Depressed and feeling her only hope was to move and make a new start, Roxy relinquished her apartment, packed and caught a flight to Los Angeles. At LA airport she called Di Roach's sister she'd met when Di and Roxy had come to LA for a few days thirty months earlier. God how time flies, Roxy thought and almost cut the call when it was answered. "Jolene F...
I'm sitting here somewhat confused, with a gnawing sensation inside that something just isn't right. I can't articulate it really, but it's there still eating at me. Sometimes you just know when something is off. Right? I'm not making sense, let me explain. I just went to my wife's office to drop off her phone that she left at the house. No I didn't see som...
INTRODUCTION I decided to become SCUBA certified so I did my class work and confined water training in the Midwest. Then I took my referral letter to the Grand Cayman Island to do my Open Water training and become certified. I stayed at one of the condominiums on the east end of the island through the use of a time share exchange. The resort had its own div...
Nikolaus and Lauren had been friends for the last seven months. He had first seen her while standing at the side of the road viewing the passing Carnival revellers one sunny Sunday afternoon. He thought, yet again, how beautiful Jamaican women were but since he had already lingered on the island for over nine months he felt it was time to move on. There was...
There was no path. Or, at least, there was no path they followed that Daniella D'Annunzio recognized as such. Growing up in the southern reaches of the Green Mountains, Dani had done her share of hiking before. Well-worn trails, blazes painted on trees to mark the way, bootprints in the dirt -- there was none of that here. In fact, Dani could find no evidenc...
Roland Bell concluded that Las Vegas had advantages as a place for 850 neurologists to discuss pain, advantages beyond having more hotel rooms than any other city in America. For those devoting their careers to investigating pain and confronting its harrowing extremes, chronic urgency was an occupational hazard. By its nature, however, urgency could not be p...
Author's note: Oleander Dreams was written for the "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" event honoring HP Lovecraft. It's partly dystopian, partly a descent into madness. Is it real? I'll leave it to you to decide. I hope I've done the estimable Mr. Lovecraft justice. For those of you who are looking for my "sick puppy" material, I'm sorry to disappoint. For everyon...
The weather forecast had predicted this as I said goodbye to my daughter and left for work that morning; I watched it start to snow from my office window a few hours before it was even time for me to leave for home. As my friends passed my desk for the exit, I warned them all to drive safely. Most humored me and nodded. Others told me they were taking the bu...
All characters are 18 years old or older. ***** Aftermath of the Storm Sisters: I'd never experienced a cut scene before. How cool is that? I was naked and poised between Jennifer on my left and Susan to my right. When I peeked beneath the fireproof sheets, I discovered they were naked too. I checked my HUD briefly and discovered I had leveled up and pick...
Chairman Erik Gruber closed the videoconference and made a few calls. Twenty minutes later, he had the jet being spun up, a flight plan filed, and a squad of four Council enforcers meeting him at the plane. He sat back in his chair, thinking of what he would say before he opened the contacts list on his phone. He used to know the phone numbers of the twelve...