Short Fiction

Death and pain have followed the Seraphim Twins for so long that there is nothing else for them to remember. They can only have faith that they know how to defeat the demon sent to kill them, but the price of victory may cost them more than they possess ...

There are layers to every story, and the richness and fascination only get better when you start to hear about what happens on each layer ...

Winter needs some kind of break from its cold and dismal days. After weeks and weeks of staring at the cold walls and hearing people cough, a little warm breeze and an unexpected smile can make a young woman's heart remember Spring ...

Vampire writer Lydia Manx offers her readers a twisted valentine ...

Looking back through your years, examining the relationships you had -- how many can you remember, and how many would you rather forget?

Ace Piker Press reporter Dan Mulhollen tells how he saved the face of America in the 2008 presidential primaries.

Vampires with grand social ambitions definitely do not like to be taken by surprise, especially when they've been working hard on the campaign trail...

"Five score years ago," he said, "a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity..."

No matter what turn fortune should take, no matter how successful one's enterprises should become, family is of utmost importance, and one's grandfather should always be honoured and cared for ...

The deserts of Phoenix have become a nightmare of monsters, and death seems to wait around every corner, and on every horizon.

Crossing the deserts of Phoenix, the keening wind is the only constant. It shifts the sands and changes the landmarks; it swallows whole towns and uncovers things that should never have come to light. The heat of the day makes traveling nearly impossible, but now something stange, something unnatural, walks out of the night ...

He inventoried his armament. He had the courage; he had the determination. He had the vision of his destination, and he knew he had the strength to succeed. His equipment was sound, his supplies were adequate. He was prepared, he was chosen, and he needed nothing more to set out on the journey ...

All right, that was a fine story, but where do you find the proof?

Well, he caught the little man fair and square, and he got his boat back, and carried a pot of gold to make him rich ...

Sometimes it's not what you GET for Christmas, it's what you get taken away from you that makes the season bright ...

One thing marks all the spaces between the stars: silence. Be there joy, or despair, elation or loss, the vacuum of space marks each emotion, each triumph, each death in utter quietude. This is the life the spacers know, and strangely, crave. Most of the time the stars welcome those silent travelers, but there comes a different kind of explorer, and there is only one place left for that kind...

At the end of the rainbow, Johnny finds a pot of gold, all right -- stashed in with pieces of old boats and dirty leprechaun laundry.

The people have changed as the years have gone by, at least in names and faces. Only two things are the same, the bar itself, and the loneliness of the lives of its patrons. Anthony Driscol and Keri Sherwood have decided to change that ...

Kaine has amazing powers of recovery, but there is only so much strength left in him, especially when the visions that engulf him are so painful that his heart can hardly bear them. And there's no time to stop and ponder them with the Pale Traveler still out there somewhere, hungry for his life ...

Conclusion. Kara discovers the gruesome history of the house she lives in, and events finally convince her father that Kara was, after all, telling the truth.

Leprechauns and mushrooms and bears, oh my! Let's throw in some fish tacos and some more beer while we're at it ...

"And they all lived happily ever after..." Now just how does that work?

Was that whispering she heard? Or just some annoying random feedback from the hearing aids she wore? Could it be that Kara was simply an adolescent girl whose grief was overwhelming her imagination, or were there really shadows there cast by unseen shapes?

Andersen & Company values its workers' lives -- as a commodity to purchase, and and a resource to be used up. Rebellion is inevitable ...and yet ...

If it wasn't for the tiny lumberjack, it could all have been merely a case of really, really bad luck ...

Tied to your job and wish you had another?

The dead man is replaced -- by the most efficient worker they had ever seen. They don't know his name, but he is the herald of a new order, an order that will swell their paychecks and fill their lives...

The story behind some hangovers can be far more complex than beer, whiskey, brandy, and more beer. Sometimes the tale begins in a bar, but this time it won't end there ...

"Taking Sides" -- The idea of conflict over the results of weather really annoys a shaman.

Sometimes you need to ask before you fix a baboon's problems.