A game of Scrabble has serious consequences.

A semi-barbaric king devises a semi-barabaric (but entirely fair) method of criminal trial involving two doors, a beautiful lady and a very hungry tiger.

ulissa Ye relished all the comfortable little routines and quietude defining her part-time job at The Bookery, downtown’s last small, locally-owned bookstore.

Henry pours more coal onto the hearth as a gust of wind rattles through the cracked window frame. She’s almost an hour late. He’s half tempted to leave a one-star review on her website, but he knows it won’t make a difference, not after tonight.

“The Police are coming to the Omni!” Addison shouted across the campus quadrangle in early October of 1983.

Through clouds of smoke, his blue eyes examined the ladies and gentlemen in front of him. They all looked hard at work, and he smiled at their naiveness, then chuckled, which turned into a coughing fit.

The forest looked ethereal in the light from the moon overhead. Ghostly, eldritch, like Dave had stepped into another world. The branches swayed with a slight breeze, and the leaves rustled out a mellifluous harmony.

Mrs. Henshaw, grey-haired and ancient before her time, resting her rheumatic twig fingers in her pinny lap, sat facing a large wall mirror and rocked the gloom away.

‘Sofia, let me in, I didn’t mean nothing,’ shouted Charlie as he banged his fists on the door. ’It won’t happen again, I promise. You can come out now, darling.’

“I got a call this morning. My dad…” And Martin had explained the situation, as best he could. He wanted to see his father one last time. He wanted Joel to see his grandfather.

Looking round he saw an old woman dragging a bucket across the floor and holding a mop. When she realised that his eyes were upon her, she said in a throaty voice, ‘Oh, don’t mind me, dear. You carry on.’

Most of our problems involve Grandma Grace, or rather her ashes. “It’s a public health violation,” Mom loves to snap at Dad. “We can’t have your dead mother on a shelf next to the food.

It’s not every day you get an offer like that. In fact, most days, you don’t get an offer at all.

The aftermath of the collision was silent and haunting. One car was on its side with crippled wheels spinning; the other was off the road in a shallow ditch.

After lunch the family sat on the back porch chatting leisurely, watching who was walking down the street, and speaking to those they knew.

“I’m having a problem with something I did. I mean something I didn’t do but should’ve. And I can’t make it right. It was really bad."

Ambling along the paths of his childhood apartment complex, Will told me stories from before we met.

One stormy night, as I tried to sleep, The scary monsters began to creep.

With her degrees in neuroscience and engineering, and her specializations in prosthetics and robotics, she was more than capable of producing a pair of mechanical ears that would replicate the abilities of true human ones.

Paisley Parker was the dark-haired, freckle-faced, green-eyed girl in Fitzhugh’s freshman English class who had said nary a word the whole term.