A light rain whispers against the curtained windows of the October Club. The newest member has requested a chair near one of the windows. Every few minutes she pulls back the edge of the curtain and watches the rain as she sips at the glass of wine in her hand. She arrived without umbrella or raincoat, and drops of water still glisten on her dark ( Read more... )

A woman walks slowly and steadily into the October Club, glancing neither left nor right. She refuses the traditional offer of refreshment and sits in the only unoccupied chair. It would be easy to mistake her for one come to listen, rather than the speaker she is destined to be. Her dress is a floor-brushing, shapeless thing of heavy cloth, in a ( Read more... )

The newest member of the October Club is a solidly built man of middle years, his sandy hair trimmed short in an old-fashioned crewcut. His pale blue eyes are always alert, his thick fingers constantly in motion. He lifts a tumbler which once held a smoky single malt, studies the emptiness, and sets it down. He pulls a set of heavy keys from his ( Read more... )

The October Club has no rules for admission. Its members are self-selected, finding their way one by one into a modest building of sober gray stone in a quiet section of a large American city. At any hour of night or day, one is likely to see someone standing at its door. Those who have come by mistake are turned away politely by one of the staff. ( Read more... )

Before the Major Arcana series and the Deadly Sin series, I wrote four horror/dark fantasy pieces that I call "Tales of the October Club." I'll post these in order here, mostly because I think that the story inspired by Anger will be an October Club story. (It has not yet been written.)

The Cabbage Thief

Many thoughts went through Rabbi Moishe Kessler's mind as he stood hidden in a copse of firs not far from Abram Weisel's cabbage field. The night was cold and windy, and he thought about a crackling fire and a warm bed. The moon was high and bright, and he thought about all the responsibilities he was neglecting for this mad ( Read more... )

I have no easy way to reach the wonderful person known here as Ruby Stevens, so let me extend warm thanks here. From out of the blue, out of the kindness of her heart, she sent me an envelope containing:

1. A cloth bag with a picture of a skeleton on it.

2. A pair of multicolored gloves and some green ointment to rub on my hands.

3. Some live Venus ( Read more... )

Of course, it is impossible for me to sum up in any meaningful way what has gone on in my life over the past year and a half. Fortunately, most things remain the same. I still work at the same two places, I still live in the same house (and will be paying it off for quite a while), I still live with many cats, although some are new and some have ( Read more... )

The Beautiful People

The night before her century party, Lady Ashleigh summoned her servant Martha to her chambers. After fifty years of service, although most of it had been spent in the gleaming kitchens of her mistress, Martha knew her way around the mansion as if she had been born there. (Some of the younger servants had been born there.)

Up ( Read more... )

Fetish

John found the place called Stalactite after hunting down most of the private sex clubs in the city. It had a lot of advantages. The yearly fee for membership was high enough to keep out the losers, and the bouncers were professional enough to keep out the crooks and hustlers. They didn't allow booze or drugs; not even tobacco, which seemed ( Read more... )