Things were going well, until we got arrested. By our own security. No lawyer, no rights read, even our own boss turned on us. Because now we were being studied like the very people we were studying before. Or trying to. You see, we couldn't find any trace of those people, except for faint traces of biological material that were old enough to be historical. Everyone was starting to think they were some sort of urban legend. Until we went on a...

"Well, this is curious - I've only got papers that say to take one of you."My two latest deaths stood in front of me."The other is supposed to keep on living. But here you both are."Neither spoke to volunteer which was which."So, you both intend to keep on living, in spite of my orders to take one of you."Silence signaled assent."You know that no one has ever cheated Death. Just because you have some spirit-guides looking out for you doesn't mean...

In the days when people were, owned by the land, two young girls found their power by becoming ghosts, then spirit guides. This is their original story... Their parents were serfs, and belonged to two different dukedoms. Falling in love endangered them both. Becoming pregnant with twins, made this even worse. Their Dad had to raise them by himself, as Mother died shortly after birthing them. But, her spirit remained on Earth to watch over them. Sal...

She'd been waiting to kill me for a very long time. And run out of patience at last. So she pulled me to her across time and space. Just so she could end my life. Painfully. Violently. But first, she had to explain her reasoning. Because she had been thinking this through for a long time and someone should hear and applaud her reasoning. Crazy, yes. But as I was going to be dead soon, what did it matter if she wanted to tell me her story? Maybe...

The result of all these civil wars was complete destruction. Maybe we should have taken a hint from all those wars we fought "over there" and the footage came back showing entire cities now only towering, shattered icons that stood in piles of rubble. Uninhabited. uninhabitable. Yet this one woman stayed there. This was her new home, she repeated stubbornly. She wasn't leaving. Even though it meant eventual death. If the warring armies didn't...

He knew something he was listening/watching was poisoning and killing him. Slowly. Painfully. Sinking into a gradual depression and dying of apathy. He'd seen this happen to others. Suicide, drug overdose. All a permanent solution to a very temporary problem. Then she showed up. Not your typical haunting ghost or vindictive spirit. Different. In a good way. She'd come just to solve his mystery - the one he didn't know he had. It was a haunting...

A different take on time travel. Very different. What if the "grandfather murder conundrum" didn't exist? Where you could freely travel in time without affecting your or anyone else's present? The trick is that this also tends to "haunt" you, even drive you insane... Try talking to a time-bender and see if you don't get confused half-way through the conversation. Because your idea of the past isn't what a time-bender experiences. Your time is linear....

If laughter is the best medicine, then reading humorous short stories should be the best practice to maintain your health. These three authors with their six stories have written stories that both poke fun at the sacrosanct and also skewer them for dissection as both pompous and ripe. From the ranks of Voltaire, Twain, and Vonnegut, these new voices have something to say about how our current culture and what they consider serious. You may find...

"Well, this is curious - I've only got papers to take one of you."My two latest deaths stood in front of me."The other is supposed to keep on living. But here you both are."Neither spoke to volunteer which was which."So, you both intend to keep on living, in spite of my orders to take one of you."Silence signaled assent."You know that no one has ever cheated Death. Just because you have some spirit-guides looking out for you doesn't mean I won't end...

Two twin boys were born one stormy night, while flying through the Bermuda Triangle. One didn't belong to this universe, the other did. An easier entrance was made in Washington, D. C. Just a test appearance because this man wanted to find his own doppelganger. Somewhere in Congress. Around his finger was a thin dark ring with two stones on it - one red, and one blue. The ring was carved into the shape of a serpent eating its own tail. An ancient...