Border, KS

“He still looks like he’s sneering, even when he’s unconscious.” Morgan Winters commented as she came up on the mostly still, but sadly breathing, man. “I wonder if that’s actually like, permanent damage.” “One can only hope.” Walter commented as he made sure he still had his…well, everything secured about his person as he came […]

Siobhan had just long enough to think that she was dead before she realized that she was being violently jerked to the left. She yelped as she hit the ground, managing to roll back to her feet despite the dress as she looked back. Tania had her arm out and had apparently done something that […]

There is a particular violence to a horse collapsing. All of that lean elegance and those long limbs are suddenly chaos and horror, whipping around unnaturally as the formerly majestic animal tumbles to the ground. Greyhounds have a similar horror to their tumbles, Walter knew. He had only seen a horse really go down at […]

Chaos has a sound. It’s an amalgamation of other sounds, but it has its own distinct tenor and quality—and every human being knows it on an instinctual level. It plays its symphony when the orchestra of confusion and wariness join in not just with fear, but with a very good reason to be afraid. It […]

BEGIN CHAPTER 9.0: MOVEMENT   Walter had a brief second in which he was convinced that he was dead before Morgan turned both of their bodies and took the impact on hers. They moved smoothly in to a roll, followed by a less smooth second roll, and a third roll that would not have pleased […]

Every human being knows, in the deep and dark and primal places of their brain, a certain set of feelings and smells. After the first time the brain learns to associate a stimuli with an ancient and primitive fear, he never forgets it. Fire is the most common, the smell of smoke and the feeling […]

“You’ve always been too damned squeamish.” The cultured voice pronounced. His voice slithered with disdain, as if he were addressing something so far beneath his contempt he felt there should have been a law against their interaction. “I thought the children of Winter were supposed to be a hardier lot then you seem to be. […]

“They must be meeting in the Stargate room.” Morgan commented as they began to climb up the stairs toward the top of the building. Walter didn’t give her a side-eye because she did it so quietly that it didn’t bother him; he gave her a side eye because the sentence didn’t make any sense to […]

“Lacey! Monica!” Antigone shouted as she threw herself down at the side of the unconscious girls, reaching out with a careful hand to check their pulses. “They’re still alive and breathing…what happened?” She asked, looking up to her father with wide eyes. Siobhan, having so carefully worked the taser in to her hoodie pocket, pulled […]

The alerts that had broken the lovely stillness and quiet moment had both been text messages. Walter looked at his, which was from Siobhan and read ‘School weirdness. Red.’ He leaned over to see what was written on Morgan’s, not hiding his interest at all. Her text was from a number labeled ‘Red Oni’, and […]