Border, KS

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 […]

“Needless to say, the vicar was unhappy!” Morgan said through laughter that edged right up to the line of being girlish and barely stopped, kicking her feet in delight. “We were in trouble for months, and it took hours to clean up—but it was so worth it.” She giggled for a few moments longer, clear […]

“So it’s…always Halloween themed?” Antigone asked a little bit speculatively. The whole front entranceway to Dwight D. Eisenhower High School had been decorated liberally with wheat stalks, hay bales, and spider webs. It looked like a Hammer Horror film thew up on the set of Nebraska, Antigone thought wryly. “Well…they kind of mix it up […]

The house looked like a wrecking crew had been through it when everyone had finally left. It was also far earlier than he would have expected. Walter had texted Morgan Winters at just after 4 PM that the house was now ‘clear’, although he had to admit it didn’t resemble any kind of clear he […]

“Do you think they fell asleep?” Walter asked in to his cell-phone as he hauled the packages out of his car, grunting at the effort. “Christ, I carried a weighted backpack in a desert with a rifle, and these girls are going to kill me with their shopping list.” “No, I don’t think they fell […]

“No. We don’t know where Excalibur is, although it is an actual sword we knew as Caliburn.” Morgan answered with a sigh. It was most of the working day later, after everything had quieted down sufficiently that they could discuss what had happened. Siobhan and Antigone had waited mostly out of sight with Tania, and […]