PDF Version In the front room, Phaedra Carter stares out the bay window of her aunt’s huge old rambling ranch house. The yard is a blasted heath of gray cracked soil, sparse yellow grass and pine straw. Above it, the ominous sky is three shades lighter gray than her eyes. Like sluggish blacksnakes shrugging off […]

PDF Version Mrs. Solester wakes up at 7 am even though her appointment isn’t until 1:30 pm. She awakes alone and pushes herself out of the lonely bed. Beside herself, there hasn’t been another person in the bed for over fifteen years. Her loving husband had passed away unexpectedly, so they had no preparations. His […]

PDF Version Three weeks have passed, and still I’ve found no work. Three weeks my family has had to do without money, scraping by with the small amount left from my last job. I try hard, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Hopefully, today will be different. Today something has to happen. And if something […]

PDF Version Something odd happened yesterday. A human child walked into my lair. She had the scent of sweetness though, unlike the other humans who enter my lair. Their stench is usually the first indication that they have arrived. She hid behind my largest pile of gold in the beginning. I thought it odd, but […]