This is a story about Stephanie, a quiet and reserved woman who gradually finds herself taken out of her comfort zone due to dares by The Stranger... ***** Nothing moved in the hotel room. A heavy, almost suffocating quietness had settled over the one bedroom suite, making itself at home for the past five minutes. The entire room, despite having yet to be serviced by the cleaning maids, gave off a sterile and calm vibe. F...

The music cut through the red-tinged light of the strip club, sending a shiver down my spine as we both entered. The man at the door - topless and in tight pants - had talked to Rachel for a short while, before gesturing at a tall, blonde woman who stood behind the bar. The woman was busy observing the rowdy patrons of "For Her Eyes Only", keeping a keen eye on proceedings, and not bothering to look in our direction. All...

The cafe was full as I arrived. The threat of rain hung over the city, and the murkiness of the cloud-laden sky signaled a wet weekend may well be ahead. Despite all that, the promise of rain had not deterred a small army of officer and retail workers from retreating to the fleetingly-brief sanctuary known as Friday lunch. I hoped Rachel was already here, otherwise we'd be in for the game of "hunt for a table" across the...

Rachel and I continued on down the path back to where our cars waited for us. I estimated we were half way to the timer going off again, and so far we'd walked in perfect silence. If she felt anything like me, then her senses would be firing on all cylinders at the moment. A light breeze had picked up, and was gently wafting through the trees to our right-hand side. The result was that every now and again, a branch creake...

I experimentally opened one eye, as the sound of the beeps slowly seeped into my consciousness. The room was pitch dark, with heavy curtains blocking out the night. The strange world I'd just been dreaming about began to recede away, and became increasingly difficult to focus on, as the beeps seemed to grow in their persistence. I stretched out an arm and tried unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn in time, before the ceaseless...

Kimberly Reed silently raged against her own stupidity as the voice in her earpiece finished breaking the news of Erica’s first success. She’d probably walked past the book fifteen times already, as she completed circuit after circuit of the floor, futilely waiting for some inspiration to strike. And now that damn bitch was back on level terms with her. As the buttons quietly dropped from Kimberly’s blouse, her blue brass...

[A direct sequel to ‘Dress Off: Sasha vs. Tara’, as we learn more about the new career of Stacey Shackleton.] The black Volvo had now been parked outside the main administration building of the community college for a solid hour and a half, the steady rain outside seeming to go from vertical to horizontal as the wind worked its way along the spectrum from playful zephyr to pre-cursor for a gale. Inside the waiting car, a...

 Tara finally reached the public toilets in a bad mood, worrying the entire way that Sasha had worked out the clue before her. Tara had already passed this way before but stupidly hadn’t made the connection, a fact she berated herself at length about until a wave of satisfaction overcame her as she spotted the DE logo on a cleaning notice by the entrance to the public toilets. Tara had taken the lead in the clues now, and...

Sasha Sinclair looked out at the street in front of her, pedestrians wandering by in the heat of the afternoon summer sun, oblivious to her as she stood in the doorway of the Loaded Parrot. She was only a few feet away now from the footpath. That meant she was only a few feet away from what was about to happen, finally happening. A small red light over the door glared at her, unblinkingly, unresponsive to the thoughts goi...