Husselbee cleared his throat, rapped on the glass, and told the woman in the green polo shirt he had murdered a man.

He looked into her eyes. “Somehow, I feel as if this concert was more important than any of my other performances.”

“Did you guys know that this is the house where Richard Sabnis died?” said Tom Beardmore.

Ah, the human race. If we aren’t tired of the tried and tested ways of hurting one another, we’ll invent some more just for the sheer hell of it.

She returns to the kitchen and stops in her tracks. “Now, where’d I put the pork?

Was this a riddle? Breanna put the peeler down and peered closely at the message. Her Dad loved entertaining her with riddles and rhymes but she wasn’t sure she’d ever received one by text message! Was this about dinner...?

For thirty generations his family had ruled these lands. In the view of the Council of Vicars, the esteemed priests of the Church of the Edd, he’d eclipsed all predecessors in seventy years as Sovereign. But who would follow him?

I was only fourteen at the time of the railroad demon encounter. Now at age thirty, I'm finally telling the story of that horrific day that changed everything.

Simply by being here it was as if I had claimed kin with each and every one of these people. As if I could, just by looking, share, and partake in their histories, hopes, and individual despair.

Becca laughed and smiled at her brother ruefully. She wished she could go, but something in her heart felt heavy.

‘There’s magic on this island,’ said Gran as I stepped off the boat.

Mother and Daughter had repeated this routine every school day since Jessie was five years old but today was the day Jessie started “Big School” as her mother embarrassingly insisted on telling everyone they had met for the past three months.

“Bailey Smith, if you can’t take defeat nicely, you shouldn’t play at all. You need to just enjoy the experience of playing. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, at least not as much as you think.”

This afternoon’s adventure is just what I’ve been craving. Time alone with the kids. No other adults to compromise with. Andrew is going to stay back and work on the house, and I’m going hiking with my sweeties.

He steals with swift, simple hands in the yellow Roman sun. The crowds are bulging, swollen, and he bobs amongst them as silent as a jellyfish.