Kurt Yarley, one of my best friends, owned a landscaping company and seven years ago, he'd roped Aaron, Drew, and myself into playing baseball—just a group of buddies playing ball and the rest is history. We had a fairly well stacked team and usually ended up with the Championship Title, which was nothing more than bragging rights, but we were totally fine w...
Ding-Dong! Ding-Dong! What the heck? I thought. My mind was fuzzy as the doorbell rang. I heard someone open the door followed by some muffled voices. I heard and felt feet on the stairs as someone came down towards my room. Knock! Knock! "Alex are you awake?" my mother called. "Your friend Thomas is here to see you." "Thanks," I heard Thomas say on the...
I turned the corner and saw the motel. There it was, as he'd said it would be, and my life was about to change irrevocably. I could never go back after I entered room sixteen. I paused and stood on the curb, swallowing hard, my emotions a crazed mixture of fear, anger, strange excitement, and I was fighting tears. Finally I steeled myself to move forward. I'...
(Part One) I had known "Trick" (short for Patrick) since his third day. I was with Rob when he got the news that the water surrounding his second child, and first son, had broken, and I visited them all in the hospital 72 hours later. I babysat Trick and his older sister, "Sonny" (short for Jackson), regularly while he was a toddler. Trick was often in a C...
A couple of days later, a police officer rang the doorbell. "Officer Peters. What can I do for you?" Kyle remembered the officer from his previous visit when he had been raped. "I need to speak to you for a couple of minutes. May I come in?" "Sure. Come on in." He stepped aside to allow the officer to enter his living room. Always the thoughtful host, he a...
There was a subtle knock of the door; Nicholas scanned his eyes across the room once more. Everything seemed to be in order, he thought. Let us see what we shall see. The door opened, revealing his trusted servant, bodyguard, fixer and partner in business, Wells. The man had an imposing figure, tall, square-shouldered, very large hands and equally large fee...
"We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there - there you could look at a thing monstrous and free." -Joseph Conrad Prologue The boy was just eighteen years old the night the wolf took him; not old enough to be inside that fading bar, not old enough to know the weight of his choices. But eighteen is a hungry age, and...
David bought his three dollars in coupons and went into the back of the bookstore where the video booths were located. He checked a few of the booths. The booths were larger than most, and the sign said no more than six people per booth, which was strange, since usually these places did not officially allow more than one person per booth. Most places looked...
30-year-old Deshaun Braxton couldn't believe the situation that he'd gotten himself into. He'd gone to Atlanta for Alpha Phi Alpha's Regional convention to handle business and had gotten into a complicated situation. Deshaun was the youngest member of his fraternity elected to a position as prestigious as his. He was an influential individual when it came t...
I was awake in my bed when they entered the house. I had just awoken from a night of heavy sleep, and was contemplating a trip to the kitchen for food when I heard their voices outside of my door. "Let's take our time," a strange voice said. "We don't have to be back for a while." "I kind of want to get back early," I recognized this voice as my step dad's...