Flash. It was the flash of reflected light that caught my eye. I went over to the wall of the parking garage and picked up the bright object. It was a cheap and gaudy woman's broach made out of plastic. It was in the shape of a crescent moon. Most of it was black, but parts had a shiny, metallic gold finish. "Here, my dear, a token of my undying love and...
Jessica was bored out of her skull. She stared round at the men she was with and rolled her eyes. They were giggling like school children, squirting water guns at targets. Where the fuck was Sally? Her friend had begged her to come out tonight and then had deserted her with these men whilst she went off and fucked her boyfriend. Even now she was off with Pau...
The short, pleasantly plump woman in the white tunic stood behind the store counter surrounded by freshly baked pies and cookies and cakes. Her very round, very pink-cheeked face smiled and nodded as she double-checked an order receipt. She then looked up and said with a beaming smile, "Ok. So we'll have the cake ready by 10:00 Saturday morning." Mia, alrea...
For 6 years since the eve of her twelfth b-day, Maria has been plagued by dreams of a horrific monster who chases her only to try and ravage her. One afternoon, after school, she finds a package on her bed. Inside are some toys from a childhood friend. Among them is a cute lil grey clown puppet. She awakens in the middle of the night to find the puppet sitti...
Author's note and acknowledgements This story has sat on my hard drive for four years now. I wrote it, all twenty chapters and 95,000 words of it in eight days of a frenzied, near trance-like state, sitting on my couch with my wife's laptop. She would occasionally have to remind me to eat. When the dust settled, and I looked up, I realized a couple of...
I am so nervous. I cannot believe I have finally gotten a date with you. You couldn't possibly know how nervous I am right now. You couldn't believe how long it has been since I've wanted to just simply sit close to you. Since the day I met you ten years ago you have always been on my mind. You were just a kid then - we both were. But I knew then that I woul...
"There. Isn't that better, sweetie? That fits you a lot better. The other one was a bit off in several ways, and this one . . . well, yes, you look a lot better in this one." Janice was giving Ward a much-admiring look from head to toe. "Uh. Yes, I do like the Batman suit a lot better than the clown costume. But won't Peter be upset? I mean . . . a clown c...
The room is black, not dark but black. The kind of complete darkness where Commissioner James Gordon wasn't certain if his eyes were open or not, it they felt like they were open but he couldn't see. He could smell though, the scent of sawdust and peanuts and the faint aroma of animal droppings. The darkness didn't block his ability to hear either, there wer...
Harriet Kono wrote notes in her I-pad journal under the file heading 1:23. *Donny Steven's recent vocalizations, Elsa, awesome, clowns. *Test subject Kent Orlando, under for three hours two minutes. *Test subject Donny Stevens under for fifty four minutes. Harriet checked her laptop to see if her messenger avatar had made contact with the test subjec...
When Barbara had been a little girl there were only two kinds of people out in Gotham after dark, victims and criminals. That had changed seven years ago when he had arrived seemingly from no where. In Gotham most people could clearly divide the history of their city into two distinct eras. Before the Bat and After. After the Bat arrived in Gotham there were...