TW - non-specific references to sexual abuse

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“Sometimes, the people we want to be are all around us.”  Susanna pocketed her receipt and made her way through the café to a tall table with two stools at the end of the room.  Standing facing away from the crowd, she removed her faded black leather jacket and placed it on the back of one of the ( Read more... )

There are tales passed down in every family.  Stories that tell us who we were, what we have become, and how we got here.  Every family's tale is different.  Many share certain similarities: an important event; a revelation; a change; a moral.

But they all share one thing.  A beginning.  Ours begins with wind.The family gathers at the edge of ( Read more... )

“Go now.”

“Now?”

“Yes.  Now.  Go find yourself some other place out in the wild.”

“Out in the wild?”

“Yes.  You are no longer welcome here.”

“Here,” Caroline spoke softly to herself.  She looked around at the others for support, but found none.  She was banished.  Cursed.  Through.  A mockingbird no longer, now merely a bird to be ( Read more... )

The late bus to Watertown Road was a beat-up old thing that had run for decades. Still, it was fairly reliable... except for that rare, foggy night every few years when there was no way of knowing where it might go, and who-or what-might be riding it.It took nearly a minute for Brittany to fish out every last coin from the pockets of her fraying ( Read more... )

To be honest, when the latest envoy from another world flew past me at the sidewalk cafe, I paid it little mind.  A bird made from flowers, complete with a skull-shaped head and black flame coming out of its eye sockets - it barely even registered.  Sure, something so clearly otherworldly out in public was a little odd to see, but by then not only ( Read more... )

“Oh, great Oracle, I have come to… oh.  Umm...  Whoa ( Read more... )

Please excuse the intrusion, I don’t mean to be a bother.  I know this is a difficult time, and even though the nurses and doctors are doing all that they can for you, this is still a hospital after all ( Read more... )

“Back where you started.  Here we go round again.”Sometimes the satellite radio knows the exact song to play ( Read more... )

“I cannot tell a tale as well as Auna did, but I shall do my best to do her memory proud.  As she would have said, fetch me a drink and I shall begin.”

The girl poured her mother a small cup of hot tea, then one for herself, and waited with feigned patience.

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“This story begins and ends with fire.” Kijeia kneeled on the ground, swaying ( Read more... )

People always ask me if I knew from day one.  Or if I should have known ( Read more... )