Tap, tap. Alana's eyes snapped open at the sound. Tap, tap. Something was tapping on the window by her bed. Tap, tap, tap. It was becoming increasingly urgent sounding. She looked to where Eric would have been next to her, if he hadn't been out of town. Tap, tap, tap. Feeling frightened and foolish, she got out of bed and went to the window. As she reac...
FORWARD: The following story is taken from the diary of Dawn Sather-Ridley, who died in Manhattan in 2081. By all accounts, Mrs. Sather-Ridley led an uneventful life as a homemaker and mother. It was not until her diary was discovered after her death that her extraordinary story became known. * * * “Mommy, why do we have to wait here?” The little girl tugg...
1. SUNDAY The moment her phone displayed 18.00 hrs, Gemma began typing. She had exactly one hour. From six to seven. As usual, she started with a review of her day. Sunday was always the hardest, it being her 'free day'. On Sundays she was usually allowed to make her own decisions and manage her own life. Next, she moved onto a summary of the past week,...
Their first encounter was brief, but electric. It was a meeting to spawn a lifetime of memories. Melony had stopped at the local supermarket to make a few purchases before heading home after a very long day at work. Impossible customers, difficult bosses. She'd had about enough and just needed to put her feet up, chill for an hour and drink a lot of somethin...
I awoke to the devilish laughter of Dean echoing in my ears. Which promptly coalesced from dream memory to real world sounds of the twittering song of a woodland wren, or some such songbird. It was dawn already. Since the end of everything survivors tended to rise and retire with the dawning and setting of the sun and we counted the passing of days by the...
It was my first trip to New York since my friend Amar had moved there to join the legal department of a big-four accounting firm. I love the City but it can be tough if you don't have a lot of money, so it was nice to know I would be able to stay at Amar's a apartment, and good that he had been there for most of a year already and had had time to get to know...
Holmes had gotten several paces ahead of me in the chase. I saw that he had come to a shoddy door made of planks. He lowered his shoulders and ran right into it. The door broke through off the hinges. Holmes stumbled a few paces, but quickly righted himself. "Blast," he said, as he looked about the room. "Moriarty isn't here, he must have gone ahead." I ca...
“What do you mean you don’t have a room for my hostess”, Jeff said “I’m sorry sir” replied the receptionist coolly, “but we were not told you had two staff requiring separate rooms, so there is only the one room booked. Even then, we have had to put you into the luxury Spa Suite as it was the only room available. The room has a double and single bed so can’...
With thanks to Edmond Rostand's Cyrano, Scheherazade and all the forgotten storytellers who kept her alive for all One Thousand and One Nights. ***** We had arrived at the cabin around sunset. The trees were cast in a golden light but we could not see the sun setting through the dense canopy. When we opened the door to the living room it was awash in orang...
When Brad and Traci first started dating, all of their friends predicted it would never last. Traci's friends pointed out the difference in their ages (Traci was 23 while Brad was 31), the difference in their backgrounds (she was from a stable, well-to-do family, he from a struggling, single-parent household), their education (she was a college grad, he a co...