“God! Tell me why I agreed to do this again?” Sophie was limping by the time they got back to the barracks.

“Because your family owns this place.” Greg was watching Sophie’s ass as he walked behind her into the barracks.

“No, I don’t think that was the reason.” Sophie takes her heavy backpack off and sets it next to her locker.

She shivers as the wet clothes she had on turned cold from the A/C turning on. They had just gotten back from doing a twenty-mile hike with an eighty-pound pack. Sophie’s feet were bothering her. She could tell that a blister had formed.

“And I am back with groceries!” Angela said cheerfully as she walked into the room. I had resumed my original position on the bed and Meredith was pretending to be busy with her phone, acting like she hadn’t just forced me to lick her feet for the last hour. I kind of wanted to say something to Angela, in fact I was pretty sure I could have, but I just didn’t want to. I was tired, I was hungry, my body felt like it had been hit by a truck. I just wanted to lay here on the bed and drift off to sleep. “Wake up over there or it’s going to feel worse later!”

“You have a boyfriend?” Meredith raised an eyebrow as she observed my limp, lifeless body on the bed. “That looks like a – oh yeah, I see now. You had a boyfriend and didn’t tell me?”

“It was like a decade ago,” Angela shrugged. “I kind of left him here to teach him a lesson. I used a low level mind control technique and told him to clean the house, like a Roomba.”

The Last Race

Nearly the entire crew had gathered in the crew lounge to hear who would be the lucky one, the last Starter for the very last Race.

As chance would have it, the task fell to Horatio Smalls, who was known by the crew for his love of obscure trivia about the Race, so there was little grumbling but much congratulations.

Once he had graciously accepted his crewmates’ salutes, he bustled to the Starter’s booth to begin the last preparations for the Race.

My body turned away from the bed just as I finished dusting the sleek wooden headboard. It was like this, every day. Was it every day? I’d lost track of time a while ago. My body was just on repeat, working its way down a never ending chore list; never sleeping, never stopping. During the first few weeks I’d tried to think about who Angela was, how she had this kind of power over me. As the days and hours waned on I just stopped caring. My body was exhausted, my muscles were throbbing, the pain in my jaw still hadn’t subsided. I guess it wasn’t mean to.

No prank: I’m an April Fool!
An honest autobiography of my 68 years

No one has ever said I’m normal. I’m on the transgender spectrum but will never even attempt to transition. I’m too old and I’d be a butt ugly female. Except for my wife and daughter, I’ve been a loner all my life. My socialization skills are very poor to non-existent. I enjoy being alone, even when I travel. I took a 2 week tour of Israel and Jordan, lated a 2 week tour of Great Britain and Ireland alone (The best part was ending it at the 2015 Gabycon!), 5 days in the Bahamas, 5 days in Las Vegas with a side trip to Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon; alone.

Summer With Em - Chapter 14

By Julie D Cole

When we arrived at Ems apartment she insisted we all change into our night clothes and have a chat and a drink of water that would reduce the chances of a hangover.

Curtain Fall - Chapter 13

Itimori and De’elen moved steadily through the lush environment, proceeded by a lightly clothed protector armed with his standard combat pole-arm. Following was a second who was tasked with pulling supplies via a wheeled pack. The remaining two were flanking the women out of view.

Other than weaponry there was little machinery in evidence. It had been concluded that the ability to recharge any powered transportation or device might be problematic, so it had been decided to go without until they might acquire such from the aliens.

Author retains all rights to this original work of fiction.