Absolutely nothing could have prepared me for Isidora's Hunger Games Capitol-looking outfit. Her designer either really loved frills or really didn't like her.

There was also so much pink it was almost blinding and for some reason known only to her, she'd decided to pair it all with some shade of blue lipstick. She looked more like an art project than a person.

And this person was supposedly the stylist?

“What about,” she said, “we play a game of two truths and a lie. Only we mix it up so you tell, I dunno, four or five lies for every truth, and you don’t tell me whether my guesses are right? That way you get the benefit of unburdening yourself, but I’m no wiser about your secretive employers than I was before.”

Bethlehem

by Erisian

A Light Novelette

The travelers had gathered in Jerusalem’s lower city not far from the hippodrome, the great stone-worked amphitheater built by the king to curry favor with his land’s conquerors in the hopes to placate their need for sport made by the speed of horse and blood of man.

Silver Bell Wish 3
by Peregrine

Copyright © 2023 Peregrine
All rights reserved.
Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Saturday morning, before my shower, I put on Eve’s underwear and I was changed into Eve. It took at a maximum four days between changes. I suppose I had to experiment to find out the minimum time between changes. Robert was awake as I came out of the bathroom.

“Eve?” He said. “I thought you would wait to change closer to when Marc was coming by to pick you up?”

“I figured I should get reuse to this body before I saw him. Everything is so big again.”

“You are so lucky.”

“I am?” I wasn’t sure what he was referring to.

Essie didn’t linger long on the wedding photos, just long enough to tell me a funny story about how her great-uncle had forgotten his best man speech and after stammering for a few moments, had instead — I don’t know what. I wasn’t listening at that point. I was staring at the older man posed with the groom in one of the pictures. He was a good few years younger and less wrinkled, but he was unmistakably the creepy old man from my dreams.

We departed from the station and set a course to the contested zone. After the night of drinking, everyone was tired. I offered to stand watch on the bridge. Gabe invited himself to join me on the bridge. It would make the watch easier on me with someone to talk to.

I showed him to the bridge while the rest of the crew settled in their quarters. I sat in the captain's chair and took command of Shadow Stalker. Gabe grilled me, "How did some greenhorns get roped into running a spec ops mission?"

The month long winter break flew by. Mom spent most of the break trying to make up for lost mother-daughter time with me. Faith ran interference a few times to get me out of it but I really didn’t mind spending more time with Mom. Dad was not quite distant. We still played chess in the evening every now and then. He loved playing against me. And I could still beat him occasionally.

Marc visited a couple weekends and got along great with my parents. He could not sleep over though.

Three years later.

I sat in a lawn chair watching Adya play with a young Fylis cub that was already twice her size. That was the name we'd given to Kira's species. The same one my attacker had belonged to.

We had run into 2 more variants, which was what we called the aggressive fauna that weren't under my control, but they hadn't been part of a dangerous species to begin with so it hadn't been a problem.

“Dammit,” I said again to the girl in the mirror.

I moaned as he pulled me closer. I still don't know what came over me. I wrapped my arms around his neck as his settled around my waist. I didn't want to stop.

If Robert or any of the others were in the bridge, they would have been getting a steamy show but I didn't care. For those few mind-blowing minutes, it was like something inside me had snapped.

"Wait there's really intelligent life down there" I asked still in shock over what I'd just heard.

"It would seem so" Will affirmed.

"But he hasn't seen any yet? Just their homes?" I followed up.

He nodded.

"Could they be extinct?" I asked.

"Possibly. Or they could have simply migrated somewhere else on the planet. We can't possibly know now?" Will answered.

The Friday after Thanksgiving is traditionally a day one avoids shopping centers unless one has a specific deal they wish to take advantage of. Not Faith. Faith loved Black Friday, as it’s known – the hustle, the stampede of shoppers – she loved it.

She dragged me to the mall to buy me more clothes. She was not happy with the style she assumed Shelly inflicted on me. She said, “I can’t accept you as my older sister with the conservative clothes you wear.”

“They aren’t conservative.”

Lisa and Blake take a momentous step forward in their new lives together and make definite wedding plans. Lisa bonds ever more closely to her girlfriends at the chemise party. Josephine's surprise sends Lisa into seventh heaven.

When a mountain downpour forces Lydia and Thomas Thompson into a cavern's shadowy embrace, Lydia's touch upon ancient runic inscriptions awakens her latent power and identity. As they emerge to find the enigmatic town of Sælicbrook—a nexus of realms and magic—Lydia is transformed into her destiny as its guardian. But as the cosmic entity Nyarlathotep stirs, intent on unraveling the threads of reality, will Lydia's newfound power be enough to stand against an eldritch horror bent on devouring all? The battle for existence looms, and only the guardians of Sælicbrook can safeguard the world from the impending darkness. Will they triumph, or will everything they know be consumed by the infinite appetite of the Crawling Chaos?

"I'm sorry, what?" Heather asked and I could immediately tell that we we're all in the same perplexed boat.

"Are you serious?" I asked not sure how to feel about all of it.

I'd had working guesses about what they might have wanted from me when Caitlyn walked through my cell door. Safe to say this didn't make the list.

"Why us?" I asked in desperate need of some answers. "What are were going to be doing exactly?"

“May I ask what exactly Essie’s disability is? I ask because it’s possible it might affect how I need to accommodate her learning —”

 

“You’ll find that out in time,” she said, “if you stick with the job. Suffice it to say that she can’t go to school with other children.”

Later that night, I returned to Shelly's room. As soon as she saw me, she pulled me in and closed the door. “What happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“Don't play coy with me. You have the look of someone who spent some time doe-eyed with a boy. Spill.”

“Marc and I kissed.”

“A four word sentence is insufficient. What did you say? What did he say? Where did he touch you?”

“He was a perfect gentleman. We kissed several time before getting dinner in the cafe. It was very wholesome.”

“Wholesome? What, no groping?”

“Not even once.”

I woke up to the sound of mum calling ‘come on, it’s time to go!’

It took me a minute…but I sat up in a start. Mum called out again.

In a moment it all came back, the events of the night before, and how I’d been so tired and defeated going to bed I didn’t stop to change, I just laid down and slept. I was still wearing the black satin maids dress, stockings and heels. I could sense the powders and creams on my face and my nails were still perfectly manicured with a generous spread of red gloss polish on each.

Of course I wasn’t fired because I was trans. No, it was for completely unrelated reasons, as anyone at South Taine Elementary or the Taine County school board would tell you. Besides, Georgia is an at-will employment state, so even if they did fire me for being trans, it would be perfectly legal.

Steven yearns for acceptance. His sister and friends want to put makeup on him. In exchange, his sister offers honorary sisterhood among her tight-knit group of friends. When they see how he looks, they want to dress him en femme and for this his sister promises full sisterhood if he accepts. However, another member of the group is more protective of this sisterhood than the others. Having justifiable concerns about allowing a boy to be part of that circle, she insists upon including an initiation to ensure that he is worthy of their sisterhood. What will Steven have to do?