My friend, Nick, and I had always been good friends. We met Freshman year of high school and somehow managed to stay friends for the next ten years without ever getting romantically involved, which is rare for a girl and a guy during those years. That’s not to say there were never rumors. People always suspected that there was more than we were letting on, but we honestly treated each other like family. For whatever reaso...

"Let's have a staring contest," you suggest out of the blue. "What are you, six?" I shoot back. "No," you say, squeezing your lips into a cute little pout. "Come on, I'm bored." 'Bored' doesn't even begin to describe the situation. It's Sunday afternoon and raining. Your husband has been deployed with the military for the past month. My wife's gone out of town for work this weekend. Neither of us has much to do. We've bee...

The game always took place on the outer rim of the scorched city. An abandoned manufacturing facility long since left to decay by the authorities, far enough out that it was deemed too costly to demolish or protect from squatters, the dust, vermin and time allowed the privilege of sealing its fate. That's why it was perfect. Out of sight, out of mind. Those that picked up the coded messages advertising the date of each ga...

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...