It was a day where nothing went right, ending with having to take a room at a full human hostel - but one guy said I could crash in his room and didn’t even ask to split the cost, an indignity I was happy to accept at that point.

So I stood at the the desk, which would be awkwardly small for a human but was ungainly oversized for an elf like me, and furiously finished typing up the meeting repor...

You could learn a lot about a person by going through their pockets. Which wasn’t why Trevor did it, but he fancied himself a connoisseur of the human condition after over a decade in the mugging business. Amazing what you could piece together about the poor sap you just clobbered.

Start with the carrier of the pockets themselves - that is, the victim’s garments. In this case painfully nondescrip...

“Dad?”

Amelia was NEVER up before her alarm. That alone would’ve alerted Ted, but the fact his daughter had gone to bed early complaining of a sore back meant he’d already been fretting.

He wheeled about, his half-assembled work lunch disregarded, and found Amelia standing in the kitchen doorway tugging at the neck of her Chip’s Tips pyjama top, which was pulled tight and looked stretched.

“Wha...

Nobody came near when Don was training in his “Alter Form”. He didn’t blame them. The stories of shifters slipping and losing control were frightful. It was called “Cursed Blood” for a reason.

Sure, their fear hurt. How could it not? But he didn’t blame them.

At least he never had to wait for his turn or deal with being jostled. Or judged. The early risers cleared out of the exercise fields at ...

She looked the perfect picture of a shrine-tender; young and beautiful and clad in unadorned woollen robes. A welcome sight to a weary traveller such as myself. Her eager smile beckoned me inside the humble wooden building and I sighed with relief as she firmly shut those sturdy doors behind me and locked them tight against the rushing wind.

Granted, my gaze was blurred by exhaustion and the cold...

“At last!” Jenifer triumphantly held the finished sigil aloft. “With this we can break through the Veil and pull the Melder into our world!”

She paused, eyeing Grace, then chided “Sis, you’re making that face again. Talk to me.”

“Oh. Ah, sorry.” Grace shook herself. “I’m just… being a worrywart. Again.”

“You think this won’t be enough to wake up the Melder?”

“Nooo. That’s… not what’s bothering...

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE??”

The coarse cave walls tried to swallow the scream. Silence the anguish.

They failed.

Brody took a step back, startled by his friend’s outburst. “What’s gotten into-”

“Why would you…?” Otis stumbled to a halt, scree fleeing his boots, staring in horror at the corpse sprawled at Brody’s feet. “Why did you kill her?!”

“Because she was hunting what you needed.” Brody shrugg...

“You’re SO lucky to have a raven as a familiar.” Lara sighed. “Having a spider makes me feel like a joke. I mean, she barely talks! Just quiet mumbles.”

“Am I quiet?” Charlotte grumbled. “Or do you just never try to listen?”

Maybe both, given how Louise blithely agreed with Lara and started going on about how wonderful ravens were.

Charlotte felt a bit better when Edgar gave her a sympathetic l...

It was late one night. Raining. Cold. I was five. My parents said everything was going to be fine. Parents lie.

While I didn’t know that yet - so naive - I remember I still felt uneasy. Maybe something was in the air. Or maybe my subconscious picked up my parents’ nerves. I fidgeted on my stool by the hearth, watching them tightly hold one another’s hands and start at every sound. Their gaze was f...

“Ready to go, Polly??” Mum’s radiating pride and excitement. It makes my resentment feel petty.

So I force a smile and mumble “Yeah.”

This isn’t enough to fool my mother, who at once shifts to anxious concern. I don’t know how she does it; just watching her jump between moods gives me whiplash but she can do it over and over.

“Oh dear, is something the matter? Are you worried about the test? We ca...