The author retains all rights to this original work of fiction.

FINAL CHAPTER?
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Saturday, June 9th, 6:51 a.m., 53 miles south and southwest of Boulder, CO
The engines throttling back woke me. Flagg was watching me get my bearings, then raised a bottle of water to his lips and finished it off.

“Get a good rest?”

CHAPTER 46
University life was so very different from school. It looked, on the surface, as if we had much less work to do, lessons being fewer, free time seeming to be endless, but it wasn’t at all that way. There was so much background reading to do, for starters, and then we weren’t being handed the answers for later parroting. Our lecturers actually expected us to go out and bloody RESEARCH things, the sods.

The moon was high in the sky as Natalie took slow, tedious steps toward the cabinet in her apartment’s unused guest bedroom. The bedroom she now knew as the one Astian slept in before the… event.

There was only one way to end all her pain for good.

She took a shaky hand and grabbed one of the door handles, opening it to reveal a pistol on the top shelf.

It needed to stop.

She grabbed the pistol and examined it in her hands.

By any means necessary, it needed to stop.

*Sorry about being a day late, had some computer problems when I tried to post last night.

Joshua is utterly broke and desperate to boot.
That's when his neighbor Twilla offers him a little job on the side.
But not before revealing that she is a witch and the job in question is everything but ordinary.
Despite the drawbacks, Joshua can't help but partner up with Twilla.
However, her offer might be too good to be true.

There were more people in line than I expected for a town that size, more than we usually saw at the Brocksboro library on a weekday. Most were doing boring rejuvenations and improvements in each other’s appearance, as usual, but one couple venned each other into giant matte-black insectoids.

I was expecting to land on something soft. Maybe an awning, a pile of refuse, a puddle of water, anything,. That was how it worked, right? In stories, the hero would face certain death and then find themselves saved just in the nick of time by mysterious circumstance. I was no hero. Instead my body hit solid ground. Rough round cobblestones greeted my body; the shock came first, then the pain, then the garbled, muted scream that barely escaped my lips through a crushed windpipe. Rib cage shattered, left arm twisted and malformed, knee caps cracked.

Have you ever looked over the edge of your life and pressed the rewind button in your brain? Just looking back at the things you might have done, could have accomplished, or conquered like a battalion on a literal battlefield of life? I’m pretty sure the general in charge of my life was either asleep at the morning briefing or he was annihilated and no one informed me as I ran up and over the hill into the line of fire.

Charia is the head councilwoman of the Central Witch Council. An organization that keeps mundanes unaware that magic exists.
Today is the review day. She and other council members are apprised of recent misuses of magic by agents working for the council.
However, this meeting derails as more and more cases appear to be connected.

Another slow, boring day at work. The corporate drone in the meeting Natalie just left had been going on for hours about a bunch of stuff she didn’t remotely care for. What was the meeting even about anyway? It had just ended and already she couldn’t recall.

At least her lunch break had arrived so she could openly drown in her sorrows in the worker’s lounge. She hadn’t actually brought a lunch, eating would require a level of effort and commitment that she, at the moment, wasn’t able to uphold. She hadn’t eaten breakfast either, she simply couldn’t eat at all.

“That girl juice IS scramblin’ your brains. You’re nuts!”

Slowly, Tiberius is getting the hang of things.
One year ago he joined the adventurers Conway, Debtar, and Sinea as a freshly baked mage.
His new friends had been generous with their advice and friendship.
But when the topic of Shroom Dungeon is brought up, they are unusually mum about any details.
They agree on one thing quickly. It was time for Tiberius to delve into Shroom Dungeon.
A dungeon yet undefeated. A place to lose yourself.

A Grumpy Old Man’s Tale 37 Alf’s Philosophies and Youtube

“It’s not all bad getting old you know, John. The good thing about being an old bugger is youngsters just assume you know nowt, which in the case of stuff you don’t give a toss about is probably true, well it is for me any road, but for stuff that really matters, they know nowt and I do. I love dealing with ’em because I won’t play their games and they have to play mine. I haven’t figured out what an app is yet never mind a bloody widget, and don’t bother telling me because I won’t listen because I don’t care. Tell you lads dealing with youngsters is easy money.”

“How do you mean, Alf?”

“Well, while they’re busy doing a thousand quids’ [$1117] worth of damage to a car to rip out a hundred pound [$112] radio to sell on a car boot [yard sale] for a tenner [$11], I’m busy making a legit living out of them. They can’t rip me off because I only deal in cash and direct bank transfers, after I’ve rung the bank to make sure I’ve got the money of course. I only deal in owt that guarantees I get paid up front, cash or goods it doesn’t matter as long as I can tell it’s actually worth what they say it is. If there’s any doubt I won’t accept the deal. I don’t do credit unless it’s someone that lives here. I don’t have owt to do with anything that comes over a mobile phone or a computer, and I don’t give a monkeys how smart it’s reckoned to be. I don’t trust credit card transfers and I’ve never accepted cheques. Result is I’ve never had any bad debts.

Author's note:Sorry for the delay in posting. I had some family issues that I had to take care of that took me away from my writing. I hope you enjoy what I have to offer you

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"What have you done?" Elizabeth asked me.

A tale of friendship, betrayal, and love.

CHAPTER 45
He was shaking as he spoke, and Drew picked up on that immediately, impressing me with his depth of character. I wondered what his own history had been like, before pulling myself back to the there and then, and Jordan.

Drew’s eyes flicked between the young man and my girl, before he smiled, reaching across to shake the boy’s hand.

“Coming out, love? Not the first, won’t be the last, but just remember who we are. Big safety net, aren’t we? Right. A few basics…”