The man who stood outside, soaked by the rain Trina had heard only as distantly as the foyer’s clock, brushed his sodden hair and hat up and out of the way for a better look at her. A tall man,… Continue reading

Trina dusted the mantle as she did at the same time every day, with the same movements. Lifting the same trinkets for a quick left-to-right-and-back-again beneath them, willing herself to drop one of them, just to prove she could. Just… Continue reading

Knee-deep in the water, she looked back over her shoulder, and a wall of pitiless stares blocked her way to shore. Shining with moonlight, some few of them with tears, but for themselves, she knew, not for her. For having… Continue reading

He didn’t need to risk removing his glove for a sure diagnosis. The brickwork’s fever baked through the leather, radiating faintly against his face even at an arm’s-length distance. The light through untinted windows swam nonetheless in a sallow corona,… Continue reading

I want her to wake up and see, even if it would be the death of me. To know I would do anything for her. Not the way a maid is expected to do ‘anything’ for her lady. Clean her… Continue reading

Finding out which animal you could transform into was a matter of glorious destiny. Of royal bloodline, all its strength and nobility made manifest in flesh and claw. Or so he’d been told while three brothers had reached their glorious… Continue reading

The rule for surviving the night out here is simple – ignore whatever calls for you from outside. Keep the doors and windows locked, the record player braying brassy cheer if you’re lucky enough to have one, and just don’t… Continue reading

The world had been safe and ordinary one step ago. He’d been walking the ordinary bridge from one place to another when his foot had caught fast and refused to follow him another step. It wrenched painfully against the turn… Continue reading