The next morning Vera woke up early. Instead of being tired from her run last night she felt invigorated. She left David sleeping in bed and went to the bathroom. She brushed her teeth and decided she couldn't tackle the mess of her hair until after coffee. She padded softly to the kitchen and could smell Lucien in there before she even got to the door. "G...
Sussie moved about the kitchen carefully, preparing their evening meal. The high heels he required her to wear were comfortable yet made bending over an art form which she soon mastered. As long as she kept her pace steady, not rushing, she found that she wouldn't topple over. And she had the first few days much to her embarrassment. The corset was a differe...
Out on the street she blended right in with the rest of the earth folks, in a crowd you could never pick us out. We walked down the sidewalk holding hands and it struck me how normal everything felt, like we were just running out to do a little shopping. "So what's first on the list?" I asked as I leaned over to try to see the spaces between the lines on t...
"Smile!" Sophie tapped the screen, then snapped several more frames. One picture was never enough - someone blinked, or something got in the way. She was always pedantic about making sure that things turned out right, even though she didn't care too much how she looked in photos. It was something I appreciated about my future sister-in-law. It was the perfe...
I had what was supposed to be a decorative shrub in my garden. It went in as a seedling and seemed to develop quite nicely. Actually, it developed very nicely, growing quickly to hide what had been a vacant section. Then it started moving in on other plants, taking over their space, surrounding and choking them. As time passed I just kept all the bushes tri...
"Master." Hal didn't want to hear the voice. He didn't want anything to intrude on whatever level of life he was now floating on. Eyes closed, a bed of unbelievable softness underneath him, the distant but comforting sounds of Josephine's claws scratching on the dirt floor -- and, best of all, the utterly satisfying feeling of having had his seed thoroughly...
Note: I mentioned in "The Next Morning" that it was part of a longer story. Well, here's the beginning of that story, drenched in the grief of a man who has lost his wife, who wakes up every morning wondering how to go on and then, one day, wakes up on a private island in the South Pacific. He's comfortable enough. There is a beautiful beach house fitted out...
My name is Cassandra Harper of Small Creek, Wisconsin. Small Creek is a small northwestern area of the state. It was densely wooded country and becoming very crowded now because of the ever growing demand for lumber in the rest of the country. I lived in a small cabin with my Momma, and two younger brothers or rather, I did until yesterday when I left my h...
Chapter 2 First Night I spent the rest of that day sleeping and eating and the maid came and went at regular intervals. I felt no hostility towards this thing that served me but was irritated that it would not speak to me at all. It kept putting a finger to its lips and, at one stage, I really felt that it wanted to speak but couldn't for some reason be it...
CHAPTER SIX -- HUMILIATION AND DESPAIR The instant Julie tries to move, the memories come flooding back. Her face rests on slippery mud, her entire body is coated with a stinking mulch in which blind things wriggle aimlessly. Night has fallen, firelight glances from her coated flesh, loud insistent drumming echoes in the clearing. And slippery hands rove h...