LC simply looked confused, but it was our son’s turn to help, Ish calling out, “When I was very little, I had a stuffed rabbit”

“What’s a rabbit?”

Moments like that cut me, for each was a reminder of how much of our child’s life had been stolen by those bastards, along with that of my wife. Ish was still on point, though.

“It’s a little animal, Carolyn. We’ll show you some real ones, but mine was a toy, like your bear, for cuddling. Another name for a rabbits is ‘Bunny,’ and because I was very little, I called mine Bunbun”

“Have you still got it?”

“Ooh, how about these?” Sarah asked as she picked up a box of expensive-looking chocolate covered shortbread biscuits. “You did say that one of the new Angels is Scottish, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, but she’s not moved to London yet,” Nikki replied, before giggling, taking the box from her wife and placing it in the already-bulging trolley. “Both Alice AND Charlotte love these though, hehe!”

“And being models, they’ll probably only be allowed to eat a maximum of two each,” Sarah teased.

I found myself looking into my own beer glass, worried about confessing the truth. It’s been fifteen years, for fuck’s sake! What can he do to me? “I reacted to you like any other fourteen-year-old-girl would. I get why that freaked you out.”

Threads of Truth

A Transgender Coming of Age Romance

From the Harmony Aspirant Universe

Chapter 5: Sanctuary Secrets

By Ariel Montine Strickland

How will Kiki and Julian connect over the sanctuary project? Can Kiki cope with the news she receives from her mother?

Copyright 2025 by Ariel Montine Strickland.
All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 9

When Willow and the conductor followed the orchestra after the tuning, she saw that the place was as packed as it had been on the two previous nights. For her, it was sit and repeat; for the audience it was all new and wonderful. There was good applause with each item, and her passage back to the Yamaha was much easier without all the cables.

Port in a Storm
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Life Passed

A Transgender Paranormal Fantasy

From the Paranormal Visitor Universe

Chapter Three: The Sacred Trinity

By Sasha Zarya Nexus

Can Minuet understand what to do with the gift of Life Passed to her by Helen?

Copyright 2008, 2025 by Sasha Zarya Nexus.
All Rights Reserved.

The Recoverer (6).
by
Angharad.

Chapter 8

The orchestra started to sort themselves out, get comfortable and tune up. The school choir came in, having stayed to the end of the day and being brought by the two people movers. When Yvonne was heading for her place, she stopped by Willow.

“I just met your driver, Sebastian. He’s quite a hunk, you lucky girl.”

“I’ve never noticed, Yvonne. He is very helpful and could be described as good looking.”

“Says the girl who he takes home at night.”

“But, Miss Yvonne, he has a chaperone in Max. We’re never alone!”

Our first morning in the UK was brighter, a communal breakfast taken in the conservatory and garden, bunkhouse style in the way everyone clubbed together. I still felt like shit, my usual reaction to long haul flights, but Maz and I had been woken by our daughter at about seven, Maz pretending to be asleep even after a prod from the girl. I understood why when LC finally turned to me for permission.

“Dad?”

“Yes, love?”

The slightest of twitches from her, and then that surge of confidence, or maybe hope, that warmed my heart.

“Can I play with the dogs again?”

I bolted from the scene, propelled not by a plan but by sheer instinct, my heart hammering in my chest. One moment, I was immersed in a discussion with a client about the intricacies of investment portfolios, dissecting market trends over carefully plated teriyaki salmon. The next, chaos erupted—a steel blade sliced through my meal, sending chunks of fish and grains of rice flying across the table like the aftermath of a violent crime. The clinking of silverware ceased abruptly, and my drink cascaded over my lap, a sticky reminder of the tumult around me.