VESPERS- Twelve Hours After Dawn Alberic finished the bottle on his desk while echoes of sonorous chanting slipped into his office through an open window. In front of him was the cracked glass box. Once again, he poked at the Excision with his pen, heedless of the temporal radiation and
NONE- Nine Hours After Dawn Alyse stepped up to the frame of the Loom and bent forward, her left hand busy rotating her Infinity beads to shield her body from the temporal radiation. With her right hand, she drew the Infinity symbol over her heart to calm her mind and
The vaulted arches of the ambulatory amplified the staccato slaps of Stefen’s sandals as he ran. In the scriptorium, the monks raised their heads, pausing their thimble spikes over strips of perforated parchment. Their ruddy faces, chafed from hard water and plain soap, flushed with curiosity. Stefen ignored them;
“Let’s try your second favorite hiding place, Efran,” said Stefen as he spiraled downward to the Actuarium. “Maybe you are hiding behind the Codex and its worshipers.” Stefen kept his voice low; the voice pipes were always listening, and they twined along the walls beside him. The staff around
SEXT- Six Hours After Dawn The blue syrup swirled down the drain at his feet, giving his small cell a comforting scent. He hated the waste. The monastery brewed the drug, Absent, at exorbitant expense for their evening ritual. “Absent doesn’t work on me…” He buckled a simple belt
TERCE- Three Hours After Dawn Hands, unwanted, brushed her hair back, revealing her face. She flinched at the memory of Grignor’s touch; her mother’s new husband had no business in her bedroom. Alyse focused on her blindfold, making sure it clung to her eye sockets and blanked her
A few minutes later I possessed a gull and gave chase. Driven reckless by my need, we dropped to attack Dari in the water below. But Dari’s victim wasn’t Karly. A drunken Leah Sandover smiled at the stars as Dari towed her out to sea. “You’re not
Monday-Labor Day Early the next day, right after you opened the Play-a-Rama, I made my crows bring the warped Ouija board down from your roof. They dropped it on the counter beside you at the cash register. D-A-R-I—I-S—D-A-N-G-
Sunday People were bored, the weather was unsettled, and the Play-a-Rama was busy. The arcade had made a tidy profit, but it didn’t make you smile. Your mood was bleak as you shuttered the arcade and got into your Ford Escort. Concerned for your well-being, I
But I’m not a quitter. All day Saturday, I watched you manage the arcade. Too anxious to perch, I feezed in circles through the rafters, watching the witch sign float around you. A herd of local teens rumbled in, bought a pile of quarters, and stampeded for the Skee-
Saturday Mid-morning, I possessed a cat who had caught, tortured, and eaten one of my mice. We sat on the sidewalk licking our paws, and I puzzled over my bonding conundrum when, to my eternal annoyance, the damned Seraphim Yofiel manifested before me. Yofiel, First Guardian of the Third
Labor Day Weekend 1992 Friday I am a demon/familiar without a witch to bind. It’s a problem. I’ve been hunting for a new witch in Ruxton Beach, New Hampshire, for three hundred years. Humans were once my meat puppets; now my powers are fading. The best I
For days, Rat built her nest, pressing each bit of masticated paper into a shallow bowl. Above the nest, humming metal walls twisted upward into darkness. Below her nest, a sliver of light poked in through a hole too small for anyone but Rat. She worked constantly, compelled to finish
Song of the City is a contemporary fantasy featuring possession, a haunted object, and an unlikely narrator.
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