Boy Mercury X

Thank you Peter. Glad to hear from you.

Thanks @dboggs9700. My self-challenge was to write an actual paranormal story, which is not my usual thing.

Thank you, Chris. This is an oldie for me, sharing for the first time on GA. Glad you enjoyed it.

John, Hutch, and Putter are the kind of frat bros who use a girl in the middle so they don’t have to name what they’re doing together. On Halloween there's no girl, but there is a campus legend every freshman has already dared: the grave of Midnight Malcolm, the sodomite witch hanged in 1693. Call him three times and he comes back to claim what’s his.

1. John, Putter, and Hutch stood over the pink marble headstone. Fog rolled low over the dead leaves in the neglected corner of the cemetery. Hutch jabbed his elbow into John’s back, hard enough to earn a startled grunt. “Asshole,” John shot back, shaking his head, but they all snickered. No one wanted to show how on edge they were when bro cred was at stake. The headstone was simple. MALCOLM WOODBURY 1660 – 1693 Under that, cut into the slab: WHOSO THOU BE THAT P

Thanks @sandeman, glad you enjoyed it.

Glad you enjoyed it. It's just a bit of fluff, but kicks off a month of Halloween stories. Later this month I'll share: Midnight Malcolm, a tale of three frat bros in a cemetery, summoning a legendary ghost The Dicker Man, inspired by The Wicker Man, the story of an athlete recruited to a small all-boys rural college The Ghost of October, about a man who is sure he's haunted

Wearing a slutty dress to a Halloween party was supposed to be a joke, but Troy looks good. Stupid good. When his longtime straight crush shows up and doesn't recognize him, the joke turns real.

1. The Bit The dress had been Claire’s idea, because she was bored of watching Troy show up to things in the same dark jeans and shirt. Before it went on, it seemed like a bit. Black, simple, something she’d worn to a party and hated, hemmed high because he was taller and, annoyingly, had the legs for it. The guest list was the reason he’d said yes. First Halloween home from college, her parents at the lake, and the girls from their year in high school. The ones who never left, or who

As a strictly monogamous person it was a bit of a challenge to put myself in the head of a person in an open relationship. I did base that part of Brick on guys I've known who are are in very long term, satisfying open relatiionships.

Brick has a husband and a man on the side, Vincent, the client across the table. On a trip in Italy for a conference, Pompeii is not on the original itinerary, but Brick needs the distraction. Somewhere between the Forum and a tree off the path, he tries to remember which fire he came here to let burn out.

1. The Client Team They leave early for Pompeii, the low, uneven triangle of Vesuvius hazy in the distance. Brick is lulled into drowsiness by the motion of the train, compounded by the time change and the disorientation of travel. He lets himself bob gently between wakefulness and a dreamy state. Sunlight chops through the trees along the tracks and lays itself across his lap in bars. In the dark between them he is not quite here. The visit is not part of the original itinerary,

I've been really fascinated by the response, because some of the comments about Diane and about Cal really surprised me. I'm not saying anyone is wrong, but I don't see some reflected in the story itself. Most of my stories are about couples who have a connection that in retrospect seems inevitable. In this story I really was try to go for a very grounded story about two guys who plainly like each other, and have a little life experience too, and it's only been three weeks. For what it's worth, my impression is that Nate isn't planning to break things off or he wouldn't have gone to Cal's the night they got back. Thank you for reading and commenting. I appreciate both.

Also, I could toy with the reveal that it was never Diane who killed he ex, but Cal.