her. Speaking of clothes, Jenna and I both needed to get back to the gym before we could fulfill her ice cream desires. She needed to change out of her gi, and I needed my shoes and socks.

Arriving back at Laird Hall we discovered that Brendan had put my things aside - I think he had been hoping to use my footwear as an excuse to come visit me later. After thanking him, he again reminded me about the movie event at Emerson tomorrow night - but this time Jenna heard and declared that of course we both would attend. Brendan awkwardly affirmed that, sure, she could come too - which made her all kinds of happy.

After changing clothes, Jenna spent our entire walk to the cafeteria teasing me about how she had never seen him have such puppy eyes for anyone before. She thought he was being ‘adorable’.

The more flustered I got, the more she poured it on in an attempt to outdo the rain cascading upon us both. I’m sure my face matched the color of my hair by the time we got to the entrance.

I am a bit concerned that some parts of this are too similar to the previous Masks story. I didn't want this to be all-angel, all the time so for now am focusing on other characters, performing investigations. Don't worry; Malak returns soon, as does the action.

The Angel of Chicago

Part Five: Collusions

by

Rodford Edmiston

Blackpool emerged from shadow into the darkened storeroom. His informant's floorplan had been good enough for him to find the connection he needed. Now to see if the rest of his information was as accurate.

I wrote this over ten years ago. It was essentially finished, but I somehow never considered it ready for posting. Or, at least, it had gone as far as I was inspired to take it. It kinda begs for a sequel, but it's fine as it is.

Much thanks to Terry Volkirch for test reading it way back when. She might even remember the story.

One fine day, Joe wakes up and finds that his whole life has been turned upside-down.

* * * * *
Interlude

Jack, Harry, and Jock were drinking beer and laughing about how they beat the crap out of that cross-dressing pervert when they saw a bright light outside the front door. They went to investigate, and immediately felt their feet leave the ground. They tried to escape, but couldn't do a thing about it. They floated into what looked like a flying saucer -- kicking and screaming all the way.

"Have fun," Janet said with a smirk as Ellie headed out the front door. "And don't stay out too-"

"Bye!" Ellie said with a smug smirk, before closing the door behind her. "Don't wait up!"

"-Late," Janet sighed, before allowing herself a quiet chuckle. "Kids..."

Into The Light (Part 2 of 6)

by Erisian

Chapter Five - Homeward

As Danielle and I seemed physically fine, Mark pushed to get us released from the hospital the next day. Dr. Kirov however kept trying to make excuses for us both to stay longer. Apparently Danielle’s blood would simply dissipate after a few minutes once collected, and my own blood was described as ‘exceptionally and unusually clean’ - without any proper explanation of what they meant by that.

His argument had mostly to do with the potential risks of burnout after manifestations, but neither of us exhibited any symptoms so the doctor had a hard time making it sound persuasive. Especially seeing how they weren’t finding any mutation markers in my DNA which meant I was a meta-human of some kind, and Danielle had originally manifested her mutation ten years ago.

Still, he did force us each into an ‘enhanced’ MRI scanner which not only was loud and uncomfortable, but had these weird multi-colored ‘magical energy’ crystals adorning it that were supposed to do some kind of resonance scan. The damn thing made me nauseous - I was told that was normal after I got out. Whatever the results of it all had been, they weren’t anything medical that would prevent us from traveling to a different facility. Mark even tried to reassure Dr. Kirov that the DPA facility had a full medical staff and emergency equipment in case anything happened.

It wasn’t until the afternoon that I’d finally had enough and carried through on my threat to call a lawyer. They may have thought I was bluffing earlier when I had mentioned it, but Isaiah, my best friend of many years, was an attorney and I had planned on calling him soon anyway.

Into The Light (Part 1 of 6)

by Erisian

Chapter One - Emergence

When most people think of Los Angeles they think of traffic. Lots of traffic, with cars jammed onto the numerous freeways all creeping along like ants stuck in molasses trying to get every which way at speeds that cause everyone’s gas mileage to suffer horrible degradations. When just one of the main routes from the ‘westside’ to ‘the valley’ underwent construction that required its closing, the news media dubbed those weekends of closures ‘Carmageddon’.

Tonight’s traffic was infinitely more deserving of that name.

Our amnesiac transsexual heroine finds the answers to only some of her questions and is finally contacted by the mysterious Executive Solution. The two assassins who tied to frame her for the murder of mobster Tony Delgado are closing in so she, LeBron and Reese have to make a run for it.

When among Dragons... Chapter 9 Compensation

by Machara and Chryos Stormwing

Special thanks to
my love Chryos who creates this with me,
Gabe as my editor and friend
as well as Sammi for ideas

Sitting up now, perched on top of his bed Garrus smiled at Drew, his head tilted slightly. Once Drew noticed Garrus, he lept up, dashing towards him until Garrus’ nose was pressed right up against his.

“Peek-a-boo.“

I wrote this over ten years ago. It was essentially finished, but I somehow never considered it ready for posting. Or, at least, it had gone as far as I was inspired to take it. It kinda begs for a sequel, but it's fine as it is.

Much thanks to Terry Volkirch for test reading it way back when. She might even remember the story.

One fine day, Joe wakes up and finds that his whole life has been turned upside-down.

I added the caution because there is an attempted rape. It is not explicit, and the would-be rapist ends up ruing the day he ever tried.

Day 63;
Wednesday, June 2, 2021:

Has it really been two months? Two periods, two months... I guess it makes sense. In that time, I have come to figure out a few things.

Our amnesiac transsexual girl on the run is in hiding with worldly loudmouth pimp LeBron and young hunky wanna-be cowboy Reese, holed in a cheap motel. An uneasy truce exists between them as they play happy families and try to find out more about the mysterious Executive Solutions and who is Kelsey Rika?

I wrote this over ten years ago. It was essentially finished, but I somehow never considered it ready for posting. Or, at least, it had gone as far as I was inspired to take it. It kinda begs for a sequel, but it's fine as it is.

Much thanks to Terry Volkirch for test reading it way back when. She might even remember the story.

One fine day, Joe wakes up and finds that his whole life has been turned upside-down.

Day 24;
Saturday, April 24, 2021:

Jan had a long shift today. So, after the chores were done, I took my brothers, I mean my kids out to the lake for some fishing. I still can't drive a car, so I took the ute. That was just part of the adventure.

Executive Solutions

Michele Nylons

Chapter Two – State Forest

Our amnesiac transsexual heroine is on the run from Executive Solutions and the two assassins who tried to frame her for the murder of infamous mob boss Frank Delgado. It's out of the frying pan into the fire when she narrowly escapes her pursuers. She finds sanctuary at a small motel where she meets wanna-be cowboy Reese.

Valentine Gift
by Ellie Dauber
© 2003

Attorney Rebecca Sutton normally didn’t like getting gifts from her staff. She didn’t like this one—until she put it on and couldn’t get it off.

This is the second “Stavros” story.