Smooth jazz played low from the vintage jukebox in her office. She was typing up the last of her report from her last case when she heard the bell on the door chime. Blair Kierkessen looked up and saw with her so brown they were black eyes, a woman in a blue evening gown and white fur stole. Her brow furrowing her perfect line-less face. “Detective Kierkessen?” “That’s correct, how can I help you?” “My name is Zelda Chamb...

It was nearly an hour later when Officer Edwards sauntered into the apartment with his thin blue line traveler coffee mug in hand. Perhaps Matt’s opinion was affected by his hate of the lazy officer, but he always thought Edwards had an ogre-shaped head. The man had pudgy cheeks and eyes spaced just a little too far apart. His rookie followed Edwards into the apartment like he was attached to a leash. Matt felt bad for al...

Jack sat on his porch, bundled in an old, malodourous duvet he had dragged from the dusty attic. Christmas had been two days ago, he supposed everyone was sleeping off their excesses. He needed this quiet emptiness. Something to absorb the noise in his head. Enormous snowflakes the size of a child’s fist floated and flittered through the chilled air. Under the weak cones of the streetlights the flakes looked like dancing...

Elena Rodriguez's hands trembled as she poured her coffee, spilling drops onto the worn cabin floor. Ten years as a forest ranger, and she'd never felt this uneasy. The storm outside howled, a sound she usually found comforting, but tonight it felt different—menacing, almost sentient. She glanced at the photo on her desk—her and her father, both in ranger uniforms, smiling in front of this very cabin. He had disappeared i...

I screamed. I screamed out eighteen months of weariness from endless touring. I screamed out the anguish and grief of losses that ate at my soul day after day. For sixteen long seconds, I screamed as if my life depended on it. Maybe it did. Then it ended. My lungs were out of air; the song ended. I stopped screaming. My bandmates stopped playing. The SoulScars 2023 tour was over. For a second, maybe even just a millisecon...

Taylor and Matt had their doors open before she put the vehicle in park. They stopped along the street with their rear blue lights activated, already hearing curses from the people of the night gathered at the street corner. Peachtree Street was the melting pot of the slums. Section 8 housing brought every race together under the umbrella of poverty and crime. ‘The towers,’ as cops called them, were a series of aged and r...

I love Vancouver in the Winter – the snow-covered North Shore Mountains, the brisk breeze across the Harbour and Stanley Park to Run. When I’m there, which is a lot, I live in N. Van on the waterfront. Sometimes, I’ll get up very early and have a light pack ready from the night before. At 5 AM, the house is silent apart from the fridge motor and the streets are deserted. Leaving the front door, all I hear is the click of...

“Don’t go 10-8,” Taylor pleaded. “Why?” Matt furrowed his brow. “You know, the second you put us in service, dispatch is gonna send us that stupid domestic on Peachtree.” “No, I’m going to ask for the disorderly in our zone,” Matt reassured and batted away his partner’s extended hand. “Don’t worry, this dispatcher likes me. She always sends me winking faces on her work messages to me.” “She does that to everyone,” Taylor...

The flakes had begun to fall again as Nikolas crested the ridge, melting into his worn parka, a steady white veil swallowing the valley below, making the horizon and the sky blur into an endless sea of white. He tightened the grip on the strap of his backpack and descended, each step crunching faintly beneath his boots, but the sound was swallowed almost immediately, absorbed into the dense, heavy quiet of the snow-covere...

My dad, younger brother, a family friend, and I had rented two canoes for a week and set off on a weeklong canoe-and-portage journey through the marvelous Killarney Park lake system in central Ontario. It had been hard work, but beautiful, camping by the water, eating freeze-dried food by a campfire, and each having an evening tot of Ballentine’s Scotch whisky as we watched the stars emerge. Gliding along a river or lake...

At the wedding, our families like us, had connected and exchanged contact details. Since then, they had chatted periodically, checking in on our happenings, and even met up for lunch once. However, this caused an enormous problem when the crew hit everyone up to film Family Time, where we met up with each family in turn. The families were rather reluctant, and Ellie had actually told the producer “After how you’ve treated...

In moonlight's soft and silvered gleam, Two hearts converge beyond mere dream, A rhythm builds with each soft touch, Each breath connecting—wanting much. Their bodies move in measured sway, Where passion's tender notes will play, Her pulse accelerates—intense— Beyond the bounds of common sense. Like waves that crash upon the shore, Their movements speak of something more, A dance of risk and pure desire, Igniting an inter...

Once, this Space burned bright— a forge of words igniting like molten gold, each post a spark, each reply an igniter binding us in its radiant glow. Now, the embers yield only smoky memories. How we debated, consoled, inspired, woven into priceless ashes. A library with its doors ajar, dust weighing down unread stories, silence pooling in this Space where imagination used to bloom. As I walk through this Space, seeing rel...

The dense fog clung to the forest like a shroud, muffling the sounds of the night and casting an eerie, otherworldly glow over everything. In the heart of this fog-laden forest stood an old mansion, its once-grand facade now crumbling and overgrown with ivy. The locals called it the Fogbound Mansion, whispering tales of its dark past and the souls that supposedly still roamed its halls. On a dare, three high school friend...

“Merry Christmas Eve!” A man with rosy apple cheeks stood on her doorstep, brushing snowflakes from his graying beard and coat. His green eyes twinkled, reflecting his jolly nature. “Would you be Miss Athelia?” “Why yes.” She stood humped over in the doorway, propped up with a cane. “Miss Athelia, I’m Nicholi, and I’ve come to take you for a sleigh ride.” Her weak mouth tried to lift its corners into a smile. “Oh my. A sl...