Jerry Tanner has a a lot of experience with games, but can he survive being caught in a game played by the gods?

Jerry Tanner has a a lot of experience with games, but can he survive being caught in a game played by the gods?

Light's Promise (Part 6 of 6)

by Erisian

Chapter 21 - Aleppo

Fred hit a ramp that veered off to the right and the helicopter swung around to be seen clearly from the passenger window.

“Hey, the chopper is the other way!” I said more shrilly than intended.

Derek snorted. “Fourteen kilometers of proper highway versus eleven through the Old Quarter and possible crowds? Chill. Fred knows what he’s doing.”

Jerry Tanner has a a lot of experience with games, but can he survive being caught in a game played by the gods?

Light's Promise (Part 5 of 6)

by Erisian

Chapter 17 - Song

It wasn’t working.

Trying to infuse the book with more energy just caused the pages to flake more quickly and fall away. The hills surrounding the lake rumbled and cracked, colorless fractal lines spreading outward.

Light's Promise (Part 4 of 6)

by Erisian

Chapter 13 - Beacon

Tsáyidiel knelt upon the stone with two sets of dark wings covering an otherwise bare and human back. The air was warm, and the bright sunless sky stretched above with fluffy clouds hinting at towers and walls. The grass tickling at bare toes was the first indication that my attire had changed.

One look and it was decided that if the subconscious had chosen this outfit, me and her were going to have a chat. At length.

Tonight was the night. The night of the end of school prom. The prom where everyone would be there with their dates. Everyone except me. As I looked at the suit that hung upon my door, all I could think was, "I'm not going." It would be far too embaressing as I stand at the side of the dancefloor, alone, watching all the couples dance together.

Then my mother walked in.

"Kaleb, I got the bow tie for your suit tonight"

"I don't care. I'm not going"

"Hey, Kaleb! Can you come over and babysit Courtney for a couple of hours?"

My neighbor David had just called. He and his girlfriend Jenny had just had a baby a couple of months earlier. I easily said yes. Not only is the baby cute as a button, I could engage in one of favorite activities.

You see, I'm a combination transgender teen baby. So, not only could I indulge in the simplicity of baby things, I could also rifle the drawers of the bedroom.

Part 1
A Storm is Coming

Early January 2007 – Outside the gates to Whateley Academy

High school can be challenging at the best of times, but when you're Bianca St. Claire, the new White Lady, and the figurehead of the Family, those challenges can be a little more complicated.

http://whateleyacademy.net/index.php

And here is the final chapters of The Unfortunate Experiences of Mike Cross. The story has come to its end, and hopefully one that everybody likes.

Light's Promise (Part 3 of 6)

by Erisian

Chapter 8 - Memories

Once the stomach agreed to at least a temporary truce, I’d gone back to the hospital to sit with Danielle. Now that I knew her spirit wasn’t there all I could sense was the hollow absence. Her body lay in the bed, heart pumping and lungs moving, but it was empty like a still life painting where the fruit bowl’s contents had been cruelly ripped from the canvas. What was left was only a blank outline of where Danielle’s spirit should have been.

It was wrong. So very wrong.

Jerry Tanner has a a lot of experience with games, but can he survive being caught in a game played by the gods?

Light's Promise (Part 2 of 6)

by Erisian

Chapter 4 - Price

“Jordan, perhaps you can elucidate to the class how the emergence of powered individuals has disturbed the foundation and premise of the law and structure of the United States?”

Rabbi Kirov was picking on me again. When I had received my schedule I’d discovered that he had wedged his own class onto the list: The Ethics of Super-powered Beings. Now we were at the end of the second week and he already had established to everyone that I was some sort of teacher’s pet. He kept selecting me non-stop to answer questions or to reiterate the passages in the assigned reading texts. It had gotten out of hand, and I was so going to yell at him at our private magic practice session come Monday.

Jerry Tanner has a a lot of experience with games, but can he survive being caught in a game played by the gods?

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!

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…

Jerry Tanner has a a lot of experience with games, but can he survive being caught in a game played by the gods?

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.